What this means
With this option you will incorporate the Banner Manager directly in your Alpha project. This will allow you to modify the assets and/or behavior of your slide show online directly within the web application.
Setup Steps
- The Banner project contains a subfolder named "banner", the one here in red: ...banner\banner.WebProjects\Default.WebProject\banner. Copy this subfolder to your Alpha project and publish to your deployment server. This folder contains all of the Javascript and other resources needed by the Banner.
- The banner folder contains a subfolder named "images"; this folder contains example images -- you can remove all of the samples and replace with your own image files. Technically, the images do not need to be in this specific folder; images can be referenced from anywhere on the Internet as long as they are accessible to your website.
- In addition to this folder, you need to publish the AEX file named banner.aex. Place this file in your Alpha project and don't forget to go to Project Properties and include banner.aex in the list of AEX files before publishing.
- Run the MySQL or MSSQL script provided to build a database named "banner". You can incorporate these tables in your existing database or in a database kept separate from your project. It is best however that you keep the AlphaDAO Connection String name as "banner" so that it remains compatible for future updates. Be sure to check the AlphaDAO Connection String and set the Server Name and password to match your database settings.
- Finally, copy the Banner Manager Alpha components into your existing application, set security if required, and publish along with your application. You can choose to publish or not publish the 'tabbedUI' that comes with the Banner project.
- Refer to Using the Banner Manager for how to use the Banner Manager.
How to deploy
You deploy by simply inserting two functions on the pages the slide show is to appear. Here is a simplistic example. "Mybanner" is the name, or "id", of the banner.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<%A5 ?wt_banner_head("mybanner") %>
</head>
<body>
<%A5 ?wt_banner_body("mybanner") %>
</body>
</html>
User Defined Functions
- wt_banner_head(banner_name as C)
- wt_banner_body(banner_name as C)
- errorout()
Notes:
- Ignore the value for "Internal" in the function; this is for future use. You can omit a value, or use "Y" (with double quotes).
- Errorout() is used to report SQL errors and, unless you change the function, will produce a log file at "\_AlphaAnywhere\logs\sql_error.log" if there are any sql errors.
