Server Installation

This is the guide for setting up a new Forms inMotion server. 

Forms inMotion Server

Setup

The first 3 steps below are performed in Windows Explorer, after that you will need to use the IIS GUI available in IIS version 7 or later.

1. If you would like to run the Forms inMotion server in a separate web site or application pool.  Those should be configured prior to running the Forms inMotion Web Server Setup.exe.
2. Run the Forms inMotion Web Server Setup.exe

3. The default install location is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\FiMServer.  This means that the deployed web service will reside at http://<YOUR SERVER>/FIMServer/FormsServiceJSON.asmx.  Make sure that if you change this default location you note that difference in subsequent documents.

4. The remainder of this section will be configured using Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.  To access this utility in windows, you can:
   1. Go to Start --> Run --> inetmgr.  Press return
   2. You can also find this under Server Manager in Windows server installations by clicking Tools --> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
      

5. Expand all of the collapsed trees including the server name, "Sites", "Default Web Site"

   Default Web Site

   Just like the default folder mentioned above. The default IIS configuration will create a single "Default Web Site" listening at port 80. This setup may not be appropriate for all environments.

   
   
   

6. If you don't already see the folder created by the installer in Step 2 the right click the Default Web Site and select refresh

7. Select the folder FIMServer by left-clicking, THEN right-click to access the advanced menu.

8. Select Convert to Application from the site's advanced menu

9. 

10. OPTIONAL: At this point you may choose to use a custom Application pool or the Default.  To use a custom Application Pool, make sure you create it prior to executing this step

    A note about application pools

    An Application Pool is a separate worker process apart from the main or Default one. This allows IIS Applications to be run with separate permissions from other applications on the same server. It is fine to run the Forms inMotion IIS Application in the DefaultAppPool unless you are going to write the output of a particular FormsPackage somewhere other than the IIS Server. If this is the case, the Application Pool will need to be configured with permission to write to your chosen location. IIS Configuration is outside the scope of this document.

    Enable 32-bit Application Pool

    Be sure that your chosen Application Pool is set to run the .NET Framework v4.0.30319, and that Enable 32-bit Applications is set to True.

     

    
    

11. Click on OK to complete the conversion from Virtual Directory to IIS Application
    

12. At this point, you can test that your application is working correctly by opening a browser and pointing to your new server location.  http://<YOUR SERVER>/FIMServer/FormsServiceJSON.asmx. is the address from this example.
    
    This is IIS' default display for a webservice.   Now we need to connect up a few things to complete the install.

Connect IIS Application to the Database

The IIS Application is working correctly if you saw the FormsServiceJSON page in your browser at the end of the previous section, but none of the options will work since the DB is not wired up to the application yet.  

1. First open the  c:\inetpub\wwwroot\FiMServer\web.config XML file in notepad or text editor of your choice.  If you renamed the folder or placed the application in a different web root, substitute that here.

2. Look for a section called <connectionStrings>.  There will already be a connection string stub there called "formsserver" with a placeholder value of !!CONNECTIONSTRING!! .  Update the connectionString here to match the one in your environment.  Refer to http://www.connectionstrings.com/sql-server/ for guidance on correct connection string for your environment or check with your database administrator.

   connectionStrings in server web.config

   The application will always look for a connectionString node called "formsserver". Do not rename "name" attribute on this connection string or the application will not see your connection string value.

   Also, it is possible to use this web.config file for configuring other connections for use with the Query API.  It is not necessary to configure those at this time. For more information on using the Query API with your custom forms, check out the Creating Custom HTML Forms article.

3. Save your Web.config file changes.
4. Now open your browser to the location of the webservice you created above. In my example, this is http://<YOUR SERVER>/FIMServer/FormsServiceJSON.asmx
5. Click on getEnvironmentVaribles and then click Invoke on the next window.  This will run the getEnvironmentVariables function and display the results.
   
   
6. At this point you should see something like this
   
   

   {"ResponseTime":"1/15/2015 1:51:44 PM","Assembly":"FormsBuilderServer, Version=1.7.1.655, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null","WindowsClient":"","WindowsVersion":"","AndroidVersion":"","AndroidClient":"","IOSVersion":"","IOSClient":"","Status":"Success","LicenseStatus":"Activation Code Cannot Be Validated"}

   This indicates that the server is responding to requests and is able to lookup the client version locations in the database, but it can't verify the license.