I am not sure where I have been, or whether or not I have not been paying attention, but I have missed something.

I just got done updating my DotNetNuke website to 5.04, from 5.02, and I was having a bear of a time.  I was using the same old update steps I used for version 4.

Most of the update directions are just fine for version 4, except for one.

The Web.Config file!

In any version above 4.6.2 (that is what I have been told) does not require you to update the web.config file.  Yuppers, you heard me right.  DNN now updates the web.config file for you.

You don’t even have to redo the connection strings.  How do you like that?

This isn’t a long post, but I thought I would pass on the information.  I know many of you are already wondering why I hadn’t figured this out before, and I am not sure either.  Oh well, at least I have the information now.

Happy DNN updating!

I have been designing a site for a customer that is going to rely on having a good looking and functional DNN Core Repository.

I found that creating a template for the repository was pretty simple after I found some online documentation on the DNN Repository.

I found that in the /wwwroot/DesktopModules/Repository/Templates/ directory I could add my own template which will show up under the Repository Skin drop down box.  As shown below.

As you notice the bottom one is the one I added.

Now the Issue

I was very excited to make my own repository template, but soon found I was getting pesky borders around the tables of the repository in the Safari and Opera browser. 

I tried editing the repository.aspx file, but was uncomfortable doing that because that is going beyond a simple template.

So then I did some experiments with the two browsers having the issues.  (Safari and Opera)  You can see my demo page and how I ended up fixing the issue.  (NOTE: for the demo page to make sense you need to view it in either Safari or Opera)

Basically to fix the issue I ended up using CSS to tell the tables inside the div I use for Content to have no borders.  Below is the CSS. (in the example below the DIV that the tables are in has the class bordernone)

.bordernone table,
.bordernone td,
.bordernone tr,
.bordernone tbody
{
    border: none !important
}

I hope that all makes sense.  Please feel free to email me if you have questions.  You can also make a comment here with a question, or heck, a better way to fix this issue.

Today I tried to install the Repository Module on a DotNetNuke website and was very frustrated to find I kept getting runtime ASP errors.

I was trying to install the Repository Module by going to Host > Module Definition and clicking on the “Install Module” link at the bottom of the page.  Then I was browsing to the zip file I had on my PC.

This was not working and I was beginning to think I was going to have to give up.

I started to look around my folder structure, thinking there might already be repository files somewhere that might be causing the error.  I came upon the install/module directory and inside there was a resource file for the Repository.

I was confused at first but then I found the page Host > Extensions and noticed at the bottom of the page there was an “Install Available Extensions” link and it went to a page that had all sorts of modules to install, to include the Repository.  YAY!

As you can see above there are a bunch of modules.  You won’t see Repository because I installed it already.

This is a very nice feature, but it is tucked away and not the easiest to find unless you already know about it.  So for those interested in installing any of the following modules, please go to the Host > Extensions page and make sure you are on or in Edit mode.

• Adsense
• Documents
• Feedback
• Help
• Map
• NewsFeeds
• Survey
• XML
• Announcements
• Events
• FormAndList
• IFrame
• MarketShare
• Reports
• UsersOnline
• Blog
• FAQs
• Forum
• Links
• Media
• Store
• Wiki

I hope this helps all you DNN people out there.  My only other question and I will have to repost on this as part two, or comment below.  Is this the only way to add Core modules for the first time? 

I am also hoping that when I go to update this module, or any Core modules, I won’t have any issues.  I don’t think I will, but I still can’t help but worry.

Today I was doing a database backup for a DotNetNuke website.  When I did the backup, I was amazed at how big the database was.

I tried to shrink it, and it didn’t work.

The next thing I did was Googled it, and found a little help in pointing me to what the issue was.  A couple posts in the DotNetNuke forums had commented on big events logs, so I checked mine out.

581MB!!!

Okay now how to clear this?  I couldn’t even view them via the website when logged in as “host”.

I cleared them by doing the following steps.

1. Log into your website as a "host user"
2. Go to Host > SQL
3. Run the script below
   
   Truncate table eventlog
   
4. Logged into my SQL server and Shrunk the database
5. All my issues were solved!!

This seems like an easy no brainer, but I hope it helps people out there with there DNN databases.

Oh and one other helpful hint:  Set your db’s “Recovery Model” to be simple in the options, if you backup your database on a regular basis.  This will keep your db from getting too big also.

I ran into this while working on a customer’s new DNN site.  The install went well and I thought all was good.

Usually my first thing I do is delete the DotNetNuke stuff off the home page and then I go to the admin site settings and disable the inline editing.

When I chose to update settings on the admin settings page I got the following error.

DNN Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'DefaultLanguage'

The first thing I did was to check the admin settings page for a Language setting and sure enough under “Advanced Settings” and “Other Settings” there is a default language pull down menu.  I noticed that I couldn’t fill it in, because the pull down menu was blank.

So my next step was Google.  (Yah, I know I need to use Bing more often now)  I quickly found what I needed and this is what it boiled down to.

Within DNN

1. Go to the Admin/Languages page
2. Click on the Edit Languages link in the upper left corner of the module
3. Select a language from the Dropdown list.
4. Check the enabled checkbox
5. Click the update button.

I got this information from the bottom of a bug fix page. And I got the bug fix page from my trusted DNNCreative websites forums.

I always like it when it is a quick and easy fix.  Go DotNetNuke!

JUNK!!!  WORTHLESS!!!

This may seem harsh, but I will explain why those are the first two words that come to mind for me.

I have had IX Web Hosting for about a year and a half now, and have seen many a thing I do not like about this hosting provider.  When I first signed up for IX Web Hosting, I was excited and drawn to the fact that they could offer unlimited disk space and unlimited MSSQL 2005 databases.  I thought, “Woo Hoo way to go!”

Well, I was dumb for signing up for the hype.  At first everything was pretty good.  Then as the time past, I found I couldn’t do a simple DotNetNuke 4.9 install because the MSSQL server was timing out.  I looked on the SQL server (via SQL Management Studio) and found hundreds of databases.  They were overloading the SQL server.  (I guess I should have expected this will unlimited space right.  Oh well I live and learn)

Soon after that I started to notice that all my websites were running very slow.  (Once again, what should I expect from unlimited space right?)

Lastly, what is going to make me move my sites off IX Web Hosting is the fact that the server my websites are on crashed a couple days ago and it took them over 35 HOURS (no that’s not minutes, that’s HOURS) to come back up.

I chatted with their support a whole lot in those 35+ hours and never once did I get the same answer.  I got everything from maintenance, to what I believe was the truth when they said the server died and was being reconstructed and that files were being brought back over to the new replacement server.  I also was told many times that I should wait a couple hours and all would be good.  Finally the last time I chatted with support they said they couldn’t give me an ETA.

All in all, unless you are looking to find hosting for a website that isn’t important, do NOT use IXWebHosting!  I promise if you do, you will be disappointed.

~Michael Silva  (MikePixel)

Today I was working on implementing search on a customers website I am doing in the DotNetNuke CMS.  At first I thought this would be automatic and mostly set up.  I instead found that I needed to adjust some thing, so I have put together a small blog entry to help other out who may be having similar issue setting up their blogs.

I have below the three biggest keys to search success on your DotNetNuke site and in your DNN skins.

First, Skinning to include Search

The first thing to do is to include the Register TagPrefix at the top of your .ascx skin file as shown below.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="dnn" TagName="SEARCH" Src="~/Admin/Skins/Search.ascx" %>

Second, Add the control to your skin.

Figure out where you want the search bar to be and place the following code inside your html markup.

<dnn:SEARCH runat="server" id="dnnSEARCH"  CssClass="dnn_search" UseDropDownList="true" Submit="<img src=&quot;images/search.png&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Search&quot; /&gt;" />

Attributes explained

• CssClass  (is used in the CSS style sheet to style your search box)
• UseDropDownList  (used if you want a dropdown web/site pick menu within the search box)
• If you don’t want a drop down menu just don’t include this attribute
• Submit  (is used to replace the words submit with an image)
• ShowWeb (false or true)(used to hide web from search options)(default true)
• ShowSite (false or true)(used to hide or show site from search options)(default true)

Third, Make sure the Search Results module is on the Search Results page.

This seems like a no brainer and it is usually set up for you.  If you are not getting any search results, go to your admin menu and select pages.  Once on your pages list go to the Search Results page and make sure to add the Search Result module just like you would any module to the content area you want the search results to display in.

That is about it.  It is not overly hard to add search to your skins in DotNetNuke.

A week ago I got a little tired of dealing with the Core menus offered with DotNetNuke.  I decided I needed something better.  I am a web standards guy and I really wanted something that would spit out unordered lists of my menus, so I could style them however I wanted with CSS.

I looked around and there were two possibilities that I could find and that were recommended.  HouseMenu by House of Nuke and CSS NavMenu by Snapsis.

I checked out House of Nuke first mainly because I had heard of it in the DNN community more than Snapsis.   After cruising their website for a few minutes, and I realized that if I was using DNN 5.01, I might have an issue with HouseMenu.  The reason I say this is that there is a forum post that has been unanswered from three months ago in regards to whether or not anyone has gotten HouseMenu to work with DNN 5.

I am not saying anything bad about House of Nuke.  They have done some great things from what I have heard.  It just looks like they are a bit behind in updates.

My next step was to check out Snapsis.  I cruised their site and they had a lot of examples and demos.  This was great to run against Firebug so I see what was really happening behind the scenes.  This provided me with the ability to see what markup was going to be used and let me figure out what my limitations might be with CSS styling. (if any)

After about an hour of research I decided to buy.

Today I was very glad I bought the CSS NavMenu.  It is very simple to use and allows for some great options.  I can even choose (via different properties to the Snapsis:NavMenu control in the skin) what exact parts I want to display on my menu.   This was great for the menu I was doing today. 

My customer wanted me to create a vertical list menu that only displayed the children of a certain top level menu item. (Services)  By adding the IncludeTabs property and then the ShowType=”ChildrenOnly” property I could do exactly that.

<Snapsis:NavMenu id="SellNav" Level="1-1" CacheTabs="False"
                            NavType="Tabs"
                            IncludeTabs="Services" ShowType="ChildrenOnly" runat="server" />

Then all I had to do was style the list and viola, it was done.

So all in all I have been very impressed with Snapsis and their menus.  Some day I will do some tutorials on this site for those who want to do some more complicated menus.