DotNetNuke.dk Blog

Updating the modules

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:00:00 GMT

I have (once again) started the task of updating my modules. I will install DNN 2 and then install all the modules, then upgrade to version 3 and fix all the modules, and then continue with version 4 and 5. I will ensure that the modules will all upgrade nicely and not create a dead end.

I am truly sorry, for the not beeing able to do this a long time ago, but life is not always as we would like it to be.

I will not esitmate any dates, but will continue to blog the progress.

I do look forward to the comming releases of DNN as these will finally contain support for multi-language, something we have been wating for since DNN 1.0 ML (Multi language)...

Setting up my new platform

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The XP in Virtual Box on my iMac is still working great, but the solution is limited to running one virtual PC at a time (not techincally - but performance wise).

I need some test machines, and by luck I got an IBM eServer xSeries 346 with a nice RAID 5 array. I installed the free vmWare ESXi, and I now have 3 virtual servers running nicely on this setup. ESXi does not have the nice web based management tool like the vmWare Server, and the client manager is not available in a mac version, so I have to run it from the virtual XP, but it works. With wake-on-lan I can even start and stop the test server remotely.

Now it's time to get the new DotNetNuke 5.2 version, and see if I can get more knowledge on the content localization api, which is included. Yes I know that there are no UI support items yet, but I am eager to see what they have finally done with the implementation. I have search the DNN site and google, but I haven't been able to find much information about the implementation yet, - please drop me a note or link if you have access to documentation on the Content Localization API for DotNetNuke.

It still works for me

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Except for some trouble finding the correct key combination on my Mac Keyboard, everything is working fine.

I did a lot of programming last night, and I had no problems at all running Visual Studio and a test web site in the virtual box. Alle the lag from the remote desktop solution is gone, and its easy to forget that its not a PC that I am working on.

Anyone remember the DAL builder? Well nothing much have changed, and I still dont want to code all the trivial modul definition and data access layers by hand, these thing should be code generated. So yesterday I started building a new version that is going to build modules and data access layers for DotNetNuke 5.

I now need to catch up on the development style for version 5, and especially the different ways to implement the data layer. As I understand it, there are now more ways to do the data access - I better get start googling and reading the DNN blog. I might even order the version 5 development book to see if there are something I missed.

Installing a new development computer

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMT

A year has passed with no spare time to use on DotNetNuke. Now its time to get up to speed and get started having fun with my favorite CMS system.

I just went through the DotNetNuke.com site, and was a little surprised that multi language content is still the next big thing to be released. If I am not wrong that was also the case a year ago? I also found that the paid version now contains functionality that is not present in the community edition, which I dont like. Venture capital can destroy any good product/company - but I hope that this is not going to happen with DotNetNuke.

What I now fear is that the multi language support will be limited to the paid version... that would be really bad.

At my home office I now only have an iMac, so how do I develop DotNetNuke modules on this?

My first setup, was to put my PC into the garage, enable wake-on-lan and install the Microsoft Remote Desktop client on the mac. I am now able to turn the PC on, control it over the network and shut it down again. But even though I have a 1Gbit network it still was unresponsive and did not work as good as expected (probably also because the PC is old and slow in itself running Vista).

Yesterday I installed Sun Virtual Box (which is free for home use) on my iMac, and then installed a 64bit XP and Visual Studio 2008 Express as I currently have no funds to get Windows 7 and upgrade my VS2005. I downloaded the new starter-kit from DotNetNuke and created a new development website - I am still excited how easy it is to get up and running compared to DNN version 1.0.4

I will blog on my progress with this new development platform, and start the process of updating some of my old modules, and even try out some new ideas I have for new modules...

Rebuilding my environment

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:00:00 GMT

In mid August both my development PC and the home server made suicide, and terminated its operation. Yes I know that I am running on old and outdated hardware, and it's been long overdue to replace most of it, but I haven’t had the finances to do it.

Luckily my NAS server is still alive so nothing was lost, but I haven’t been able to get much done.

I am still working on the house, building a new bathroom, two rooms for the children, and a new office room for me. This phase 1 should be done within the new 2-3 weeks, and we will wait until spring 09 before starting with phase 2, which is another bathroom, the entrance, and a new kitchen. This leaves a few months for DotNetNuke development, - which I am looking very much forward to.

Another issue for me was the missing source control server, which was running on the DELL server that died almost a year ago. As the new dotnetnuke.dk site is operated on a web hotel, I needed a new place to host the source server. I decided to host it myself at home, with both 1st level backup to the local NAS server, and second level backup to a virtual drive on the internet.

To host a server at home, I needed a machine that was using as little power as possible, because it good for the environment, and because 1 kW/h in Denmark cost 0.25€ (0.30$).

So I bought a white ASUS Eee Box with 1 GB ram and 160 GB hard disk, and with Windows XP installed. This is a perfect little Subversion server, because it’s cheap, quiet, and only uses 17 W when running. Theoretically it is able to run for over 3 days on the UPS.

Next step is to build a new developer machine, but that will have to wait a few weeks.

Absolute skin

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I changed the layout of the divs, from fixed/relative to absolute. The skin was build with the header, menu and footer area as fixed areas, and the content area as relative. This setup uses the vertical scrollbar at the full height of the browser, which was part of the design fault that led me to remove the footer. Another issue with this setup was that I had to ensure that content was not hidden under the header and footer area.

I changed all areas (divs) to absolute positioning and reintroduced the footer again, as I really didn't like having the copyright and legal parts in the header. This also moved the vertical scrollbar into the content div, which both looks and feels right. The footer was reduced in size from two lines to one line, because I will keep the breadcrumbs in the header area.

Right now I believe that the skin is done, but let's see what I think next month :-)

Skin changes

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

After looking at the skin for the last month, I found that the content area looked to framed by the colored borders.

When the content was too large for the content area, it was hidden by the footer - this looked more like an error than designed on purpose.

So moved the content from the footer to the header, and removed the footer.

Then I had a long argument with IE about font sizes... FireFox and Safari on both my Windows and iMac (yes I have an apple mac with a nice 24" screen) was showing all my changes, where IE ignored me. Finally I managed to get all the font sizes to look, almost but not entirely unlike each other.

I am so happy that it is not my design skills that pay the bills.

Building a stong foundation, in concrete

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Now the vacation is over, and I have started working again. I did believe that I could find the time to do DotNetNuke development in the evenings, but I have been so busy in the vacation, that it’s nice to get back to work and relax a bit ;-)

So what did I do in the last part of the vacation? Well actually a lot of work on our house. I removed the floor from two rooms and two bathrooms. I also took down the wall between the two bathrooms as we are moving a square meter from the large one to the small one, which provides us with two good bathrooms. I installed new water drains and pipes, including a new pipe for heating the new floor, and the last part was to create a new concrete floor. Next in line is creating the new wall.

Tonight I will try to look into all the different projects that I had open, and prioritize these so I can close as many as possible this week.

4 weeks with minimal keyboard activity made me eager to get started again, and with the coming version 5 of DotNetNuke I believe that it’s going to be an exiting fall this year.

Search continued

blog@dotnetnuke.dk — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The Multi Page module installation is still not working, the module is not registered as having implemented the ISearchable interface. It is working on the development instance, and I beleive that I have registred the module correctly in the DNN file.

I think that I have tried all that I can think of, so now there are only one thing to do, debugging. I will now download the source version of DotNetNuke, compile and start it in Visual Studio debug mode, set the breakpoints and then install my module and see whats happening.

Some still ask why I don't use the source version of the core application, but why should I, the starterkit is easy to use and upgrade, and the install package includes all that I need for test and production sites.