How do I set up a publishing destination? – 2c8 Help center

Disclaimer!

This guide is to be seen as an example on how this can be done rather than an actual instruction. There might be other ways of doing it and there might be reasons to why this is not the best way for you to do it, or even works in your IT environment. 2c8 takes no responsibility for any issues caused by following this guide and can not provide any additional support if the guide does not lead to expected results.

If you need assistance in this matter, consult a suitable expert on the topic.

Web publish components

The web publication created by 2c8 Modeling Tool is a web application that consists of a file index.html and a folder pages-{TIMESTAMP} which among others contain the following file types: HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, and PNG.

When web publishing is performed all files are always re-created and any old web publish files in the publish location will be removed before the new files are uploaded.

The web publication is built to be placed on and shown by a web server like Microsoft IIS or Apache HTTP Server. We recommend that a web publication is placed on a web server since this will provide optimal performance when the web publication is shown to the end user in the web browser.

A web publication can also be shown directly via disk, for instance on a computer's C: or a network drive with a device name like G: Please note that the performance may suffer if the speed to the disk is slow due to the network or the disk itself.

A web publication can be placed directly in SharePoint Online and can alse be shown in an IFrame.

If you want to link published 2c8 files from another website that uses HTTPS, you also need to be able to reach the published 2c8 files via HTTPS. This also applies to documents linked from the models. If the published models are reached via HTTP/HTTPS, you will not be able to open a document placed on a NAS. Read more about that here.

Cloud services for file storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive can be used to share (sync) a web publication between users, but not to show a web publication directly from the cloud since these services don’t provide a web server service. This means that you cannot view a web publication from the web interface of these services, but you can sync the files of the web publication to your computer and then view the web publication by opening the file “index.html” in Windows Explorer.

Services offering the customer to create their own websites but not to upload custom JavaScript files (e.g. Google Sites) cannot be used to show a web publication from 2c8 Modeling Tool.

Upload types

There are two types of uploads that can be used when generating the Web publication in 2c8 Modeling Tool:

1. File copy: The files are copied to any folder that can be accessed by the computer, for instance, a shared folder.

2. FTP-upload: The files are uploaded by FTP. This requires an FTP-server on the other end to receive the files.

Example: Publish to the web server Microsoft IIS

Steps needed to create a publish location on MS Windows/IIS platform, each step is described below. The result will be a publishing destination of type file copy set up in 2c8 Modeling Tool and a web address for viewing the models being published

Create server folder and share

Log on to the web server where your publishing folder is to be located. Use windows explorer to create a folder with a suitable name and share it with write permissions for the modelers to be able to publish. As result, you will be able to reach the share by using the \\servername\sharename\ address. This address is to be entered in 2c8 Modeling Tool.

Add virtual directory in IIS

If the shared folder is located outside the wwwroot folder you need to add it as a virtual directory from the IIS Manager. Set an alias and browse to the created folder. When it’s created you will be able to reach the folder by using the http://servername/aliasname/ address. This address is to be entered in 2c8 Modeling Tool

Add publish destination In 2c8 Modeling Tool

Create a publish destination in 2c8 Modeling Tool of the type “File copy”. Use the address to the share as “Path” and the web url to the virtual directory as “Web URL”. You may enter any descriptive text in the fields “Title” and “Description”.