A ProjectWise application is just a label. Most people tend to use the name of the program that will run from the client systems as the application name. This is not mandatory and there is no validation for a name.
ProjectWise Applications
Once the application is named, you must define several additional items. • The icon to display in ProjectWise Explorer for this type file
• The executable to use to open this type file
• Optional: the executable to be used to view this type file • Optional: the executable to be used to redline this type file • Optional: the executable to be used to print this type file
• Optional: extensions to be mapped to this application during import operations
All client configuration is done from the ProjectWise Administrator application in the New Application Properties dialog.
Type the name, add file extensions, and set the icon to display on the General tab. Extensions are only used during file import operations and may be omitted.
Establish the executable used to modify, view, redline, and print the file on the Actions tab. Each executable defined here should exist on each client. In addition, the executable can be defined using a hard coded path, a relative path, or
program class name. The program class name is the preferred method because it uses the Windows registry to locate the designated executable. Not all desktop applications create registry entries for program class, so those applications need to be defined using one of the path options.
In these exercises, the default application for html files is overridden by the new application.
Exercise: Add the Internet Explorer application
1 In ProjectWise Administrator, click on Applications in the console tree. You see the list of default delivered applications.
2 Right click Applications and select New > Application.
3 In the New Application Properties dialog, type the name HTML.
4 Type html in the File extensions field and click Add.
Note: Do not enter the dot in the extension, only the characters.
5 Enter htm in the File extensions field and click Add.
6 Select the Actions tab and click Create.
7 Set the Action option to View.
8 Type the Program description: Internet Explorer
9 Click browse, to the right of the Program class name field.
10 From the programs list, select Internet Explorer and click OK.
11 Enable the Set application icon check box.
ProjectWise Applications
Exercise: Add another Action
1 In the New Application Properties dialog, on the Actions tab, click Create.
2 Set Action to Open.
3 Type the Program description: Notepad
4 Click browse, select Notepad, and click OK.
5 Do not enable the Set application icon check box and click OK.
6 Click OK to close the New Application Properties dialog.
If the htm or html extensions were mapped to another application, you will see a warning.
7 Click Yes to complete the operation.
Action associations determine what program launches when a user tries to open, markup, view, or print a document associated to an application. To fully define the application in the exercise you would add other action associations for redline, if needed, and for printing. With the configuration defined as it is, users can view and edit files of this type, but cannot print from ProjectWise Explorer, and they can’t redline.
For example, when DGN documents are associated to the ProjectWise application called MicroStation, you can set MicroStation as the default program to open DGN documents, ProjectWise Navigator as the program to redline DGN documents, and Bentley View as the program to view DGN documents. Then when a user opts to open, redline, or view documents associated to MicroStation, the appropriate programs launches if it’s installed and opens the document. If the program is not installed or cannot be found, the user is given an option to
manually select the correct program.
You can only create one View, Redline and Print association type for each
application. However, you can create as many Open associations as you need for each application, and then set one as the default. For example, if you open the properties for the existing application MicroStation, you see that there are two associations for the Open action. The first Open action is the default and is associated to Bentley MicroStation and the second is associated to MicroStation V7. This way you can easily switch which program is the default for opening MicroStation documents.
To identify a particular program, you can specify either its registry class name, or the actual directory path to the program executable.
Exercise: Verifying the HTML application
1 Launch ProjectWise Explorer, log in using the administrative credentials. You had to exit ProjectWise Explorer for the changes you made previously to be applied.
2 Create a new root level folder named Folder A.
3 In Windows Explorer, navigate to \Folder A in the class data set, drag the files from that folder into the new ProjectWise folder, and drop them.
4 Select ProjectWise Applications.pdf and press the space bar on the keyboard to open the properties dialog.
5 In the document properties dialog, change the Application to HTML.
6 Click Save, and then click Close.
7 Double click the file.
The document is checked out and opened in Notepad.
8 Exit Notepad, checking the document in.
9 Right click the document and select View from the pop-up menu.
The document is displayed in Internet Explorer as a web page, rather than as source code.
10 Close the browser.
Since the document was not checked out, you are not prompted to check it in this time.