Learning Center

This guide is targeted to two audiences, Site Administrators who use Contensive as part of their applications, and developers/designers who create and manage applications.

Administrators

An administrator uses the system to manage users and content. For many applications they would access the data through an Administration Site.

Quick Start Guide

Information for site users and content managers covering basic topics like logging in, editing pages, and adding users.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions, offering solutions to topics of highest interest.

Managing Content

The basics of how to add pages and sections to the site. These topics are focused around the Manage Content section of the Admin Site Navigator.

Managing Users

The basics of managing users on the site, as well as organizations and groups, where you manage most permissions and roles. These topics are focused around the Manage Users section of the Admin Site Navigator.

Managing Email

This section covers how to setup and send email.

Microsites

A microsite is an additional website created in the same Contensive application as your primary site. From the outside, it looks like an entirely different site, but from the admin site you see it is simply a different page, site layout, template, domain, etc.

Developers - Creating Online Applications

You can chose to build your application with aspx and call methods in the clib api, or you can chose to let clib run the application in which case you extend it by programming your features in dotnet and register them in the site as addons.

From a developer's perspective, the Contensive Library is an easy to follow dotnet api that helps with state management, hardware abstraction, etc. At its heart is the executeAddon() method. When used within a web application, the executeRoute() method can used to execute addons based on routes. For example, the Library includes an Administration Site addon that can be executed on the '/admin' route.

Within the Admin Site, site administrators can edit content and execute other addons configured as tools, reports, etc. Content, Tools, etc are created by developers and deployed in groups of functionality called addon collections.

Contensive 5.0 vs 4.1

There are minor changes in how the system installs for version 5.0 as compared to version 4.0. The change to version 5 was to make the system totally dotnet with no third party dependancies, and to make it fully scaleable.

Contensive Installation and Setup

Configuring a server, installing and removing the library, disaster recovery, server maintenance.

Developer Tutorials

Tutorials to provide a easy path for developers at Contensive and our clients to begin using our server framework.

Developer How-To

The developer How-To is a list of common technical task instructions

Contensive Library Architecture

An overview of the system that include more a in-depth discussion of the available features.

Dotnet API

The Library is exposed through the core object 'cp'. In dotnet you make a reference to the library through NuGet Package and call its methods, like cp.file.save(). The complete object api available online at http://support.contensive.com/api

Create Addons

An Add-on is a group of html, css, JavaScript, programming code, etc that when worked together, provide content or functionality for the site.

Javascript API

Creating a custom login

Custom Editors

Creating Add-ons

Portal Framework

Metadata (Content Definitions)

Creating Forms with Multiple Select Fields

Terms 

Common words and phrases used in online help.

Roles 

Some features in Contensive can only be accessed by users with special rights. A Role is a collection of rights, like Administrator.

Managing Add-ons 

This section covers how to add, use and manage addons. Addons are features added to the basic site like a Blog, Forum, Meeting Registration, etc. All custom functionality written for your site is added as addons. These topics are focused around the Manage Addon section of the Admin Site Navigator.

Managing Design 

This section covers topics related to creating and editing Templates, CSS Styles, Menuing and Layouts used in addons. These topics are focused around the Manage Design section of the Admin Site Navigator.

Developers - Making Changes to the Core Library

This section includes information about building the clib library. If you are developing an online application that uses the library, please go to [[]]

Setup A Developer Server

1. Using AWS, create a Windows Server. If you want to run Sql Web (or Standard), include that in your instance.
2. For Sql Server you can use Sql Server built in the instance (Web or Standard), install Sql Express on the instance, or create an AWS RDS.
3. Clone the Contensive50 repository and open the solution in Visual Studio. Check that all NuGet references update correctly.
4. Build the solution.
5. Open a windows shell as administrator in the clib project folder bin folder.
6. run the following to create a local cluster, then an application.

clib -new

Debugging a Website

1. Build the solution
2. copy the appropriate bin folder from the aspx default app to the bin folder in your aspx website/application
3. hit a page on the site to verify the aspx application pool is running (it can just be /admin/helloWorld.aspx)
4. in Visual Studio, attach the solution to the web site process.

Debugging the clib.exe command line program

1. In Visual Studio, edit the clib project and add your argument list to the debug argument list, and save. For example if you want to test creating a new application, add "- new".
2. In Visual Studio, right click on the clib project and select Debug.

Debugging the Task Scheduler and Task Runner

1. If you have installed the clibService as a windows service, stop the service and uninstall -- installutil /u clibservice.exe
2. In Visual Studio, right click on clibTaskHost and select Debug.

Create a New Setup file

1. Build the Solution
2. Open File Explorer to the GitHub repo \InstallSource folder
3. If clibResources.zip file exists, delete it and create a new clibResources.zip file from the clibRsources folder.
4. In Visual Studio, build the setup project.
5. Open the setup projects appropriate bin folder and copy the install.msi file to the server where you are testing.

Upgrading an installation

1. Uninstall the previous installation
2. Run this installation
3. open a windows command shell in the \contensive\clib folder and upgrade the sites with

clib -upgradeall

Reports

Report List