DotNetNuke
DotNetNuke
BADNUG will hold its next meeting on July June 22 at BC3's Cranberry Campus. In a break from prervious formats, the Tool of the Month ("use one, don't be one") will be the entire presentation.
Rich Dudley will present on the basics of DotNetNuke. DotNetNuke is a free, open source portal system, which can be used to create complete websites with a great amount of functionality very quickly and cheaply. DNN version 3.1 has just been released, and this presentation will cover installation, configuration, administration, skinning, module installation, etc. Version 3 has a number of new features, including several wizards that can configure a new site (such as a personal or club site) in minutes, which is extremely useful in a portal provider environment. Other new features include drag and drop positioning of modules, friendly URLs, new skins, and many new and improved modules.
With the release of DNN 3, the DotNetNuke Core Team has also begun several sub-projects. There has been much hope that DNN will be able to integrate with Community Server, but as of yet, little progress has been made. The DNN team has begun its own blogging and forums sub-project, which we'll also install and review. We'll also take a commercially available template and turn it into a DNN skin.
DNN 3 supports only SQL Server (MSDE, SS2K, SS2K5) out of the box, but Access, Oracle and MySQL providers are under development by third parties. We'll be using the April CTP of Yukon for this demonstration.
Everyone who pre-registers will receive a solutions CD containing a number of resources, including the recent DotNetRocks episode on DNN.
If you have a funcitoning laptop and would like to perform the installation along with the presentation, feel free to do so. The required configuration you need to have working is:
1) Win2K Pro, Win 2K Server, WinXP Pro (must be pro), Win2K3 Server
2) IIS installed
3) Some flavor of SQL Server 200x, MSDE or Sql Server 2005 Express
4) .NET Framework 1.1
To register, e-mail info@badnug.org. For additional information, visit www.badnug.org. Yes, the site will be upgraded to DNN 3 shortly.
Update: The June meeting is in June, not July. Doh!
Synopsis
ChocolateFountainNetwork.com is a site designed to allow event planners to locate chocolate fountain rentals, sales and service in their area.
Initial listings of chocolate fountain providers were entered by the site owner through industry knowledge. New listings will be added via extended site registration.
Technologies used
The base portal is DNN 2.1.2 (I don't put betas into production). The map search is a custom PA I developed, and is backed by a SQL Server database. UCanUse User Attributes PA was used to extend the registration functionality, to allow unlisted companies list themselves on the site.
Future Enhancements
Other PAs will be added to provide bulletin board and advertising functionality.
Site Design and Skin
Molly Masood, Prima Media (www.prima-media.com)
Steven Smith has safely returned, and is starting to set up his new Alienware laptop. According to Pat Santry in a post made on the same day, Alienware uses DotNetNuke for its website.
Anyhow, welcome home Steven, and thanks.
Professional DotNetNuke ASP.NET Portals (Amazon.com link)
This guide is a hands-on guide covering various real-world scenarios for developing and administering DotNetNuke. It covers hands-on step by step configuration options on Windows 2003, and discusses some of the issues (Webfarms, capacity planning, databases) when setting up DotNetNuke.
After configuring DNN it provides a step by step instruction on administering DNN and applying DNN in different real-world hosting situations.
The second part of the guide is aimed at DotNetNuke development. DotNetNuke provides the developer with a highly flexible architecture for rapid application development (RAD) of Web applications using the module provider. The book introduces the DotNetNuke application architecture, and then gets into developing modules for the framework. In addition to module development it covers developing skins for your DNN web site using some of the common tools available.
(hat tip: Patrick Santry)
When: Tuesday, January 11
Where: Pittsburgh Technology CouncilSpeakers: Patrick Santry, Microsoft MVP (ASP/ASP.NET), DotNetNuke Core Team and member of the DotNetNuke Board of Directors
Agenda:
5:30-6:00 Developer Café
This will be an open opportunity to meet with your peers and network. Refreshments will be provided.
6:00-6:05 User Group Updates
As the title implies, this will be a short opportunity to discuss anything new with the user group. This time will also give members a chance to have any general questions about the group answered.
6:05-8:00 DotNetNuke 3x
Patrick Santry will be our guest this month presenting on DotNetNuke(DNN) 3. DNN 3 is a major upgrade from previous versions. Pat's presentation will cover the many new features of DNN, as well as architectural changes affecting module developers.
Registration: Sadiq Durham or 412-918-4229.
There are Q's culled from the referrer stats on my blog from various SE referrals.
Where do I get the DotNetNuke database?
In DNN 2.1.2, the Access database is provides with the installation. In both versions 2.1.2 and 3, the SQL Server database is created for you the first time the portal is accessed. After installing the portal, you manually create the database and database login (if necessary), and modify the connection strings in the web.config. Using the connection string you specify, the portal will connect and execute several SQL scripts to create the tables, views, sprocs, etc.
What is the DotNetNuke database name?
If you are using the AccessDataProvider in DNN 2.1.2, the database is named dotnetnuke.mdb.resources.
If you are using the SqlDataProvider in DNN 2.1.2 or 3, whatever you want to name it. You specify which database to use in the connection string.
Will DotNetNuke work with MSDE?
It should, but you will need some way to create the DNN database manually. This can be done via OSQL, or the Web Data Admin. For what it's worth, I recommend spending the $50 to get SQL Server Developer Edition.
What is the DotNetNuke connection string?
For the AccessDataProvider, you just have to specify the path to the file. For the SqlDataProvider, the following string works for me:
Server=localhost;Database=DotNetNuke;uid=MyUser;pwd=MyPassword
How can I create a DNN Database manually?
You shouldn't need to if you are using the Access or SQL Server providers. It is possible to use an Access database to manually create a SQL Server database using the Upsizing Wizard (look this up in the Access help--it's too much to outline here). If you want to try and use DNN with another database, such as MySql or Oracle, check with the suppliers of the proper providers--they should have the scripts to create the DB.
For one example of upsizing an Access DB to a SQL Server DB, check out this article: How to convert DNN Access to SQL Server (hat top: wwwcoder.com)
Where are the DotNetNuke install instructions?
They are in the ZIP file. After you download and unzip the file, drill down into the Documentation subdirectory.
I've recently been working with the DotNetNuke 3 betas. Getting the beta working on my local machine was a little tricky, so here are the steps I have found to work. The betas are apparently not shipping with an Access provider, so you'll need MSDE or SQL Server installed for you to tinker at home.
1) Create a directory such as C:\dotnetnuke, or C:\inetpub\wwroot\dotnetnuke. Do not create a subfolder in My Documents, since there may be code access security issues that prevent this location from operating correctly.
2) Grant ASPNET user Modify permissions on this directory.
3) Create a blank database. The docs recommend naming the DB DotNetNuke, but any name will do since you specify it in your connection string.
4) Add the local ASPNET user to the database, with public and dbowner roles.
5) Download the DNN 3 beta.
6) Extract the files into the directory you created in step 1.
7) Open the IIS control panel, and create a new virtual directory mapped to the directory you created in step 1. You must name this virtual directory DotNetNuke.
8) Edit the web.config file so that both SQL connection strings can connect to the database you created in step 3. There are two connection strings, one near the beginning in the appSettings, and one near the end in the SqlDataProvider section. My connection strings read: "Data Source=local;Initial Catalog=DotNetNuke3;trusted_connection=true". Save the web.config.
9) Navigate to http://localhost/dotnetnuke. The portal will create the database and populate the default information.
A common error is the inability of DNN to connect to the database. Make sure the connection string is correct and the permissions are set corectly.
From my home tab, I added Skin Objects for TERMS and PRIVACY. I have a skin applied specifically to this tab. Clicking the links generated when the page is viewed loads a page where the admin skin is used. The tabid is still the same as the home page.
It would be nice if the skin objects would at least use the Portal Skin, not the Admin Skin. My portal skin is not designed to be a good admin skin, so I hate to have to use it, but use it I must.
This may have been taken care of in the next release.