Community Server can be a pretty powerful tool if you take your time to setup a decent site for your users.
Here are a few tweaks I've made to SCCAForums.com to make it a bit more user friendly.
On the home page there are sections for active, unanswer, and my posts(if logged in). These controls don't provide much information to the user though, by default only a link and portion of the subject of a forum post.
On SCCA Forums I've setup the controls to display the user who made the last post, link directly to the last post rather than the first post, and also display and link to the particular forum that the post was made in.
To do this you need to add the following script to your default.aspx page.
<script language="C#" runat="server">
int getPageNumber(int replies) { int page = 1; if (replies > 14) { page = 1 + replies /15; } return page; }</script>
You also need to change the ItemTemplate section of the ThreadRepeater controls to look like the following
<ItemTemplate> <div class="CommonSidebarContentItem"> <strong><a href="<%# ForumUrls.Instance().PostPaged((int) DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MostRecentPostID"), getPageNumber((int)DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "replies")))%>"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Subject").ToString() %></a></strong> - <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MostRecentPostAuthor") %> (<a href="<%# ForumUrls.Instance().Forum( ((Thread) Container.DataItem).SectionID ) %>"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Forum.Name") %></a>) </div></ItemTemplate>
More tweaks to come....
I just went through and enabled HTTP Compression for the server that ChrisHammond.com, Solo2.org, and various other websites run on. Now, I can't tell if the difference is noticable, or if I just think it's noticable? hmmm
Followed the instructions in this article for setting up HTTP Compression on IIS...
Just archiving a link for me to read...
Just a quick post to aid in a little bit of search indexing for...
If you are looking for DotNetNuke Reviews, I dug up a couple of things years ago, comparing DNN versus Sharepoint. The blog posts are from 2006, and while somewhat still valid, a lot of things have changed in both worlds. DotNetNuke provides a lot more features now than it did way back when. Sharepoint is still great for intranet setups.
Coming in DotNetNuke 6.0 Enterprise Edition there will be some Sharepoint integration available as a feature.
Google even tells me so!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=excellent+programmer <--currently 5th on the search results for excellent programmer.
I will be number one, I will be the most excellent programmer of them...
Are you looking for an Excellent Programmer? You've found him! If you're looking for mad programming skills from an excellent person, you've come to the right place!
(inside...
I've been here in Lexington, Kentucky for the past 4 days. I was fortunate enough to meet two of the brightest minds in the industry! Also, I can't forget Chad Hobson (checkout that killer site, what mad skillz).
Anyways, back to the brightest minds. I got to meet Shaun Walker, founder of DotNetNuke, and Scott Willhite, one of the Board members for DotNetNuke. I of course got them to sign my DotNetNuke book while they were...
Lost is back! Thank goodness for the Tivo! I didn't realize it was starting back up tonight, but Tivo saved the day. I was at our DotNetNuke meeting tonight during the time Lost was...
Bill Gates' webcast is still on for his Keynote at CES in Las Vegas today.
So far they're just discussing Windows Vista, which I expected. I read a rumor online that they may announce an HD-DVD upgrade for 360s, it looks like that was just a rumor.
Sure I'm excited about Vista, but who really cares until it's available? I try a beta on a test machine sometime in the next few weeks, but honestly, I'm a what can you give me now kind of tech guy.
Hmmm, they made some sort of preview of MS Flight Sim, but of course my SBC DSL dropped the connection during that outage.
update: looks like Bill just announced the new Treo Smartphone is selling tomorrow. I don't know if that was announced previously.
update2: Awesome news! Directv and MS partnership! Media center is going to rock once you have Directv access as well!
update3: Xbox360 update coming shortly!
update4: third manufacturering partner announced for the 360.
update 5: external HD DVD announced for xbox...
So I needed to modify the way the controls on the right of the homepage were showing up. So they linked to the latest post, showed the author, and the forum that they were posted in. Here's how I did it for www.sccaforums.com, which is using 2.0
Near the top of your default.aspx page add
int getPageNumber(int replies) { int page = 1; if (replies > 15) { page = 1 + replies /15; } return page; } int getPageNumber(int replies) { int page = 1; if (replies > 15) { page = 1 + replies /15; } return page; }
<script language="C#" runat="server">
int getPageNumber(int replies) { int page = 1; if (replies > 15) { page = 1 + replies /15; } return page; }</script>
And then on the controls use the following to display all the information I was looking for. Just after
<ItemTemplate> <div class="CommonSidebarContentItem">
insert
<strong><a href="<%# ForumUrls.Instance().PostPaged((int) DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MostRecentPostID"), getPageNumber((int)DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "replies")))%>"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Subject").ToString() %></a></strong>- <strong><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MostRecentPostAuthor") %></strong><br><a href="<%# ForumUrls.Instance().Forum( ((Thread) Container.DataItem).SectionID ) %>"><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Forum.Name") %> </a>
This is all pretty similiar to the "latest post control" I released for 1.1, but some of the functions changed locations so that control no longer works without...
The first St. louis DotNetNuke User's Group Meeting will be held on December 8th, 2005.
Be sure to check out DnNUG.com for more...
I successfully upgraded Solo2.org last night/this morning to run on Community Server
Now to skin the site so it's "original" and get some of the little kinks worked...
I decided today was the day to Upgrade Solo2.org.
I'm upgrading the software to run on CommunityServer 2.0 Beta 1. Here's to hoping the beta is at least semi stable! I've got all of the posts up through 9am downloaded and imported into a DB, now I'm working on converting them into a good CS format so I can get the site up and running tonight. I'm converting from a DNN/Ubb.Classic website to run Solo2.org fully out of...
So I finally converted ChrisHammond.com from .Text and nGallery to the latest released version of CommunityServer. It didn't go over without a few hitches. The biggest problem I had was that the old links wouldn't work for the website, so all of the previously indexed pages for the website would be invalid, I'll document how I upgraded, and what I did to fix the issues in this thread, it's a work in progress.
Setup a blank CS 1.0 database and installation site.
Use the DotText to CommunityServer conversion tool
Create a new Gallery in CommunityServer for the following step.
Use the nGallery to CommunityServer Conversion tool.
Upgraded from CS1.0 to CS1.1
Used the siteUrl configuration tool from Ken.
I setup single site with a single blog in the /blogs/ URL and multiple galleries.
Modified the siteurl.config file.
I had to add the following lines to the siteurl.config file to get the old archive links working properly.
<url name = "oldweblogIndividualRss" location = "common" path="rss.aspx" pattern="rss.aspx" vanity="/blogs/rss.aspx?App=christoc" /> <url name = "oldweblogday" location = "common" path="/archive/{1}/{2}/{3}.aspx" pattern="archive/(\d{4})/(\d{1,2})/(\d{1,2})\.aspx" vanity="/blogs/day.aspx?App=christoc&y=$1&m=$2&d=$3" /> <url name = "oldweblogmonth" location = "common" path="/archive/{1}/{2}.aspx" pattern="archive/(\d{4})/(\d{1,2})\.aspx" vanity="/blogs/month.aspx?App=christoc&y=$1&m=$2&d=1" /> <url name = "oldweblogpostId" location = "common" path="/archive/{1}/{2}/{3}/{4}.aspx" pattern="archive/(\d{4})/(\d{1,2})/(\d{1,2})/(\d+)\.aspx" vanity="/blogs/post.aspx?App=christoc&y=$1&m=$2&d=$3&PostID=$4" /> <url name = "oldweblogpostcategory" location = "common" path="/archive/category/{1}.aspx" pattern="archive/category/(\d+)\.aspx" vanity="/blogs/postcategory.aspx?App=christoc&CT=BlogPost&CategoryID=$1" /> <url name = "oldweblogarticlecategory" location = "common" path="/articles/category/{1}.aspx" pattern="articles/category/(\d+)\.aspx" vanity="/blogs/articlecategory.aspx?App=christoc&CT=BlogArticle&CategoryID=$1"...
I've released the latest version of the CJHControls for Community Server 1.1. You can download the package here.
This release is upgraded to run on CS 1.1, and includes the following functionality.
Forum Quick Reply, allowing registered users to post replies to forum threads without having to go to a seperate reply page.
RSS Display, allowing site administrators the ability to display internal, or external RSS Feeds on their web pages, with XSL formatting.
You can download the latest controls here.
Any questions or comments can be posted...
How do you make money blogging?
There are multiple ways.
Advertising on your blogs (google ads other banner services)
Affiliate links (to affiliate programs like Amazon.com)
Paid Blog Posts
Search Engine Optimization services
There are many more! Feel free to post your own ideas in the...
I took the latest forum posts control from Christian Nordbakk and turned it into a control to use on SCCAForums.com
The differences are that my control
displays the latest post made
links to the last post made instead of the first
shows the user who made the last post
shows the forum the post was made in
You can change some of the settings for this control such as the number of posts returned, by looking at the GetThreads() method in the code.
If you want to use this control please feel free to do so. You'll need to download the control here (rename it from latestforumsposts.txt to latestforumposts.ascx) and place it in the root of your CS folder, eventually I'll get around to making this control part of my CJHControls package, but for now you can just use it as is. It won't work in the themes/default/skins/ folder without some further changes.
To put it on your main page you need to add the following to the top of your default.aspx file
<%@ Register TagPrefix="LatestForumPostsControl" TagName="LatestForumPosts" SRC="LatestForumPosts.ascx" %>
and then add this line to the page
<LatestForumPostsControl:LatestForumPosts Runat="Server" ID="Latestforumposts1"...
I've posted the presentation I gave at the STL DNUG last night, nothing major, actually just a trimmed down PPT of the presentation back in March at the VB UG.
You can download it...
I'm making another brief appearance at the St. Louis .Net User's Group meeting on Monday the 27th. I'll be giving a brief overview of dotnetnuke 3.1.
Though, their web site appears to be down right...
I've released the first version of the CjhControls for CommunityServer 1.1.
You can download the Zip file from here.
This first release just has the Cjh:RssWriter writer control included. I'll have another release next week with a few more options on board.
Check out the readme file for instructions on how to use the control.
Cjh:RssWriter allows you to place a control on a page that will read an RSS feed and an XML Transformation file and then display the RSS feed on the page based on the transformation...
Microsoft has just released a beta for their pixel/vector based graphics software package called Acrylic. I'll have to download it and try it out this...
The latest and greatest version of dnn is released! Check it out for download here
I'll be getting DnnCart running on SoloPerformance.com later this week with the latest version of...
Check out the new dotnetnuke web site, one of the first steps in a major branding push for dnn. It's a great change, clean, easy to read, and I love the new...
If you're looking for a dotnetnuke book check out this one written by some of the dotnetnuke Core Team Members.
I believe there is a brief bio about all the DNN core team members, which means that I'm mentioned in the book! I've been in a few magazines, this will be my first book besides credits in some The Sporting News publications while I worked there.
Found a blog by WROX, looks like the book won't be in my hands for another week...