Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Technical

AutoWikiBrowser 6.3.1.1

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Getting the source code and compiling it yourself

AutoWikiBrowser is licensed under the GPL (see the license file).

.NET

AutoWikiBrowser is written in .NET. Version 3.5 or earlier is required to compile AWB. .NET 3.0 is included on Windows Vista. .Net 3.5 is included on Windows 7. .NET version 4.0 and greater will work, but will require a slight modification to AWB's code and the installation of Windows SDK for Windows 7 or Windows SDK for Windows 8.

Download source

To get the sources run the command  svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/autowikibrowser/code/AWB/ .  You'll need network access to SourceForge and its SVN server. If that doesn't work you probably need an SVN client:

1. Download and install TortoiseSVN. It is the recommended SVN client program.
2. Create a folder AWB (or whatever name you prefer) on your computer.
3. Right click on the folder, and select "SVN Checkout...".
4. In the dialog window that appears (titled "Checkout") enter  http://svn.code.sf.net/p/autowikibrowser/code/AWB/  for the field URL of Repository. (This is read only access, the read-write URLs are different)
5. Click OK

This is a 3 MB download with ~1,200 files and folders from the SourceForge SVN server at http://svn.code.sf.net/p/autowikibrowser/code/AWB/.

Please note that you can contribute features to AWB and fix bugs in AWB. Read access is anonymous, but if you register as a developer of AWB, sourceforge sends a URL with write access.

Compile source

You will now need to compile the code yourself. You will need a copy of a third-party C# IDE such as SharpDevelop (free), Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019 or lower version (free) or a more complete version of the Visual Studio 2019 suite, such as Professional (cost). Alternatively, you can use newer versions of Visual Studio if you are willing to allow it to make modifications to your copy of the source.

SharpDevelop

1. Download and install the latest version of SharpDevelop
2. Click on File -> Open -> Project/Solution. Open the "AutoWikiBrowser no plugins" solution file.
3. Press F8 to build AWB. The AWB executable will be placed in ...\AWB\AWB\bin\debug. Copy AutoWikiBrowser.exe, Newtonsoft.Json.dll, WikiFunctions.dll and Interop.mshtml.dll from the folder to where you run AWB from.

Visual Studio 2019

The AutoWikiBrowser source is designed to be built with Visual Studio's 2019 version. The free ("Community") edition is no longer available for download; if you do not already have it installed, and are unable to use the Professional or Enterprise versions, go to the Visual Studio 2022 instructions below.

With Visual Studio 2019:

1. Ensure you have included the ".NET Desktop Development" option.
2. Browse to the toplevel source folder, and run the Visual Studio AutoWikiBrowser solution file.
3. When the IDE has loaded, select release rather than debug (next to the green forward arrow). In the solution explorer on the right hand side, right click on the solution, and select build solution. Visual Studio will now turn the source files into the required files to run AWB.
4. Back in the AWB folder, browse to AWB\bin\Release, and copy AutoWikiBrowser.exe and WikiFunctions.dll from the Release folder to where you run AWB from.

Visual Studio 2022

1. Ensure release 3.5 of the .NET Framework is installed. If necessary, download it here (or use "Turn Windows Features on or off" in the legacy Control Panel).
2. Download and install the current version of Visual Studio Community. While configuring options during the installation, select at least ".NET Desktop Development".
3. Browse to the toplevel source folder, and run the Visual Studio AutoWikiBrowser solution file. Visual Studio will prompt you with a dialog offering to upgrade the first project. Keep the "Update the target..." button selected, check "Remember my choice for this operation", and click Continue. Visual Studio will continue to load the solution, and (as of August 2024) 23 files are modified. From this point on your source will not match the original source.
4. When the IDE has loaded, select release rather than debug (next to the green forward arrow). In the solution explorer on the right hand side, right click on the solution, and select build solution. Visual Studio will now turn the source files into the required files to run AWB.
5. Back in the AWB folder, browse to AWB\bin\Release, and copy AutoWikiBrowser.exe and WikiFunctions.dll from the Release folder to where you run AWB from.

Unfortunately future downloads of newer SVN versions cannot be guaranteed to preserve the modifications.

MonoDevelop (Linux)

• Use the "AutoWikiBrowser no plugins" solution file.
• perl is required for the pre-build event to replace SVN revision number and date.

.NET 4.0/4.5 error

If you get an error while compiling saying something similar to, "Error loading code-completion information for Microsoft.mshtml from Microsoft.mshtml: Could not find assembly file.", this means you do not have .NET 3.5 or earlier installed. AWB can still be compiled, but will require a slight code change. It is recommended you install .NET 3.5, but if you cannot, see the talk page for further help.

Changes to AWB code

You can view all SVN changes one of two ways:

1. Browse Commit
2. Right click on the folder that contains the source code, then go Tortoise SVN -> Show log.

Update code from SVN

When new sources become available execute "SVN Update" from the context menu of your AWB folder. Then recompile the source.

You are not automatically notified of new versions; if you use AWB on a regular basis, and want to use the source version, check this daily, and build a new release version if there are changes. That way you are up to date with all bug fixes and new features.