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Install App Builder on Microsoft Windows (x64)

Introduction

To install App Builder on Microsoft Windows, satisfy the system requirements for each server, then follow the steps in these sections:

  1. Get and unpack the software.

  2. Configure IIS.

  3. (Optional) Enable Crystal Reports.

  4. Create a connection file.

  5. Test and run.

  6. (Optional) Post-installation configuration.

Get and unpack the software

To get the App Builder software, follow these steps:

  1. Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to get a copy of the App Builder 4.0 software.

  2. The App Builder software is provided as a compressed file with the name AppBuilder-VER.zip, where VER is the version number. Copy or move it to the host where IIS runs.

    Tip

    Depending on your system's security settings, you may need to unblock the file. To do this, right-click on the file, then select Properties. In the Properties dialog, select the Security tab, then select Unblock.

  3. In the IIS default physical root folder (usually C:\inetpub\wwwroot\), create a sub-folder for App Builder. (For example, C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder.)

  4. Unzip the contents of the downloaded .zip file into this folder.

Configure IIS

You must configure your IIS server by performing the following tasks:

  1. Add an application pool.

  2. Add an application.

  3. Configure authentication.

  4. Set permissions.

Add an application pool

To add an application pool using the IIS Manager, follow these steps:

  1. In the Connections panel, right-click on Application Pools, then select Add Application Pool.
  2. In the Add Application Pool dialog, set values for the following fields:
    • Name: App Builder
    • .NET CLR Version: .NET CLR Version v4.0.30319.
    • Managed Pipeline Mode: Integrated.
    • Start application pool immediately: Selected.
  3. Click the OK button.

To add an application pool using the command line, enter these commands:

cd 'C:\Program Files\IIS'
.\appcmd.exe add apppool /name:"AppBuilder" /managedPipelineMode:Integrated /autoStart:true /managedRuntimeVersion:"v8.0"

Multiple instances

If you want to run multiple App Builder instances on the same app server, they should be isolated in separate app pools with the Load User Profile option enabled.

Add an application

To add an application using the IIS Manager, follow these steps:

  1. In the Connections panel, right-click on Sites and select Add Website.
  2. In the Add Website dialog, set values for the following fields:
    • Site name: App Builder
    • Application pool: App Builder
    • Physical path: Path to where the software was unpacked to (for example, C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder).
    • Start Website immediately: Selected.
  3. Click the OK button.

To add an application using the command line, enter these commands:

.\appcmd.exe add site /name:"AppBuilder" /id:1 /bindings:http://*:80 /physicalPath:"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder"
.\appcmd.exe add app /site.name:"AppBuilder" /path:"/" /physicalPath:"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder"

Configure authentication

To configure authentication using the IIS Manager, follow these steps:

  1. In the Connections panel, under the Sites folder, select the App Builder entry.
  2. Double-click the Authentication icon.
  3. Select Anonymous Authentication and click the Edit action.
  4. In the Edit Anonymous Authentication Credentials dialog, select Application pool identity, then click the OK button:

To configure authentication using the command line, enter this command:

appcmd.exe set config -section:anonymousAuthentication /username:"" --password

Set permissions

To set permissions using the IIS Manager, follow these steps:

  1. In the Connections panel, under the Sites folder, right-click on App Builder and select Edit Permissions.
  2. Select the Security tab, then click the Edit button.
  3. In the Permissions for App Builder dialog, click the Add button.
  4. In the Select User or Groups dialog, in the field Enter the object names to select, enter IIS AppPool\AppBuilder, then click the Check Names button.
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. In the Permissions for AppBuilder dialog, under Group or user names, select the new App Builder user.
  7. Under Permissions for App Builder, for the Full control row, select the Allow checkbox.
  8. Click the OK button to close the dialog.
  9. In the App Builder Properties dialog, click the OK button.

(Optional) Enable Crystal Reports

App Builder supports Crystal Reports on Windows systems. Crystal Reports is hosted out-of-process in a COM server. To register the Crystal Reports COM server, open a Windows PowerShell as an administrator, then run these commands:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
cd C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder\Scripts
.\RegisterCrystalReports.ps1

Create a connection file

To create a connection file, follow these steps:

  1. Copy one of the samples in the Sample_Connection_Files folder, and paste it with the name Connection.xml in the App Builder root directory. Which one you copy depends on your database type.
  2. Edit the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AppBuilder\Connection.xml file and set values for the parameters DatabaseName, UserName, and Password. (The UserName user must have a system administration role.)

Tip

You can also use environment variables or a JSON file to specify the database connection.

Test and run

To run App Builder for the first time, follow these steps:

  1. Go to http://localhost/AppBuilder/.

  2. It can take several minutes to set up the database for the first time. When the login screen appears, enter the following default credentials:

    • User name: admin
    • Password: P@55w0rd

  3. Click the Sign In button, and follow the instructions to change the password, and upload a license file.

(Optional) Post-install configuration

  • Configure security providers

    The App Builder security model supports multiple, configurable security providers. If your organization is looking to configure security provider(s), please see the Providers page.

  • Ensure scheduled events run after the application pool is recycled

    You should ensure the application pool is always running, and that any event that may cause the application pool to stop will restart the application immediately.

    When App Builder is not running, scheduled events are not executing.

    This is important as IIS will shut down the application pool when idle (often during off hours), causing nightly scheduled routines to be ignored.

    To have App Builder start automatically after an application pool recycles, or a server restart, you can configure the IIS ApplicationInitialization component.

    Note

    IIS ApplicationInitialization is not compatible with sites that use Windows Integrated Authentication. Using Windows Integrated Authentication requires Anonymous Authentication to be disabled in IIS. The IIS ApplicationInitialization component requires anonymous access.

    There is a workaround for this scenario involving the Windows Scheduler to ping App Builder every 5 minutes to ensure that it starts back up after the application pool is recycled.

  • Install and configure application initialization

    The steps vary depending on the version of IIS. Choose the a link below:

  • Test always running behavior

    The following guide steps through how to test for always running behavior:

    By default IIS is set to restart every 29 hours (so that the Application Pool is restarting at different times every day). You should configure a specific time of day when the Application Pool restarts, and be sure that this time does not interfere with scheduled background jobs.

    Alwaysrunning

    Specify a date and time to recycle the application pool in IIS Manager, here you would set 11:42:00 to a time that doesn't conflict with scheduled background jobs