The "External Files" refers to the packages, folders, and files (such as INI files, DLL/OCX etc.) that are deployed from External Files in the PowerServer project painter > Application page.
To replace the External Files (such as INI, DLL/OCX etc.) for a deployed application:
-
Install the ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1 or later.
-
Open the command prompt. (You'd better run the command prompt using an administrator by right-clicking it and then selecting "Run as administrator").
-
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, 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.
-
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 to the server, 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.
