In this “How To” we are going to learn how to use Visual WebGui open source project to create a code patch fixing a bug you have found or a feature you have created and would like to add.

This topic assumes that you have knowledge of Visual WebGui and had experience in developing with it.

If you are using VWG v6.4 of revision VWG v6.4 Preview3 or a later version, you will also need the "Preperations - required for 6.4.0P3 and later versions" section of this Wiki article here.

First thing we need to do is to get the latest version of the code (or any other version/revision you are using). For this task we will use TortoiseSvn as our source control software. please make sure you install TortoiseSvn (or another SVN client) before starting you can download it here and read how it works.
Now we’ll create a new folder that will hold our code, open “My Computer” and select your preferred disk add a new folder. I called it “MyWork”.

Next we’ll use the “Checkout” TortoiseSvn command to get the source code files from the SVN server. Right click on the folder and select the “SVN Checkout” command.

Once TortoiseSvn opens you will need to enter the Visual WebGui public SVN repository URL which is “http://72.55.165.182/svn/Public/Core/trunk” (or any other revision’s branch URL). Make sure that the checkout directory is the directory we selected and press “OK”.

Now a window will open showing the checkout progress. This might take a few minutes depending on your connection speed. When the process is over press “OK”.

As you can see in the following figure, the selected checkout folder is now marked as SVN normal folder.

Lets open “MyWork” folder and see the result. Those are the folders that were pulled and together represent the open source Visual WebGui project. Note that the “Gizmox.WebGUI.Assemblies” project should not be complied locally, since it represents 4 already complied assemblies which are referenced by the open source project.

Now we can open the solution according to the framework we are working with. In this example we'll be using .NET 3.5 (targeted for Visual Studio 2008). So we'll double click on the “Core.3.5.sln” and view the solution within Visual Studio 2008.

In this demo we'll not fix any bug, however we will change the "Category" header to "My Category" just for the sample sake.

Go to the “Gizmox.WebGUI.Forms.Catalog” project and open the “MainForm.cs” in code view.

Now go to InitialzeWorkspace method and change

this.mobjPanelCategory.Text = "Category";

To

this.mobjPanelCategory.Text = "My Category";

Lets rebuild our solution and run the project. It will look like this.

Ok, now, in order to send the code back to Gizmox and speed-up the development process as well as include your fix/addition within the next version of the core we'll go to the project folder, select the changed files and add them to a zip file.

Now we'll open Visual WebGui Web Site WWW.VisualWebGui.com and select the Developers section.

Select on the right side the submit a patch

You we'll have to log in if you are not a registered user you will have to create an account and become a registered user.

After you log in, a “Submit a code patch” form will be presented to you. Please take the time to fill the form in order to allow us to understand better the nature of the fix/addition you have made and some additional details on how. This will provide us the required information to test the fix/addition and include the patch within Visual WebGui next version/revision. At the bottom of the page you will notice the file upload option, please use it to upload the zipped format of the files you have revised or created.

Your contribution to Visual WebGui development is very important for us, the core VWG developers, and for the community as a whole. We would like to have your feedback and participation and that is why we will keep on allocating resources to support you and your development needs. We hope to see you make the best of this and contribute to our growing community project.

-- Eyal Albert @ Eyal.Albert (at) Gizmox.com