Articles from March 2007
The question has appeared multiple times recently regarding methods to convert a standard ASP.NET application into a DotNetNuke module as well as options to “integrate” an existing ASP.NET website into DotNetNuke. This concept is very complicated for many individuals to follow and below I will discuss the options available to those looking to either integrate solutions or to create new DotNetNuke modules from existing applications.
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Posted by Mitchel on Friday, March 30, 2007
I have received numerous e-mails today regarding an exploit that was used on my site today to direct my forum's page to http://www.google.com. I have identified the root cause of the issue and am working to resolve the underlying issue.
At this time I have removed the forums module from the general public view. I will plan on re-enabling this later this evening once I have access to correct the bad database entries. I have been in contact with the DotNetNuke core team regarding this issue and I have been assured that in 4.5 it should be resolved.
I am also preparing a "Securing the Forums Module" blog which will walk you through a procecdure that I have tested that should prevent this type of exploit from occuring again in the future.
Again, I greatly appreciate the feedback and the prompt notice everyone has given me. I will work to get this back online as soon as possible!
Posted by Mitchel on Friday, March 30, 2007
As you all have noticed from my post above today I identified an issue with a javascript exploit on the forums module. This blog will give you step-by-step instructions on a few simple additions to the word filter that should prevent you from being affected by the exploit.
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Posted by Mitchel on Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Everyone,
I will be on vacation the week of 3/19 with no access to the internet so there will be no new blog postings or replies to comments during this period.
When I get back look for blogs on the following topics in the upcoming weeks.
- Packaging DNN Modules (Included modified core modules) for installation on another DNN Portal
- Upgrading DNN from 3.x -> 4.x with detailed instructions, including disaster planning tips
- Using the DNN Label control
- Installing DNN on Windows Vista and IIS 7
- Creating a DNN Page Template
- SQL Server Performance tuning
Also, look for announcements regarding the following two DotNetNuke Modules I am working on!
- CurrentWeatherConditions Module (Free Module, slated for release by 4/1
- Quiz Module - New module planned (Details coming before month end)
As always enjoy the articles and I will get back with everyone as soon as possible upon my return!
Also, if you have any special requests for blog postings/tutorials please send me an e-mail!
Posted by Mitchel on Sunday, March 18, 2007
Like many ASP.NET programmers I utilize a third party hosting company to host all of my sites. We have all ran into situations where we have been loosing sessions and other oddities and it would be very helpful to find out exactly what caused the application to restart. Well thanks to this post on DotNetNuke.com by Frankt I have found a way to track this information. In this entry I will provide you with code that can obtain this information
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Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, March 15, 2007
So you have created the nice new skin that you have been looking to use with your DNN site, but you don't know how to set it up to upload to your site. Well the process is actually very simple if you follow the steps inside this entry.
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Posted by Mitchel on Monday, March 12, 2007
I have been asked recently for an example of how to setup the DNN Guestbook 1.0 module to display records in a more traditional guestbook manner. I have just posted a template to the forum that will accomplish this desired look and feel.
If you have a template that you think would be helpful please feel free to share it in the forums!
Posted by Mitchel on Sunday, March 11, 2007
This tutorial is a followup to my DNN backup tutorial. This document will discuss how you can restore your DNN site from your database .bak file and your DotNetNuke .zip file. This could be to either restore a damaged DNN installation or to move a DNN installation to a new server.
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Posted by Mitchel on Saturday, March 10, 2007
This blog post is actually a revisit regarding the manual migration of users from DNN 3.3.5 -> 4.4.1. I am revisiting this topic due to some script errors that individuals have noted experiencing while migrating user accounts. If you are migrating to a clean installation of 4.4.1 you shouldn't have any troubles using the old blog post here. This new posting simply adds additional duplicate checking to ensure that the copied user accounts do not exist in the destination database. Added sections to the scripts
will be noted with a comment prior to the entry in the WHERE clause. Please
NOTE this SHOULD prevent the number of script errors encountered when trying to
merge records into an existing database but it CANNOT be considered a perfect match.
If migrating into a heavily used new database you will need to take a different
approach with the DNN users and user
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Posted by Mitchel on Saturday, March 10, 2007
Another very common question that I see regarding DotNetNuke is when and how should I backup my DotNetNuke site. This topic is VERY important and requires a bit of planning, especially if you do not have direct access to your database server to perform your own backups. In the following sections I will first talk about what you must backup and why some of those items are very important. I will then discuss how to perform a DNN backup and SQL Server backup, both for SQL 2000 and 2005. Finally I will discuss options available for third party modules for performing backups for individuals that do not have direct access to their servers.
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Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, March 08, 2007
There have been numerous reports on DotNetNuke.com about errors encountered after switching to a skin with a vertical menu in DotNetNuke 4.4.1 if using a clean installation. These errors are typically "Null reference exception" errors, however some individuals have received general "an error has occured" messages with a portion of the site still visible.
If you have recently switched to a vertical menu and are receiving these error messages it is quite possible that you are missing a few required .dll files for the vertical menu system. It appears they were left out of the DNN installation files for 4.4.1. To fix this issue you will want to download a copy of DotNetNuke 4.3.7. Once you have downloaded 4.3.7 you will want to copy the following files from 4.3.7's bin folder and place them in your 4.4.1 bin folder.
- DotNetNuke.DNNTreeNavigationProvider.dll
- DotNetNuke.ASP2MenuNavigationProvider.dll
- DotNetNuke.Caching.BroadcastPollingCachingProvider.dll
- DotNetNuke.Caching.BroadcastPollingCachingProvider.SQLDataProvider.dll
- DotNetNuke.DNNDropDownNavigationProvider.dll
- DotNetNuke.DNNMenuNavigationProvider.dll
After you have copied each of these DLL files over you should notice that your errors will go away.
Good luck! As always, feel free to provide comments below or ask questions in the forums!
Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, March 08, 2007
I have seen a number of requests by individuals to know how to manually upload a document and have it inserted in the repository. The following tutorial will show you how to manually upload a file to a repository. The following procedures have been tested using DNN 4.4.1 and Repository 3.01.10.
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Posted by Mitchel on Tuesday, March 06, 2007
It is possible to copy users from a DNN 3.x installation to a DNN 4.x installation manually and this article will explain the processs needed to complete this task.
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Posted by Mitchel on Sunday, March 04, 2007
This posting is an overview document that provides examples of sending SMTP e-mail from .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0. It covers the differences between each of the .NET versions as well as the methods needed to send SMTP messages using an authenticated SMTP server.
Please see the full posting for detailed information!
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Posted by Mitchel on Wednesday, February 28, 2007