Christopher Hammond
06.23.06
Check out all of the DotNetNuke Daily Tips from Chris Hammond.
DotNetNuke Daily Tip for 6/23/2006
Have you ever needed to send mail from one of your DotNetNuke modules? Here's the DotNetNuke method for sending off a message.
public static System.String SendMail ( System.String MailFrom , System.String MailTo , System.String Cc , System.String Bcc , DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.MailPriority Priority , System.String Subject , DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.MailFormat BodyFormat , System.Text.Encoding BodyEncoding , System.String Body , System.String Attachment , System.String SMTPServer , System.String SMTPAuthentication , System.String SMTPUsername , System.String SMTPPassword )
But what does that really mean? Here's a simple call to the mail function from a module.
Mail.SendMail("FROM@ADDRESS.COM", "TO@ADDRESS.COM", "", "THIS IS THE SUBJECT", "THIS IS THE MESSAGE BODY", "", "HTML", "", "", "", "" );
Could it get any simpler than that?
Actually it could! Here's another signature for sendmail
public static System.String SendMail ( System.String MailFrom , System.String MailTo , System.String Bcc , System.String Subject , System.String Body , System.String Attachment , System.String BodyType , System.String SMTPServer , System.String SMTPAuthentication , System.String SMTPUsername , System.String SMTPPassword )
Do you have a question about DotNetNuke? Perhaps I can answer it here as a Daily DotNetNuke Tip! Email chris.hammond at dotnetnuke.com with your question! Be sure to put Daily Tips in the subject line.
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Christopher Hammond
06.27.06
Check out all of the DotNetNuke Daily Tips from Chris Hammond.
DotNetNuke Daily Tip for 6/27/2006
This is a quick tip as I was out of town for a while and haven't had a chance to catch back up yet.
Did you know with DotNetNuke 4.3 you can now edit content in place on your website? What's that you say? You didn't know this?
Well that's right, you can change module titles within your DotNetNuke pages, and have been able to do that for a few versions with DNN4. BUT, something new to DotNetNuke 4.3, the Text/HTML module includes this functionality as well. You can edit text within the Text/HTML modules without having to go to the edit screen, and also save these changes by clicking elsewhere on the site.
Stay tuned for another DotNetNuke Daily Tip coming tomorrow!Posted from...
Christopher Hammond
06.30.06
DotNetNuke Daily Tip for 6/30/2006
Ever need to make skin file changes and you don't want to go through the process of repackaging your ZIP file and uploading the file to your site? Here's a quick way to make skin file changes without having to go through the package and upload process.
If you develop your skins with the HTML files you can edit the HTML files on the server, they should be located in the /portals/##PORTALID##/skins/##SKINNAME##/ folder. You can directly edit the HTML files. Once you've made these changes go to the admin/skins menu and reparse your skin package.
If you develop your skins using the ASCX file method any changes you make to the ASCX files will be made immediately to the skins on your site so you don't have to reparse the skin package.
Stay tuned for another DotNetNuke Daily Tip coming next week!
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Christopher Hammond
07.14.06
What happened to the DotNetNuke Daily Tips?Well, short answer, life got in the way. I've had an extremely busy July so far. I hope ot get a new tip out today, so stay tuned!
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Christopher Hammond
07.18.06
After a long haitus over the past few weeks the DotNetNuke Daily Tips are back! Sometimes you want to put a skinobject in your DotNetNuke Skins that you need to act like a module. Inheriting from PortalModuleBase instead of SkinObjectBase. SkinObjects though don't get loaded like regular modules and due to that you may run into issues where you can't easily access the TabId of the existing page. Here's how to get that information easily.Dim objPortalModule As PortalModuleBase = DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.Container.GetPortalModuleBase(Me)thisTabId = objPortalModule.TabIdPut the above code in your skinobject code and you will now have a PortalModuleBase object that you can use to easily access some of the basic DNN properties you're used to using from PortalModuleBase.The above is VB code, any self respecting C# developer should be able to figure out the appropriate C# code. If not, email me and I'll bill you at my hourly rate ;)Stay tuned for another DotNetNuke Daily Tip coming tomorrow!
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Christopher Hammond
07.19.06
DotNetNuke Daily Tip for 7/19/2006
DotNetNuke comes with a lot of functionality out of the box that people don't even know exists. Once of those items that has been overlooked by many with the latest releases of DotNetNuke is the DNNMenu, part of the ClientAPI Framework that Jon Henning has worked on.
The SolPartMenu is by far the most used menu for DotNetNuke, it's been part of DNN since the early days, and really can be quite powerful in its implementation. It's also been a big beef with a lot of skin designers as getting solpartmenu working just right can be a bit tricky, and torturous at times. I'm actually a fan of the SolPartMenu, but for today's tip I want to point you to a few resources on the DNNMenu.
I recently, as in last night, implemented the DNNMenu for my wedding site I've been putting together the past few days, you can see it implemented at www.horsesandcars.com.
The DNNMenu was created by Jon Henning, the same developer of the Original SolPartMenu. Here's a quote from Jon
“A few people asked me, the author of the Solution Partners Hierarchical Menu Control, why I would develop a competing menu control to my own. The answer is simple. The SolpartMenu is old and carries a lot of baggage with its almost 4 years worth of backwards compatibility. It has been a goal for v2 of the solpartmenu to abstract all of the common logic not specific to the menu into separate js files that could be reused by other controls and applications. This is exactly what the ClientAPI is; an abstraction of logic like positioning, DOM access, XML, etc. The script for the menu should contain only code for the menu, thus making it easier to maintain and enhance. So in essence, the DNNMenu is in a lot of ways the solpartmenu v2.0.”
And some of the features for DNNMenuKeyboard NavigationThe menu can now receives focus as the user tabs through the controls on the page. Once it has focus, you can use the arrow keys to navigate its structure. Pressing enter will invoke the menu item's clickaction.
Populate On DemandThe DNNMenu will support POD in the same manner as the DNNTree control. This provide a nice performance boost for those of you concerned with page sizes. I even had time to make the module actions menu support POD. See chart below for comparisons between each option and other menus.
Mouse In DelayOne of the features of the Solpart menu that was continually asked for was a mouse-in delay. This delay allows for people who are navigating to the sub-menus and accidentally move off the parent some grace period to get it right. The DNNMenu defaults this value to a quarter of a second (.25). I believe this is acceptable, however, for users used to the fast response times of other menus, it may look like the DNNMenu is a little sluggish. Note: At this time there is no way of configuring this property in the skin.
No Hardcoded MarkupProbably the biggest regret I had in the original design of the Solpart menu was the hardcoding of certain tags in the code. This included the NOWRAP attribute added to the menu items, the use of spacer.gif and to obtain the correct spacing, and the worst of all, the hardcoding of the border around the menu items when hovering. None of this hardcoding is present in the DNNMenu. Note: the one exception is the spacer.gif that is used to do the iframe trick. I need a url to point the IFrame to in order to not get the security error when the site uses SSL.
Option to Remove All Use of TablesThe menu supports a property that will completely remove its use of tables. Hopefully this will appease those developers and skinners who think that tableless designs are the way to go. I originally had the UseTables property default to False, but since it was too difficult to keep things lined up across browsers without adding some...
Christopher Hammond
09.17.06
I didn't come up with this list, just reposting it.Admin/Host FunctionsDNN-3913 - Improved performance of URL Control with a large number of foldersDNN-3911 - Inform User if email to vendor or admin failDNN-3932 - Fixed behavior of User Settings in SuperUser AccountsDNN-3928 - Add ability to disable the Update profile on login functionalityDNN-3868 - Fixed display of Page specific Header info DNN-3867 - Fixed the Portal Template Schema Definition for the file elementDNN-3866 - Fixed AddPortalInfo sproc so users upgrading from 4.0 can add new portalsDNN-3793 - Fixed bug with adding codeSubdirectory node to web.configDNN-3730 - Forced validation of Profile Definitions in case client-side validation doesn't happen (plus added missing keys)DNN-3791 - Private and verified registration no longer redirects but displays confirmation message DNN-3804 - Fail gracefully on Password Update if problems with EmailDNN-3839 - Added ability for Admin to set the default profile VisibilityDNN-3835 - Added ability for Admin to disable/enable ServicesDNN-3834 - Added ability for Admin to enable/disable Profile Visibility DNN-3838 - Added option to suppress the Pager in the Users Grid when not needed (PageSize > TotalRecords)DNN-3748 - Fixed Paging in User Accounts when using a Search option other than usernameDNN-3822 - Suppress Group Header when Profile has no properties in the Category enabld for display DNN-3760 - Breadcrumb Enhancement - Allow use of tab title instead of tab nameDNN-3694 - Added friendly message when duplicate portal alias is added DNN-3419 - Removed some unused resource keysControl PanelDNN-3874 - Change to add custom permissions by default to all roles with EDIT permissions when adding a new module to the pageDALDNN-2913 - Fixed situation where a TextColumn is bound to a null value (now returns "")File ManagerDNN-3865 - Added buffering to downloading of files (in 10K chunks)GeneralDNN-3702 - Fixed case where a Port is specified in SMTP configurationDNN-3743 - In LogController, fixed SupportsEmailNotification and SupportsInternalViewer so they return a valueDNN-2699 - Fixed SiteWizard.ascx to allow debugging if specified in web.configText EditorDNN-3926 - Make sure Action menus are not visible if they are empty (or only have break items)Install/UpgradeDNN-3759 - Fixed localization errors when no portal (eg during Install) LocalizationDNN-3917 - Improved RTL support in Profile EditorDNN-3812 - Added en-us to default languageDNN-1974 - support for longer locale stringsDNN-2612 - Fixed xml error in reource verifier DNN-2268 - Updated Resource Verifier to support asp.net 2 style resx filesDNN-3594 - Languages sorted alphabetically in Languages editor Resource InstallerDNN-3742 - Fixed installation of app_code based modules SearchDNN-2344 - Fixed Indexing when Page has an enddateDNN-3464 - Added validators to Search settingsDNN-2798 - Fixed UpdateSearchItem stored procedure to use nvarchar instead of varcharDNN-1902 - Fixed PageCount check DNN-1891 - Include Common Words setting is now used in GetSearchResultsSecurityDNN-3718 - Added required image to password fields (in Register and Add User)DNN-3964 - Fixed missing code to Log the SuperUser Login event DNN-3747 - Fixed Registration when RequireQuestionandAnswer is selectedDNN-3849 - Add check for empty string in Decrypt method to avoid errors on x64 serversDNN-3883 - Allow all Administrators to unlock each other DNN-3853 - Improve scalability/performance of GetModulePermissionsByModuleID and GetFolderPermissionsByFolderPathDNN-3833 - Added message for unauthorized users when attempting to log in.DNN-3706 - Made ValidationExpression column nvarchar(2000) rather than nvarch(100) DNN-3968 - Created separate temporary and persistent cookie timeoutsSkinningDNN-3984 - The DNNMenuNavigationProvider correctly utilizes the CSSNodeSelectedRoot in all casesDNN-3707 - Fixed skin parsing that extracts the skin components from a full html file. TemplatesDNN-3661 -...
Christopher Hammond
09.18.06
If you're looking for some good DNN tips, get registered for TulsaTechFest on Saturday October 14th. It's free!I know I'll be there, I've got two different sessions on DNN scheduled, and there will be 6 total DNN sessions, a full track of it's own!Check out the proposed agenda for more info!For anyone who will be in town I'm hoping to plan a little DotNetNuke dinner gathering somewhere on Friday night. Stay tuned to my blogs for more info!
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Christopher Hammond
12.25.06
Just in time for Christmas a new version of DotNetNuke has been released. On it's 4 year anniversary of the first release, DotNetNuke released version 4.4. "On December 24th, 2002, the code which was to become the DotNetNuke web application framework was first released to the community. On the fourth anniversary of this date, DotNetNuke version 4.4.0 - a release with significant performance enhancements - has now been made available for download"If you've never used DotNetNuke before, do yourself a favor and try it out, there are no licensing fees to download it, use it, or even modify it. It's open source, free, and a great way to easily start building a website via an intuitive web based UI. Version 4.4 marks the first ASP.NET 2.0 only release, prior to this release DNN was maintaining two sets of code, one for .Net 1.1 and one for .Net 2.0. 4.4 marks significant improvements in performance over previous versions as this version was heavily tested and tweaked in a full scale performance lab.Here's an edited list of changes from the change log available at http://support.dotnetnuke.com/project/ChangeLog.aspx?PROJID=2Component Issue Type SummaryAdmin / Host Functions Bug Page Head tags are not properly processedAdmin / Host Functions Bug Action Menu with Module Specific Permissions is not displayedAdmin / Host Functions Bug Cannot use icon from module directory in action buttonsAdmin / Host Functions Bug ModuleTitle in multi definition modulesAdmin / Host Functions Enhancement Improve Delete Portal FunctionalityAdmin / Host Functions Enhancement Convert Site Wizard to use .NET Framework classesAdmin / Host Functions New Feature Add Page QuotasAdmin / Host Functions New Feature Add User QuotaAdmin / Host Functions New Feature Improve Portal ManagementAdmin / Host Functions New Feature Add a new Delete Expired Portals actionLocalization / ML Bug Pop-up calendar localized date format bugLocalization / ML Bug Popup calendarLocalization / ML Bug Localized images break when using the "ShowMissingKeys" app setting.Localization / ML Bug Collation issue with Event LogLocalization / ML New Feature Force a specific language for first visitorsPerformance Bug Performance: ClientAPICaps.config cachingPerformance Bug Performance: XmlSerializerPerformance Bug Performance : TabCachePerformance Bug Performance ; Menu providersPerformance Bug Performance: XPathDocument vs XmlDocumentPerformance Bug Performance: Reduce Database CallsPerformance Bug Performance: CBO and ReflectionPerformance Enhancement Imporve Startup performancePerformance Enhancement Implement HTTP compressionSecurity Bug Exception when deleting role groups
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Christopher Hammond
01.04.07
Last week I got started on getting the DotNetNuke Wiki module into a 4.4.0 source solution, so that I could convert the module to ASP.NET 2.0 and debug it in Visual Studio. Normally this wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, I setup DotNetNuke solutions for a living, I can do it in my sleep, but I decided I was going to do all of this on my main machine running Windows Vista Ultimate edition.
You would think this might not be too difficult, but it sure was. Here's what I was starting with.
DotNetNuke 4.4.0 Source package, available for download from www.dotnetnuke.com.
Visual Studio 2005 w/ SP1
IIS7 Installed
IIS6 compatibility partially installed.
After multiple failures, and quite a bit of head smashing (on the wall) I gave up for the weekend. I blogged about the troubles, and a little birdie came to the rescue (If you read this birdie and don't mind me mentioning your name let me know)!
The little birdie pointed out the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta. I believe this update did the trick because after installing the update everything seemed to work!
Here are some of the things I know you have to perform, as well as the update, to get DNN, Vista and VS2k5 to play nicely. I hope I didn't leave anything out.
1. Install IIS7 (found in the control panel, classic view, programs and features, "Turn windows features on or off").
2. Install IIS6 Compatibility, the screenshot below is what my IIS installed features look like
3. Create your web site in IIS, I actually created a new site, not a virtual directory. A benefit of IIS7 on Vista, the ability to create multiple web sites! I just used localhost as the host header, and pointed it to the location of my extracted DNN files.
4. For the Application Pool in IIS I chose the Classic .Net AppPool
5. Under the Authentication section of your IIS web site be sure to enable Windows Authentication
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