Preparation

If you have an existing web site that was developed with Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer and uses smartDBforms.NET and you want to continue your work with Expression Web then you will need to follow the steps below. 

Expression Web requires additional configurations in order to support custom ASP.NET controls in design time. To have design time support for smartDBforms.NET in Expression Web you need to do the following:

1. Register Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll in the Global Assembly Cache( GAC )

To register Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll in GAC open the DeveloperBinaries folder in Windows Explorer. Usually its location is "Program Files\Adillis\smartDBforms.NET <version>\DeveloperBinaries\".

Also open the GAC folder. Its location is "\WINDOWS\ASSEMBLY\".

Drag-and-drop the Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll file from the DeveloperBinaries folder to the ASSEMBLY folder. Now you should be able to see Adillis.SmartDBForms in the "\WINDOWS\ASSEMBLY\" folder. 

2. Modify Web.config

Modify the smartDBforms.NET section declaration in Web.config. The type should specify the strong name of Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll. 

For example for Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll version 1.3 the section declaration will look like this:

<section name="smartDBforms.NET" type="Adillis.SmartDBForms.Configuration.SettingsSection, Adillis.SmartDBForms, Version=1.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0e7ee2976a8aefbf"/>

 

Also in order Expression Web Designer to be able to find Adillis.SmartDBForms.dll in GAC add the following declaration into the <system.web> tag.

<pages>
<controls>
    <add tagPrefix="smartDBforms" namespace="Adillis.SmartDBForms" assembly="Adillis.SmartDBForms, Version=1.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0e7ee2976a8aefbf"/>
</controls>
</pages>

Inserting smartDBforms.NET controls

Expression Web's toolbox can not be customized. Inserting custom control in web pages has to be done manually in Code view.

Inserting SmartDataSource

Insert the following code at the top of the page source.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="smartDataSource" Assembly="Adillis.SmartDBForms" Namespace="Adillis.SmartDBForms.DataSource" %>

Then insert the following code at the place where you want SmartDataSource to be located.

<smartDataSource:SmartDataSource ID="SmartDataSource1" runat="server"> </smartDataSource:SmartDataSource>

Inserting SmartDBView

Insert the following code at the top of the page source.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="smartDBforms" Assembly="Adillis.SmartDBForms" Namespace="Adillis.SmartDBForms" %>

Then insert the following code at the place where you want SmartDBView to be located.

<smartDBforms:SmartDBView ID="SmartDBView1" runat="server" Width="485px"> </smartDBforms:SmartDBView>

After that switch back to Design View. Also make sure you have followed the steps from the Preparation section.