MVC Templates

MVC Templates allow you to edit the HTML for all or each individual page. If you only want to edit colors of the theme see MVC Themes.

Features

Editable HTML templates:

• Create a new theme in Settings > Themes. Set the type to MVC. A folder will be created in TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views where you can place your custom .cshtml and images.
• Your custom template folder only needs to have the files that have been modified.
• If a file doesn't exist in your custom template it will use the file from ~/Views/Default/. Use the same directory structure as the Default template.
• You can safely add new files to the default template folder but all the original files will be overwritten when you update TCAdmin.
• To translate MVC templates go to Settings > Languages > select the language > Other Components > Resources.*.

The following features are configurable in the game settings

• Custom service home page template per game. (change whole layout of the service home page)
• Custom status template per game. (change which information and ports are displayed)
• Join URL

Requirements

• .NET 4.7.2 (Windows) or Mono 6.x (Linux) must be installed on your server.
• Install TCAdmin version 2.0.127.0 or greater.

Configure TCAdmin

New installations already have MVC enabled by default

• Edit TCAdmin2\Monitor\TCAdminMonitor.exe.config or /home/tcadmin/Monitor/TCAdminMonitor.exe.config. Add these lines under <appSettings> (update them if they already exist).

<add key="TCAdmin.Public.MVC" value="True" />
<add key="TCAdmin.Public.MVC.WebServicesPath" value="../ControlPanel.MVC" />

• Restart the monitor service.

Important for Linux users

Https is not supported by the built in web server when TCAdmin.Public.MVC is set to True. To use https you must configure your control panel with Nginx.

Update the WHMCS module (optional)

Make a backup of your /whmcs/modules/servers/tcadmin2_advanced/tcadmin2_advanced.php and replace it the one included in the tcadmin2_advanced module for MVC. This module has the links updated to work with the MVC template format. You can download the module from the client area

Linux Nginx configuration (optional)

Configure Nginx with these instructions Configure TCAdmin to run with Nginx

Windows IIS configuration (optional)

Configure the website in IIS with these instructions: Configure TCAdmin to run with IIS

Edit Templates in Visual Studio 2017/2019

• Go to settings > Themes > Create a new MVC theme. This is the template that you will be editing in Visual Studio.
• Copy TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC and TCAdmin2\Monitor\Shared to your PC.
• Rename ControlPanel.MVC\Web.VS2017.config to ControlPanel.MVC\Web.config
• Edit ControlPanel.MVC\Web.config in notepad.

tip

We recommend Visual Studio Code for all configuration edits that need to be made.

• Update the value of TCAdmin.SharedPath to the correct path.
• Update TCAdmin.Database.MySql.ConnectionString with your MySQL info. If the connection string is encrypted use these lines and change MYSQLIP, MYSQLUSER, MYSQLPASSWORD and MYSQLDB with the correct values. You can connect to your master's database or to a local copy.

<add key="TCAdmin.Database.MySql.ConnectionString" value="Data Source=MYSQLIP;User Id=MYSQLUSER;Password=MYSQLPASSWORD;Database=MYSQLDB;Pooling=false;Compress=false;Connection Lifetime=900;Connect Timeout=30;Protocol=TCP" />
<add key="TCAdmin.Database.MySql.ConnectionString.Encrypted" value="False" />

Run Visual Studio

• select File > Open > Web Site. Select your ControlPanel.MVC folder.
• Select Website > Start Options from the menu.
• In Build > Before running startup page select No build and click on OK. Depending on your Visual Studio version this might be in Build > Configuration Manager > Uncheck build next to the website.
• You should be able to run the solution and it will load the control panel website.

note

Only MVC content will render correctly. Classic ASP.NET content will show a server error.

• Don't edit the files from the default template. To edit a specific page copy it from ControlPanel.MVC\Views\Default to ControlPanel.MVC\Views\(YourTemplate) keeping the same directory structure. You don't need to copy all files. If a file is not in your template the default file will be used.
• You should have full intellisense support when editing the template files. If you see an errors about missing references copy the file from Shared to ControlPanel.MVC\bin and restart Visual Studio.

Edit Templates with a text editor

tip

We recommend Visual Studio Code for all configuration edits that need to be made.

• Create a new theme in Settings > Themes. Set the type to MVC. A folder will be created in TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views where you can place your custom .cshtml and images.
• Copy the file you want to customize from TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views\Default to TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views\(YourTemplate). You must keep the same directory structure of the original file. For example to customize the login page copy Views\Default\Base\Login\Index.cshtml to Views\(YourTemplate)\Base\Login\Index.cshtml and edit Index.cshtml with a text editor.

Adding code to existing .cshtml file without modifying it

Each .cshtml file in TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views\Default supports adding server and client side code using plugin files. The plugin filename should be OriginalFile.Plugin.AnyName.cshtml.

example

if you want to add code to the HTML HEAD for a live chat software:

• The default HEAD code is in TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views\Default\Shared\_Head.cshtml
• To add your code as a plugin you need to create a file TCAdmin2\ControlPanel.MVC\Views\Default\Shared\_Head.Plugin.LiveChat.cshtml

Going back to the classic ASP.NET themes

If you want to go back to the classic ASP.NET themes:

Permanently:

• Edit C:\Program Files\TCAdmin2\Monitor\TCAdminMonitor.exe.config or /home/tcadmin/Monitor/TCAdminMonitor.exe.config and set the value of TCAdmin.Public.MVC to False
• Restart the monitor.

Temporary:

• Log out from the MVC panel. View http://x.x.x.x:8880/Aspx/ (the / at the end is important) Then log in again.