I just thought I would update the regular readers of this blog that I was NOT selected to present at OpenForce in Las Vegas this November.  Last year was a great opportunity to present even though presenting an incredibly shortened session.  I was looking forward to the potential honor of presenting this year but none of my 9 session topics were selected for the conference.

Congrats to all individual that were selected to present, I'm sure that OpenForce 08 will be a huge success.  I would also like to thank everyone here that provided me recommendations on topics for sessions and I hope that other speaker selections will meet the requested needs.

As always your support has been appreciated!

As many people may have noticed yesterday this site, and all other sites of mine that are hosted by this DNN installation were down for a little over 1 hour.  The sites were displaying .NET error messages regarding a configuration issue.  I had installed a new module and a configuration setting issue was identified, this has been resolved and I greatly apologize for the issues.

In other news I am now running the Snapsis PageBlaster 3.1.7 module which is providng better caching for content and after an inital review with NO custom configurations I have noticed average site load time reductions of over 65%.   Look for a detailed review of the PageBlaster system here in the blog within the next few weeks.

Also, if you notice anything funny with this site, please let me know ASAP either with comments below, or via the contact form!

Today I have released an updated version of my Blank C# Module Without DAL.  There were a few bugs with template token replacements with previous versions that were causing errors on build and exectuion.  These errors have been resolved and have been fully tested.  If you have the current version installed, you can simply install this new version and Visual Studio will ask you if you want to overwrite it, simply select yes and you will be set to go.

I have also released a new development template "Blank C# Module With DAL Classes", this is another blank module but all classes for DAL are there, you simply need to implement your methods, and start working on your module.  This should be a welcomed addition to all regular module developers out there.

Please share any comments or suggestions for future templates in my Templates forum discussion.

I will be on vacation from 3/15/2008 - 3/23/2008 with very limited access to e-mail. (Typically only for DNN Support SLA customers).  Upon my return I will be back to getting new content out here, below is a listing of things that are on my plate to create/deliver in the upcoming weeks.  If you have any suggestions/additions please share them in the comments below.

Module Updates

• DNN Expandable Text/HTML
  • Option for "Expand All On Print"
  • Option to supply "header" text
• DNN Categorized Documents
  • Implementation of ISearchable to allow titles/descriptions to be searchable
  • File Icon administration
  • Delete all files option
  • Summarized download reports

Visual Studio Templates

The following is a listing of the Visual Studio Templates that I plan to create and release in the near future.

• C# Blank Module With DAL
• C# Authentication Provider
• C# Skin Object 

Blogs/Articles

The following is a listing of all currently planned blog topics.

• DNN Performance Settings: What, How and Why?
• DNN Event Log: Preventing Log Bloat By Disabling UnNeeded Logging
• DNN Friendly URLs: Creating a basic landing page

As I mentioned before please share any comments, suggestions, requests below. I will resume working on the above as soon as I return!

I have just released versio 01.00.00 of the Categorized Documents module.  This is a full featured module that allows you to display documents in a unique manner and DOESN"T require that users have edit permissions to specific directories to allow uploads. 

For more information please check out the product page.  If you have any questions or comments please share them below or use the forum to discuss specific troubleshooting/configuration issues.

I thought I would make this post to announce the next new free module that will be provided by MitchelSellers.com and IowaComputerGurus Inc.  Categorized Documents will be a basic document management module that will allow you to quickly and easily display documents listings to your users.  This module will include the following features.

• Fully template driven display
• Ability to have file icons based on file extension
• All files displayed at once, category by category
• Anyone can be given edit permissons, no messing with DNN folder permissions to get it working
• Administration interface to add additional file icons
• Ability to track download counts (external to DNN Link Click, to allow for future reporting)
• Ability to publish a document on a future date

Future versions of this module will allow for advanced permissons and other settings  The inital public version of this module is scheduled to be released 4/15/2008.  If you have any comments or suggestions on this module please feel free to share them below!

Recently I have been asked by multiple people what rapid design tools I use, or what types of code generation tools do I use.  Many people are surprised when I tell them that for the most part I don't use any rapid generation tools.  I do use a few home grown tools, such as my Info Class Generator, which is available on this site.  However, that is as far as I go with automated code generators.  However, one thing that I have started using more and more frequently are Code Snippets within Visual Studio.

I have found that creating a few helpful Code Snippets has allowed me to quickly and easily format my code, and build my needed structures in almost no time.  In this blog article I will share two of my most commonly used Code Snippets, if there is a demand I will post future code snippets here as well.

I am proud to announce the release of two new versions of my free DNN Modules.

DNN Guestbook 03.01.01

This is an update to my DNN Guestbook module that resolves a potential issue with version 03.01.00 where errors were recorded to the event log on application startup.

You can obtain this version and full information on the DNN Guestbook module by visiting the DNN Guestbook Product Page.

DNN Expandable Text/HTML 01.06.00

This is an update to the Expandable Text/HTML module to ensure that individuals can remove the [EXPANDCOLLAPSEICON] token from the display templates without errors being introducted.  Additionally support has been added for ISearchable allowing your content to be indexed by the DNN search indexer.

You can obtain this version and full information on the DNN Expandable Text/HTML module by visiting the DNN Expandable Text/HTML Product Page.

As with all previous module updates your feedback is appreciated and helps to shape future versions of these modules.  Additionally donation links are provided on each product page if you care to make a donation that helps fund the time spent on these free module offerings.

Many of you might have noticed that DotNetNuke Corporation has released version 4.8.1 to the general public as of this morning.  In the first hours of release I have found a forum post that references an issue that I would deem somewhat critical.  You can see this post DNN 4.8.1 Script Error.

As soon as I am able to validate that this version is "stable" I will work on updating all installation/upgrade guides to work with DNN 4.8.1.

If anyone is aware of any other issues with the most recent version of DNN please let me know.  Be sure to check my blog here on a regular basis for the most current information as I have it!

I am proud to announce the release of DNN Guestbook 03.00.00.  This release of the DNN Guestbook marks a large improvement in security and functionality, it is strongly recommended that all users of the DNN Guestbook prior to version 03.00.00 upgrade to this version as soon as possible due to the improved module security.  Remember best practices include testing of the upgrade before applying it to a production site.

Below is a detailed listing of new and improved features with this release.

• Migration to the C# WAP development model to allow for better code management
• Improved module security methods to secure against injection attacks
• Addition of a module configuration to deny posting rights to un-authenticated users
• Addition of a module configuration to include a Captcha as a required input field
• Addition of configuration options to make the following fields hidden (Email, Location, Rating, Website).  Each is a simple checkbox to toggle on and off
• Addition of a configuration option to allow e-mail notifications to be sent after a guestbook entry has been received.

For full information on the DNN Guestbook 03.00.00 module please visit the product information page.

Today resulted in the release of multiple new versions of my free software products. Below is a listing of each new release with a short summary of the updates to the respective application/module.

File Categorizer 1.4

This was a release used to fix a few issues that came up with Windows Vista security and a overall bug fix. For full details and to download this free application please visit the product page.

DNN Expandable Text/HTML 1.3.0

Due to popular demand I have added configuration settings to this module to require the setting of a CSS Class for both the title link as well as the content of the individual text sections.

DNN Course Gradebook 2.5.0

This release includes multiple enhancements and a few performance modifications to bring the overall module functionality within DNN localization standards. Additionally new options have been added to provide greater administration functionality. Including the ability to delete a users grade if given before it was needed.

Also, I am looking for information regarding the adoption rate of my software products on other sites, if you are currently using one of my modules, I would enjoy hearing how/where they are being used. This feedback will help me enhance the modules to better suit the community!

Today I have released multiple updates and one new DotNetNuke Module.  All of these items are available for free to registered members of this site.  Below you fill find the details for each module.

DNN Expandable Text/HTML Version 1.2.0

This module upgrade was completed to add a new feature and to cleanup some backend processing.  Below is a list of the new features

• Ability to have text display as "expanded" by default
• Code documentation
• Cleanup of page loading logic

DNN Course Gradebook Version 2.2.1

This module upgrade was completed to add a few new features and to complete additional performance and display enhancements.  Below is a list of the new features.

• Display of Class Average score on student grade view
• Display of comments on "Edit Grades" page
• Added link to support forum in the action menu
• Enabled AJAX by default for Edit Courses, Edit Assignments, and Edit Grades

DNN Text/HTML Replacement Tool Version 1.1.1

This is the first public release of this module, created witht he support of Seablick Consulting, this module allows you to find/replace text within all instances of the Text/HTMLmodule on your portal.  Please see the product page under Tools/Utilities for more information.

Today I released new versions of the Weather Conditions Service module and the RegEx Tester Modules, please visit the respective product page for downloads of the newest version of the modules.

I am looking to get some usage information so if you are using either of these modules please post a comment here or send me an e-mail to let me know how/where you are using it.  I will take that information into consideration when I work on future releases!

Well OpenForce is almost over and I have to say that it has been a very good success in my opinion.  I will not take the time to cover everything that has happened in my time here, but I will direct you to Tom Kraak's blog over at Seablick.com. Tom has been doing a great job with keeping up on the events of the conference.

I would like to say a little bit about the session that I presented with Philip Beadle.  I have to say that I thought our presentation was a great success and I appreciate all of the attendees that took the time to come listen to us.  There were a number of questions that were asked of me at the end of the session and I thought I would address them here, and also ask for some feedback.

First of all I would like to let everyone know that I am looking at setting up a series of DotNetNuke module development tutorials both in print form (here on this blog) and video form, that will be made available for download from this site.  Both of these offerings will be completed free of charge.  (Donations would be appreciated if you find something useful simply to help me with my rising bandwidth costs).

Secondly, I was asked by a few individuals if I would be interested in on-site or web-casting traning sessions to help with module development and other DNN topics.  This is something that I have been trying to analyze recently and I have decided that I will start offering this service.  If you are looking for some one-on-one training sessions either in-person or web based please send me an e-mail and we can discuss the pricing/availability.

 The last thing I want to brush up on is the recent offerings of an "SLA" program by the folks at DotNetNuke Corp, I know many comunity members noticed this anouncement a few weeks ago but I am sure that not many of us have checked this out.  I did some investigation today and found that ther SLA, is not all that encompassing (very limited contacts and nothing too special for response times) and is VERY expensive.  So my question to those regular readers of this blog, is there an interest in a DNN suppot program if it would be offered by my business (IowaComputerGurus Inc.) for a much lower cost?  I would be looking at offering 24/7 service with a 24 hour first response time at the most.  Other details to be determined later if there is interest.

THis will be the last blog update until I return home on Friday from OpenForce.  If you are here in Las Vegas I would enjoy the opportunity to meet you, try and find me wandering around the conference area!