Example: Deploying to CrystalTech

This example describes how to deploy an Iron Speed Designer application to CrystalTech, a hosting service provider.  The basic steps for deploying an application to any hosting server includes uploading your application to the server through a FTP client, connecting the application to your database and setting the uploaded application folder as a Microsoft IIS root directory (the application start-up point).

First, upload your Iron Speed Designer application using the FTP client on the CrystalTech hosting server.  You should receive the user name and password in the mail once you are registered on CrystalTech.

Follow the steps below depending on your application’s database type.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

After uploading your application via the FTP server to CrystalTech, the next step is to deploy your Microsoft SQL Server database on the CrystalTech hosting server.

Step 1: Go to https://www.webcontrolcenter.com/customer.aspx and log in with the user name and password provided by CrystalTech.

Step 2:  Select Database MS SQL 2005 and MS SQL Admin.  Enter the name of the database along with your new user name and password.  Your user name and password will be used in the connection string for your Microsoft SQL Server database application.

Step 3:  After the database is created, open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and enter the database server name, user name, and password created in Step 2.

Step 4: Locate your database name in the Object explorer.  Then, right-click on your database name and select ‘Import Data’.

Step 5:  The Microsoft SQL Server Import and Export Wizard will appear.  Click Next.

Step 6:  Select the server name and database you want to import (data source).  Select the Authentication the server is using and enter the user name and password to connect to the source database.

Step 7:  Enter the destination server name that CrystalTech provided wen creating your database.  Also, select your database and enter the user name and password that you created in Step 2. Click Next.

Step 8:  Select the options to copy or write a query, click Next, and Finish.

Step 9:  Select the tables to import.  Once you select a table, you will get verification for each table on the Destination column.  You can also select Optimize for many tables.

Step 10: Check your imported data using Query Test.  For example, to create a query to show all employee records from the employees table:

Select * from employees

Step 11: Once you have successfully installed your database on the CrystalTech server and tested the query successfully, modify the connection string in your application’s Web.config file by modifying the user ID and password to match those that you created in Step 2, e.g.:

Before:

<add key="CookieEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="URLEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="DatabasePreNorthwind1" value="Data Source=QAXP-NET;Database=PreNorthwind;Trusted_Connection=no;User Id=loginID;Password=loginPwd" />

<add key="DefaultPageUrl" value="Employees/ShowEmployeesTable.aspx" />

After:

<add key="CookieEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="URLEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="DatabasePreNorthwind1" value="Data Source=HostingProviderServer; Database=PreNorthwind; Trusted_Connection=no; User Id=loginID; Password=loginPwd" />

<add key="DefaultPageUrl" value="Employees/ShowEmployeesTable.aspx" />

Step 12:  Finally, in the CrystalTech Menu, click on Site and note the IP Address in the Site Overview section.  You can import your Iron Speed Designer application via an FTP client, such as Filezilla, with the information from the Site Overview, such as IP Address and Domain/FTP login user name and password provided by CrystalTech.

Add your application to the root folder.  Once done, go to the CrystalTech Menu and select IIS, Application Starting Points, and click Add.  Highlight the application you just added and then click Create.  This will create an application folder in the root directory for the application and then the application will be live on CrystalTech.

Step 13: To test that your application is running, open your Web browser and type in your application’s URL in the format:

http://IPaddressFromOnSiteSection/ApplicationName

You should be able to connect to your application and run it.

MySQL

To deploy a MySQL database on CrystalTech, first download MySQL Administrator and then follow the steps below.  For details, see:

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html

Step 1:  Log into the CrystalTech control panel and select MySQL Admin.  Enter the database name, user login, password, and then save it.

Step 2: After creating a database, you will see a row indicating the name of server and database in the Control Center screen.  The Info link contains your login information for the next step.

Step 3:  Open MySQL Administrator; enter the server name and password that are shown in the Info link.

Step 4:  The screen below appears after successfully logging in.  Go to Tools and click MySQL Query Browser.

Step 5:  In the query browser, select ‘Open script’ in the File menu and open database scripts.

Step 6:  Execute all your MySQL database scripts on the server.

Step 7:  After executing all your scripts, run the MySQL Query Test to test your database as shown below.

Step 8:  Modify the database connection string in your application’s Web.config file.

<add key="CookieEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="URLEncryptionKey" value="AFD0131C-6F1A-410C-AD09-5B4D637FB782" />

<add key="DatabasePreNorthwind1" value="Data Source=HostingProviderServer; Database=PreNorthwind; Trusted_Connection=no; User Id=loginID; Password=loginPwd" />

<add key="DefaultPageUrl" value="Employees/ShowEmployeesTable.aspx" />

Step 9:  Make sure the application folder you uploaded is set as the root folder (application startup) on the Microsoft IIS web server.

Microsoft Access

Step 1:  Open your CrystalTech FTP account and locate your application’s “Database” folder.

Step 2:  Upload your Microsoft Access database file (e.g.: Southwind.mdb) into the “Database” folder.

Step 3:  Create a DSN as shown below. Go to Database and select “Datasource admin” and then click the Add button.

Step 4:  Select the “Access” option from Database Type dropdown list.

Step 5:  Select the database folder that contains your Microsoft Access database file, enter the data source and verify the password. This will create your DSN.

Step 6:  Modify the database connection string in your application’s Web.config file.

Step 7:  Finally, go to IIS and select “Application Starting Point” to create an application root on Microsoft IIS.  This very important step ensures your Iron Speed Designer application will run on the CrystalTech server.

See Also

Deploying to Application Hosting Service Providers

Example: Deploying to 1 and 1

Example: Deploying to CrystalTech

Example: Deploying to DiscountASP.NET

Example: Deploying to GoDaddy.com

Disabling Event Viewer Logging

Individual Hosting Provider Notes

Setting the .NET Trust Level for your Application