Contents
Introduction
WorkBook is a web application, and therefore runs as multiple websites on a Windows Server – Internet Information Service.
The prerequisites for this guide can be found here.
Creating new websites
If you’re installing WorkBook from scratch the websites will need to be created manually after installing IIS.
You need to create at least 2 websites, with a possibility of an additional website for the old iPhone Time Registration application.
For the websites you will be creating you will need multiple bindings, what we typically recommend is mapping multiple different DNS records to the server so that these can be used for your bindings. However if that is not possible, WorkBook can easily run on multiple non standard ports.
Add Website…
Initially create 3 new websites. We recommend using the following naming and placement strategy.
When creating the websites, you need to create the physical folder as well.
- Silverlight Web Site
- Site name: {Customer}_Silverlight
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_Silverlight
- Binding
- Host name: workbookfinance.{Customer domain}.{tld}
- Port: 80 (Alternatively if skipping the hostname you can set another port here)
- HTML/V9 Web Site
- Site name: {Customer}_HTML
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_HTML
- Binding
- Host name: workbook.{Customer domain}.{tld}
- Port: 80 (Alternatively if skipping the hostname you can set another port here)
- Mobile site (Old iPhone app)
- Site name: {Customer}_Mobile
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_Mobile
- Binding
- Host name: workbookmobile.{Customer domain}.{tld}
- Port: 80 (Alternatively if skipping the hostname you can set another port here)
Creating the website in IIS
Final result of creating the above websites
Configuring additional applications
For WorkBook to function correctly you must add several additional applications to each website.
These applications should run under the same application pool as the remainder of the website.
If possible you should install the website files before continuing, otherwise you need to manually create the physical paths.
Create/Convert the following applications for the following websites
- {Customer}_Silverlight
- Report
- Alias: Report
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_Silverlight\Report
- Report
- {Customer}_HTML
- Report
- Alias: Report
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_HTML\Report
- Api
- Alias: api
- Physical Path: %systemdrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\{Customer}_HTML\api
- Report
Manually creating the application
Converting a folder to an application
Result from above
(There may be multiple non application folders displayed as well)
Configuring the application pools
The application pools for all 3 websites need to be modified for they stay inside the following requirements:
- Must be running .NET CLR Version: v4.0
- Pipeline mode must be: Integrated
- The application pools must be running: 32bit
Changing application pool bitness
You can change the application pool bitness from “Advanced Settings”
Enabling HTTPS / Transport Encryption
Configuring HTTPS on WorkBook is fairly basic as it is almost exclusively configured in the Internet Information Services Manager.
Acquire a certificate
Initially you need to acquire a certificate suited for encrypting web traffic.
Due to the nature of WorkBook having multiple websites, we recommend purchasing a wildcard certificate. A wildcard certificate is also easier to configure correctly on Windows Server 2012 and below.
For our own hosting we purchase Comodo PositiveSSL Wildcard certificates from a vendor named GoGetSSL.
Remember to install the certificate your acquired.
If you acquired a wildcard certificate, make sure that the friendly name starts with *.{Your domain} otherwise you wont be able to use the same certificate on multiple websites correctly.
Creating new bindings
Create a new binding on each of the websites, you must protect both HTML and Silverlight when configuring HTTPS.
When creating the binding its recommend that it responds to the same name as the non HTTPS binding.
Also make sure to select the correct certificate.
Now each website will actually be supporting HTTPS, however due to WorkBook’s building protocol redirect, your website will keep redirecting you back to the HTTP version of your website.
Updating WorkBook to force HTTPS
As mentioned above, WorkBook has a built-in protocol redirection.
It redirects from HTTP to HTTPS and HTTPS to HTTP depending on the configuration.
When updating WorkBook you can select if the websites should be using HTTP or HTTPS in the update tool.
You can see the following guide for more information.