.NET Framework Applications

ASP.NET MVC and Web Forms applications on the .NET Framework are the legacy way of using TX Text Control .NET Server. They run on Windows only, use the Classic engine and reference the assemblies that the Windows setup installs, so nothing copies the TX Text Control files to the server for you. The steps below take such an application from Visual Studio to a Windows server: the files in its bin folder, the choice between 32-bit and 64-bit and, for the Document Editor, the TX TextControl Service.

New applications use ASP.NET Core with the NuGet packages, which bring their files along when you publish, as IIS describes. To move an existing application there, see From ASP.NET MVC on the .NET Framework to ASP.NET Core. How such an application is created is described in .NET Framework in the Integration Guide.

What the Server Needs

The server runs Windows with the .NET Framework, IIS and two system components, the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime and the Microsoft XML parser. "Classic ASP.NET on the .NET Framework" in Development Machine of Operating Systems lists the Windows versions, the web server and the system components, and .NET Framework for Classic ASP.NET Applications the supported .NET Framework versions. Install the Visual C++ Redistributable in the version that matches your build, x86 or x64 as described below; the TX TextControl Service needs the x64 version.

Each server needs a runtime license as well. See Runtime Licenses.

Choose 32-Bit or 64-Bit

The setup installs two sets of native files: the 32-bit files in the Assembly\bin folder and the 64-bit files in the Assembly\bin64 folder of the installation folder. The build configuration of your project decides which set you deploy:

Visual Studio creates new projects with the Any CPU platform. An Any CPU build works when you deploy the set of files that matches the bitness of the server. The sample projects of TX Text Control come with x86 and x64 build configurations.

To give your project an x64 and an x86 configuration and remove Any CPU:

1. Open the solution in Visual Studio and choose Configuration Manager from the Build menu.

2. In the Active solution platform drop-down, select <New...>. The New Solution Platform dialog opens.

   

3. Confirm the dialog with OK. Visual Studio creates an x64 configuration.

   

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 and select x86 as the new platform.

   

5. In the Active solution platform drop-down, select <Edit...>, select Any CPU and click Remove.

6. Close both dialogs with Close.

The Solution Platforms drop-down in the toolbar of Visual Studio now offers x64 and x86. Select the platform you want to build for before you build or publish. Microsoft describes the dialogs in Configure projects to target platforms.

Copy the Files to the bin Folder

All TX Text Control files go into the bin folder of the web application, side by side at the same level, without subfolders. If the application is deployed to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My Web Application, every file listed below is in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My Web Application\bin.

The files come from the installation folder of the setup, by default C:\Program Files\Text Control GmbH\TX Text Control 34.0.NET Server for ASP.NET. From its Assembly folder, deploy these assemblies:

• TXBarcode.dll
• TXBarcode.Windows.Forms.dll
• TXDocumentServer.dll
• TXDrawing.dll
• TXDrawing.Windows.Forms.dll
• TXImageProvider.dll
• TXSVGResources.dll
• TXTextControl.dll
• TXTextControl.Server.dll
• txpdf.dll

From Assembly\bin for a 32-bit build or Assembly\bin64 for a 64-bit build, deploy these native files:

• tx34_css.dll, tx34_doc.dll, tx34_dox.dll, tx34_htm.dll, tx34_pdf.dll, tx34_rtf.dll, tx34_xlx.dll and tx34_xml.dll, the filters for the document formats
• txdomprs.dll
• txsvggen.dll
• tx34.dll
• tx34_ic.dll
• tx34_tls.dll

Take the files from the installation of the version and service pack that you built the application with. Their file versions differ from file to file and change with each service pack, so compare the versions in the file properties when you replace files on a server.

Publish the Web Application

The web application itself is deployed like any other ASP.NET application with the Publish command of Visual Studio, which copies the output to a folder that you then copy to the server.

1. Web Forms with the Document Editor: in Solution Explorer, open the References folder of your project and select the reference TXTextControl.Web. In the Properties window, set Copy Local to True. Without it, TXTextControl.Web.dll is missing from the published output.

   

2. Publish to a folder. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Publish, or choose Publish from the Build menu. Create a profile that publishes to a folder of the file system and set the target location. In older versions of Visual Studio, the Publish Web dialog calls this a Custom profile with the publish method File System.

   

   

3. Publish and copy the content of the target location to the server.

4. Check the bin folder on the server against the lists above.

Visual Studio can also publish directly to a server, an FTP location or Azure. Microsoft's article Publish an ASP.NET web app describes the targets.

Deploy the TX TextControl Service

The Document Editor in an ASP.NET MVC or Web Forms application on the .NET Framework needs the TX TextControl Service, a Windows service that synchronizes the documents between the browser and the server. ASP.NET Core applications start the Document Editor backend from the TXTextControl.Web.DocumentEditor.Backend package instead and don't need this service.

A deployment with the Document Editor therefore has two parts: the web application, as described above, and the service. Text Control strongly recommends deploying the service to a folder of its own outside the bin folder of the web application.

All files of the service go into one folder. From the Assembly folder of the installation, copy these files:

• TXBarcode.dll
• TXBarcode.Windows.Forms.dll
• TXDocumentServer.dll
• TXDrawing.dll
• TXDrawing.Windows.Forms.dll
• TXImageProvider.dll
• TXSVGResources.dll
• TXTextControl.dll
• TXTextControl.Server.dll
• TXTextControl.Web.Server.exe
• TXTextControl.Web.Server.Process.exe
• txpdf.dll

From the Assembly\bin64 folder, copy the 64-bit native files: tx34_css.dll, tx34_doc.dll, tx34_dox.dll, tx34_htm.dll, tx34_pdf.dll, tx34_rtf.dll, tx34_xlx.dll, tx34_xml.dll, txdomprs.dll, txsvggen.dll, tx34.dll, tx34_ic.dll and tx34_tls.dll.

Then install the service on the server:

1. Copy the folder with these files to the server. A good place is C:\Program Files\TX TextControl Service XX, where XX is the version number.

2. Copy the command line tool txregwebsvr.exe from the Tools folder of the installation, by default C:\Program Files\Text Control GmbH\TX Text Control 34.0.NET Server for ASP.NET\Tools, into the same folder on the server.

3. Open a Command Prompt as an administrator and change to that folder.

4. Register the service:

   txregwebsvr.exe /i /e /w
   

/i registers TXTextControl.Web.Server.exe as the TX TextControl Service. The optional switches /e and /w enable interactive services and WebSockets on the server.

To uninstall the service, run the following command in the same folder, again from a Command Prompt opened as an administrator:

txregwebsvr.exe /u /d

Next Steps

• .NET Framework: create ASP.NET MVC and Web Forms applications with TX Text Control.
• Operating Systems: the platforms of both engines and their processor architectures.
• Migrating from Previous Versions: update a .NET Framework project to a new version.
• IIS: host an ASP.NET Core application in IIS instead.