Developing a Web UI Add-in

The following instructions should lead you through the development of a Web UI add-in.

Prerequisites

• Development system with Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server or Advanced Server installed on standard computer hardware
• Microsoft® Server Appliance Kit 2.0 CD

To develop a Web UI add-in

1. Install the Server Appliance Kit. In the Setup Wizard, choose to install the development tools, and choose one of the three configurations: Web, NAS, or custom. Accept the default components.
2. View online Help by Choosing Start, and then pointing to Programs and then Microsoft Server Appliance Kit, and then choosing Server Appliance Kit Documentation.
3. Read the Web UI Framework section to understand the various ways you can add content to the server appliance Web UI, and to understand the different types of pages that are supported in the framework.
4. Design your Web UI content, based on the guidelines presented in Web UI Design Requirements.
5. Develop your Web UI content. This will include the following tasks:
   • Creating a Resource DLL
   • Adding a New Primary Navigation Page
   • Adding a New Secondary Navigation Page
   • Creating a Task Object
   • Adding pages of the appropriate page type
   • Adding an Alert to the Web Element Database
   • Adding a Resource to the Status or Shutdown Page
   • Adding Logs
6. Add Localized Text Resources for your Web UI content.
7. Package your add-in so that it can be installed by your customer, who is typically an engineer building a pre-installable image to manufacture an appliance. This can be a simple .bat or .msi file—see MSDN for more information. The installation package will copy your Web content into the %ServerApplianceWebRoot%\FeatureName folder and set up the registry correctly.
8. Test your add-in. Install the add-in on your development machine or on a dedicated test machine and verify that it has no errors and does not cause any errors in the other add-ins that might be used with this feature.

Once you have verified the quality of your add-in, it is ready to distribute to your customers.