The web viewer requires a configuration that is not provided at installation, to be able to receive an uploaded publication. If nothing works, start from the beginning, we can remove any current configuration.

When all is failing or files have been corrupted

If you suspect that configuration is corrupt, you may remove and regenerate some vital files for the web viewer. to get back to the post-installation situation:

Select the web application app_data folder: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AssertWeb\App_Data
Delete the files profile.config and server.config

Start up the web application to make it create the two files, use fake language and site name

In Chrome/Edge, open the Url. http://localhost/AssertWeb/en-GB/test – just discard the error for the time being. Now the files are created and we can add configuration.

Configure upload target settings in the server.config file:

Define the remote area for uploaded publications. Create a folder to host all uploaded publications and ensure that Everyone has full access to the folder. Then enter an element in server.config to declare it to the web application, when upload is made from the editor server.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ServerConfiguration xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance xmlns:xsd=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema>
       <RemoteArea>C:\your-path\your-pub-folder</RemoteArea>

Ensure that Everyone has full access to the remote area folder

Configure target SqlServer instance name in the server.config file:

Ensure correct SqlServer instance name is correct in server.config. Else replace all “server-name\SQLEXPRESS” with the SqlServer instance you are using for the web application.

Now publish to the web-application

Generate a publication of media type Signifikant Remote publication. Specify Remote server to address the web application from the editor server. If you are running both on the same server you may set Url to: http://localhost/AssertWeb. Also IIS binding to HTTP or HTTPS protocol and the server name must be valid in the context your editor server is running in.

Server computer name may not be available, and sometimes a remote server name is not available from an editor server. Please consult your IT support to get a proper name to address the web application. Sometimes the IP-address can be used to get a valid address to the remote web server.

When ready, test the new publication with the uploaded site name: http://localhost/AssertWeb/en-GB/your-new-site.

Profiling, server-databas, etc

Add subfolders for each publication, where a profile is needed, setup a server-database in server.config for sites where it is used. The server database stores users/orders/notes/prices etc. when a user is logged in.

This is a general but large task of web application profiling (fonts, sizes, colours, images, definition for providers, etc). It creates look and feel of web pages and defines order process, search, filter-engine, presentation settings. If something needs to be tweaked in the application, it probably ends up as profiling.

Find log files for diagnose

Inspect web application log file for errors

Inspect the log file for the AssertWeb application on the remote server, default location is:

C:\ProgramData\Signifikant\Assert\AssertServer.log

Inspect the publisher log file for errors

In the publication repository the menu choice Explore target opens the folder of the publication.

The log file is:

publish.log

Some common errors when first setting up the web viewer

Publishing is prohibited in the web viewer

When running remote publication it stops with an error:

In later versions all APIs are protected by default, this is the meaning of the message. Here is an article on the subject: https://signifikant.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ASKB/pages/901578756

To disable protection, please inspect the file web server:

At the top you can disable permission check by changing enabled flag:

This will turn protection off, and publish may succeed.

Follow the referred article to configure proper security. Do not leave the API protection turned off.

Short guide to setup permission to permit publisher

The login is defined for the editor server in C:\ProgramData\Signifikant\Assert\server.config.

Elements:

WebPublisherApi is the permission you’ll need to grant, in C:\ProgramData\Signifikant\Assert\api-permission.config on the remote web server.

IIS is not run with system privileges

The logfile may display an error:

Is IIS application pool setup to run as SYSTEM, granting the application rights to write the file?

Or is the file server.config open in i.e. Notepad and locked, preventing the application to save the file?

IIS SYSTEM account is not permitted to create and attach new databases