After the application is installed to the server, you can change the external files using the command-line tool (CustomizeDeploy.dll) which is located in the application folder on the server.
The "External Files" refers to the packages, folders, and files (such as INI files, DLL/OCX, images etc.) that are configured in External Files in the PowerServer project painter > Application page.
To replace the External Files for an application:
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Install the ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1 or later.
The CustomizeDeploy.dll tool requires the ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1 or later to run, therefore, you may be prompted to install ASP.NET Core Runtime if it is not installed.
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Open the command prompt.
You'd better run the command prompt using an administrator by right-clicking it and then selecting "Run as administrator".
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Navigate to the server root folder > [appname] folder > [version] folder.
If you have created multiple deployment versions for the application, you will have multiple sub-folders for version, such as 1.01, 1.02, etc., make sure you navigate to the folder of the current deployment version, for example, C:\inetpub\wwwroot\salesdemo_cloud\1.01.
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Execute the CustomizeDeploy.dll file using the dotnet command.
dotnet CustomizeDeploy.dll -src=<source file> -dest=<destination file>
The "src" argument should point to the new file that you want to use to replace the old file.
The "dest" argument should point to the old file that you want to replace with the new file.
When external files are deployed and installed, they are appended with the file extension ".zip", but they are not compressed files (the only exception is package). For example, if apisetup.ini is selected in External Files, it will be deployed as apisetup.ini.zip to the server, however, apisetup.ini.zip is not a compressed file and it can be directly opened in a text editor just like apisetup.ini.
And to replace the file, you should prepare the source file without .zip extension.
For example,
dotnet CustomizeDeploy.dll -src=/new/apisetup.ini -dest=apisetup.ini.zip
Or
dotnet CustomizeDeploy.dll -src=/new/new.ini -dest=apisetup.ini.zip
The only exception is the package which is indeed compressed as the zip format (with file extension ".zip.zip"). Therefore, you should prepare the source file for the package in the compressed zip format.
For example,
dotnet CustomizeDeploy.dll -src=/new/theme.zip -dest=theme.zip.zip
Or
dotnet CustomizeDeploy.dll -src=/new/aaa.zip -dest=theme.zip.zip
Note
The tool will replace the package as a whole (and refresh the hash code of the package) and it will not validate the individual files included in the package. Therefore you need to make sure the files included in the package are correct and complete.
Note
Double check that the source files are NOT read-only before replacement, otherwise the following error may occur at runtime: "Access to the path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\testapp\1.01\cp.ico.zip' is denied."
