DNN Creative Magazine for DotNetNuke

Keeping Your DotNetNuke Site Alive (2 Videos)

andyadmin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:05:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to reduce your DotNetNuke site load time and show you how to take advantage of the services offered by keepaliveforever.com

One of the most common complaints from Webmasters who use DotNetNuke and various other ASP.NET Applications is the long initial load time after a period of inactivity.

In order to keep your site constantly running, there are two easy ways around this: either run a keepalive service on your local computer, or, use a cloud-based KeepAlive service.

Video 1 - Registering your site and how to interpret site statistics

Explanation of the ASP.NET worker process
Registering on keepaliveforever.com
Instructing the service to monitor your website
Testing keepaliveforever can access your site
How to view your site statistics
How to interpret your site statistics

Video 2 - Visit Status, Content Monitoring

Understanding the visit status
Introduction to content monitoring
How to check for content that should be on the page
Receiving the ‘your website is down’ email
Interpreting the email
Interpreting the visit failure reports
How to check for content that should not be on the page

Advanced DotNetNuke Debugging - Video 4 & 5 of 5 (Complete)

andyadmin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:45:00 GMT

An expert level tutorial on how to debug and troubleshoot a DotNetNuke website, we cover profiling, stack tracing, packet tracing, reverse compiling and more.

Video 4 - Managed Stack Explorer

Managed Stack Explorer vs DotTrace
How to get Managed Stack Explorer
Exploring Processes
Exploring Threads
Exploring Stack Traces
Identifying the Problem

Video 5 - WireShark

What is WireShark?
How do you get a copy of it?
Starting up WireShark
The problem: A broken flash module
Our first Wire-Tap
Converting Packets to Streams
Exploring the Flash Module's Stream
Identifying the Flash Module's Problem

Advanced DotNetNuke Debugging - Video 3

andyadmin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 03:31:00 GMT

An expert level tutorial on how to debug and troubleshoot a DotNetNuke website, we cover profiling, stack tracing, packet tracing, reverse compiling and more.

Video 3 - DotTrace

How to get DotTrace
Running DotTrace
Profiling IIS
A word of Warning
Collecting Performance Data
Understanding the Thread Tree and Call Tree
Exploring the Call Tree
Diagnosing the Performance Issue

Time Length: 4min 46secs

Advanced DotNetNuke Debugging - Video 1 & 2

andyadmin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:00:00 GMT

An expert level tutorial on how to debug and troubleshoot a DotNetNuke website, we cover profiling, stack tracing, packet tracing, reverse compiling and more.

Video 1 - Introduction to Profilers

Introduction
What are Profilers?
Two Kinds of Profilers
How to use Profilers to find Problems
Two common types of performance problems
Common Profiler Tools

Time Length: 2min 39secs

Video 2 - SQL Profiler

How to get SQL Profiler
Running SQL Profiler
Connecting to a Database Server
Recreating the Performance Problem
Understanding SQL Profiler's Data

Time Length: 4min 08secs

DotNetNuke Forum Maintenance - SQL Automation for SPAM - 4 Videos

creativehost — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:06:00 GMT

This tutorial explores methods to combat spam in your DotNetNuke website. In particular we focus on Active Forums and show you how to create scheduled SQL queries to prevent spam displaying in your forum. Spam can be a time consuming nuisance to both the administrators and the visitors of your website, so this tutorial helps you to automate the prevention of spam.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction, Basic Steps for Discouraging Spam
Video 2 - Typical Spammer Profiles, Giving Users Trusted Access Using SQL
Video 3 - Creating the SQL Query to Combat SPAM
Video 4 - How to Schedule the SQL Query

Total Time Length: 35min 56secs

DotNetNuke ASCX Skinning for Professional Skinners - 6 Videos

Richard Wootton — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:19:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrate the ASCX method of DotNetNuke skinning. This is the method that the professional DotNetNuke skinners use as it is much quicker to build skins in this way.

We explain the concepts of DotNetNuke ASCX skinning, how to setup Visual Web Developer Express to enable the skin token attribute suggestions, how to use ASCX skin tokens, how to make quick edits to tokens and instantly see them on your DotNetNuke website, how to display two tokens of the same type - for instance two menus, how to use skinpath for images, how to view the attributes that are available for a skin token, how to speed edit CSS code, how to quickly create additional skins using the ASCX method and instantly view them within your DotNetNuke installation, and finally how to work with ASCX Containers.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - Introduction, Pros and Cons of ASCX Skinning
Video 2 - Introduction to ASCX Skin Code and Setup in VWD Express
Video 3 - How to Edit The ASCX Tokens, Configuring the Search Token
Video 4 - How to Display 2 Nav Menus, How to Use SKINPATH for Images
Video 5 - Skin CSS Code Speed Editing in ASCX skins
Video 6 - Containers ASCX skinning

20 Best Practice Tips for Creating Forms

Richard Wootton — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:57:00 GMT

This article sets out some key guidelines for creating forms.

By taking into consideration the tips outlined in this article you can plan and create a form just how you originally conceived it.

If forms are not planned out properly from the conceptual stage they can easily evolve and become complicated. Over complicated forms can reduce the users interest drastically, thus damaging your chances of obtaining the information you require.

How to Quickly Add Large Quantities of Data into DotNetNuke Modules - 4 Videos

Richard Wootton — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:53:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates a method for quickly adding large amounts of data into a DotNetNuke module. The module in this example is the core Documents module.

Throughout the tutorial we walk you through the methods used for investigating how to add large amounts of data into the Documents module so that you can adapt these methods to add content to other modules.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction, Initial Demonstration with Documents Module
Video 2 - Testing, Errors and Link Tracking Tables
Video 3 - Creating an Excel file of Data for the Documents Module
Video 4 - Copying the Data from Excel to SQL Server, Testing, Adding Files

Total Time Length: 40mins

How to Setup a Podcast Website using DotNetNuke - 3 Videos

Richard Wootton — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:35:00 GMT

This tutorial outlines how to setup a Podcast website using DotNetNuke. We demonstrate how we setup the podcasts on dotnetnukepodcast.com right through to submitting your podcast to the iTunes store.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Dotnetnukepodcast.com, Configuring the Ventrian News Articles Module
Video 2 - Feedburner.com, Creating an RSS feed
Video 3 - Promoting the RSS feed using the iTunes Player

Total Time Length: 22min

FCK Editor Formatting Style Definitions in DotNetNuke - 6 Videos

creativehost — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:10:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates how you can use the styles drop down list in the FCK editor to format the text.

Using the styles drop down list allows you to quickly apply CSS classes from your skin.css file and should help to ensure that administrators do not use bad practices for styling text, such as using font tags.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Styling the Background of the Style Dropdown List in the FCK Editor
Video 2 - List of Available Styles for the FCK Editor
Video 3 - Dynamic Styles in the FCK Editor
Video 4 - How to Create Custom Styles
Video 5 - Creating Class Styles in the Style Dropdown List
Video 6 - How to Customise Block Quotes with Different Classes

Total Time Length: 48mins

FCK Editor HTML Templates in DotNetNuke - 2 Videos

creativehost — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:05:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates how to create your own HTML templates for the FCK Editor in DotNetNuke.

HTML templates are really useful for adding repetitive content into a page; they can give you a starting point when adding content to the page, you do not need to start from scratch, you can simply select a template as a starting point and then edit the content within the template. This will help to reduce errors created by content editors.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction, the FCKtemplates.xml file
Video 2 - How to Create a Custom HTML Template

Total Time Length: 16mins

FCK Editor Custom Toolbars and Security Roles in DotNetNuke - 3 Videos

creativehost — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:01:00 GMT

The FCK Editor allows you to customize which toolbar buttons are available for use, this is called a toolbar set. In this tutorial we demonstrate how to create your own custom toolbar sets in the FCK Editor and how you can assign different toolbar sets to various security roles.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - How to Create a Custom Toolbar Set
Video 2 - How to Set Security Role Access for the FCK Editor toolbars
Video 3 - How to Check Toolbar Access for Security Roles

Total Time Length: 24mins

FCK Editor Further Configuration Options in DotNetNuke - 2 Videos

creativehost — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:57:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates some of the further configuration options available within the FCK editor.

We walk you through some of the additional configuration options that are available to use in your DotNetNuke installations. These additional options will also provide you with the knowledge for researching and configuring any additional FCK editor options.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - FCK Editor, ‘Other Editor Options’, Further Configurations
Video 2 - Advanced Configuration Options using the FCKConfig.js file

Total Time Length: 13mins

DotNetNuke Content Administrator Alert Styles - Video

creativehost — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:53:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates how to alert content administrators when adding incorrect HTML content to a DotNetNuke portal.

Alert styles is a new concept we have been working on for ensuring that the content administrators of a DotNetNuke portal add content using good practices.

Time Length: 10mins

FCK Editor Skin Styles Preview in DotNetNuke - 4 Videos

Richard Wootton — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:20:00 GMT

This tutorial demonstrates how to configure the content area in the FCK Editor to display the same text styles as your skin.css file.

Configuring the FCK Editor in this way makes it easier to edit the content in your site and ensure that it is correctly styled.

The tutorial shows how to solve problems such as unreadable text when editing with skins that have a dark background colour, as well as how to style the Link Gallery, Image Gallery and Custom Options FCK Editor pages.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction, Configuring the Default Editor Display Mode
Video 2 - Fixing Text Display Problems, Creating a Custom FCK Body ID
Video 3 - Styling the Image Gallery, Link Gallery, Custom Options FCK Editor Pages
Video 4 - Configuring an Instance, Module or Portal FCK Editor Display Mode

Total Time Length: 31mins

Administrating Skins and Containers using SQL - 3 Videos

Richard Wootton — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:16:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to administer Skins and Containers in DotNetNuke through the use of SQL queries.

In particular we demonstrate how to change the container of a module displayed on all or several pages, how to change the container of a module to a new container based on the name of the old container, and how to change the skin of a page to a new skin based on the name of the old skin.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - How to Change Module Containers Using SQL
Video 2 - How to Change Module Containers Based On The Container Name Using SQL
Video 3 - How to Change a Page Skin Based On The Skin Name Using SQL

Total Time Length: 24mins

Administrating Modules in DotNetNuke using SQL - 5 Videos

Richard Wootton — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:40:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to quickly administrate modules on a page through the use of SQL queries.

We demonstrate how to move and delete modules from one content pane to another using several techniques and introduce you to using ‘SELECT’, ‘UPDATE’ and ‘DELETE’ SQL queries.

Following this we demonstrate how you can use SQL queries to copy existing modules to a page. This is for modules that are not set to display on all pages, and is the equivalent of using the admin control panel and selecting ‘Add Existing Module’.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - Introduction, Deleting Modules Using SQL
Video 2 - Deleting Modules from a Page, Moving Modules to a New Content Pane in a Page
Video 3 - How to Move Modules on All Pages to New Content Panes
Video 4 - How to Copy an Existing Module to a Page using SQL
Video 5 - Using 'INSERT' queries to Copy Modules

Total Time Length: 35mins

How to Update the DotNetNuke Page Settings Using SQL Queries - 2 Videos

Richard Wootton — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:30:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to quickly update the Page Settings of a DotNetNuke page through the use of SQL queries.

You can use SQL queries to update any of the options within the Page Settings, for instance you can update the title, description, skin, container, page header tags, etc.

The techniques used in this tutorial are very useful when you are updating multiple pages at once on an already established website as it can really help to speed up your administration time.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - Introduction, Creating Test Page, Changing the Skin using SQL
Video 2 - Updating further Page Settings, Grouping SQL Queries together

Total Time Length: 19mins

Working with Shadow / Copied Modules and SQL in DotNetNuke - 5 Videos

Richard Wootton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:24:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to use shadow / copied modules. This is an essential and powerful administration task that can enhance your DotNetNuke portals and reduce administration time.

Shadow or Copied modules can be used to update the same content on several pages from one central area.

Following this we then demonstrate how you can use SQL queries to easily maintain these copied modules.

The SQL techniques outlined in this tutorial are very powerful techniques for easily and quickly manipulating multiple copied modules across thousands of pages in a DotNetNuke portal.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction, Shadow Modules, Add Existing Module
Video 2 - Copy Module to All Pages and Reordering Modules
Video 3 - SQL Queries to Update the Module Order in Content Panes
Video 4 - How to Update the Container for All Shadow / Copied Modules in a Portal Using SQL
Video 5 - Using SQL to Update a Module Container to a New Container Based on the Name of the Old Container

Total Time Length: 42mins

SQL Queries for Exporting DotNetNuke Users and Working with Security Roles - 2 Videos

Richard Wootton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:14:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate using SQL queries for working with DotNetNuke security roles and users.

Using SQL queries can help you to easily maintain and manipulate the registered user and security role data in your DotNetNuke portal. These SQL query methods are ideal for managing users of your DotNetNuke portal for email newsletters, paid subscriptions, etc.

If you do not have any experience of SQL, we demonstrate how you can use the built in Query Editor in SQL Server Express to build your own SQL queries.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - Introduction to SQL queries and How to Use The Query Editor
Video 2 - Exporting Users and Removing Security Roles using SQL

Total Time Length: 16mins

Introduction to SQL Queries with SQL Server Express, DotNetNuke and Vista - 4 Videos

Richard Wootton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:05:00 GMT

In this tutorial we provide a quick start guide to using SQL queries with SQL Server Express. In particular we demonstrate how to set up SQL Server Express so that you can execute SQL queries on your DotNetNuke database, on both a local and a live database.

This tutorial helps you to set up SQL Server Management Studio Express and execute a basic query, following this tutorial you can then progress onto the more advanced SQL query tutorials.

The videos contain:

Video 1 - How to Attach a DotNetNuke Database to SQL Server Express using Windows Vista
Video 2 - How to Create a User Account and set up Permissions
Video 3 - How to Edit the Web.config Connection String
Video 4 - How to Create a SQL Query, How to Connect to a Live Database

Total Time Length: 29mins

How to setup and use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - 2 Videos

Richard Wootton — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:42:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to setup and use Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007. Virtual PC is available for free download and it allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time within one physical computer.

Virtual PC virtualizes the hardware of a physical computer; this means that a Virtual PC uses a standard hardware configuration which is not reliant on the hardware of the host computer. Therefore you can transfer a Virtual PC to another host computer without any software driver issues.

There are many possibilities for improving your working environment by using Virtual PC and in this tutorial we provide a quick start guide to Virtual PC.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - Introduction and installation of Virtual PC
Video 2 - Installation of Windows Vista to Virtual PC

Total Time Length: 17mins

How to setup and use the PayPal Sandbox - Video

creativehost — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:50:00 GMT

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to setup the PayPal Sandbox test environment. This allows you to create test PayPal buyer and seller accounts which you can then use to test the selling of products within DotNetNuke.

For instance, if you are using the DotNetNuke store core module, there is an option within the admin settings to use the PayPal sandbox, if you tick this option the store will ask for payment via the sandbox rather than the main PayPal website. This allows you to log in as a test user and send dummy test payments.

This is an essential technique for your ecommerce toolbox.

Time Length: 13mins

How to Synchronize Local and Live DotNetNuke Installations - 4 Videos

creativehost — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:11:00 GMT

(Red Gate - SQL Data Compare)

In this tutorial we explore the development and deployment of a DotNetNuke website that is already online. - How to synchronise a local installation with a live installation.

In this tutorial we demonstrate how to add updates to the local version and apply those updates to the live version while keeping both versions completely synchronised and without taking the live site offline and vice versa.

We demonstrate how you can synchronize a live hosted website using SQL Server 2005 with a localhost installation using SQL Server Express.

The videos cover:

Video 1 - Introduction, Setup, Comparing Databases, Viewing Data
Video 2 - Editing the local installation and comparing with the live installation
Video 3 - Synching local database to live and live to local
Video 4 - Synching multiple simultaneous edits on live and local installations

Total Time Length: 33mins

Find and Replace SQL queries for DotNetNuke - 3 Videos

creativehost — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:44:00 GMT

(To fix problems after transferring a localhost database to a live website and other useful functions)

In this video tutorial we demonstrate using a Find and Replace SQL procedure to fix problems such as editing image urls after uploading a localhost installation to a live website.

This means that you can automatically adjust any html code within the text / html module across all of the pages in your DotNetNuke installation in a matter of seconds, rather than manually editing each page.

This method can also be used for editing words in the text / html module. For instance, suppose you wish to change your company name, you can apply these SQL techniques to search for the current company name and replace it with a new company name.

Other techniques can include searching for inline CSS code in the text/html module, such as font tags, and deleting all of the code so that all styling comes from the skin.css files.

Using XMod with Active Forums to select Avatars

creativehost — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

This tutorial explains how to enable registered users to customize their forum profile by selecting an avatar image from a selection of images stored in the portal files.

This is achieved by combining the ActiveForums module with the XMod Module. The tutorial outlines how we combined the two modules to work together.

Using XMod with Active Forums to select Avatars

Configuring DotNetNuke® before installation

creativehost — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The initial installation of DotNetNuke can be configured so that when you upload and initiate the installation, all of your preferred settings, modules, and skins are automatically installed.

This can be a massive time saving device.

Options can include setting up the:

Host Menu / Site Settings
Admin Menu / Portal Site Settings
Parent / Child Portals
Automatically installing 3rd party modules, skins and containers, private assemblies and language packs

Further options can also include creating a default series of pages which are automatically installed with DotNetNuke.

The tutorial comes complete with two video tutorials totalling 24 minutes in length.

How to add the Snowcovered.com RSS feeds to your DotNetNuke® portal

creativehost — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 10:08:54 GMT

(and earn a 10% referral bonus!)

Snowcovered.com sell DotNetNuke® related products from Module and Skin developers. Snowcovered.com also provide a 10% referral bonus scheme. If one of your website visitors clicks on a link to snowcovered.com and makes a purchase, you receive 10% of the customer sales.

Following a request, Snowcovered.com agreed to create some RSS feeds so that I could easily display their latest products on DNN Creative Magazine and receive a 10% commission on sales.

This tutorial demonstrates how to add your own referral ID to the RSS feed that Snowcovered.com provide and how to display this feed on your own website.

This tutorial uses the free News Feeds (RSS) core module. You do not need to purchase any modules to set this up.

If you use the Orizonti Nuke Feeds module, there are also templates at the end of the tutorial especially for Nuke Feeds.

Enabling RSS Auto-Discovery Aggregation in DotNetNuke®

creativehost — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Firefox Live Bookmarks in DotNetNuke

Some RSS aggregators have the capability of finding an RSS feed on a web page and making it easy for the user to subscribe to it

An example of this can be seen in the Firefox browser, whenever the browser discovers an RSS feed, it displays an orange icon in the bottom right of the browser window.

If you click on the orange Firefox icon it will give you the option to subscribe to the RSS feed.

This tutorial explains how to enable RSS auto-discovery aggregation in DotNetNuke.

How to display Flash Games in DotNetNuke®

creativehost — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

This tutorial explains how to display flash (games) within DotNetNuke®.

You can see an example of this in action on the games pages that are used in DNN Creative Magazine.

This tutorial can be applied to any flash file that you wish to incorporate into your pages, not just flash games.

There are two options available. You can either purchase a module which will automatically play flash files for you, which you can easily configure, or using a small amount of code, you can embed any flash file you require for free.

We demonstrate how to use the free method.

The tutorial does not change any of the core code in DotNetNuke and you do not need to understand flash programming to follow this tutorial. All you need is a basic understanding of how DotNetNuke works, eg. How to add a module to a page, etc.

Setting up the RSS News Feed XSL Stylesheet

creativehost — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Adding an RSS Feed to the standard DotNetNuke® RSS News Feed module is an easy process, the confusion begins once you have added the feed and your page doesn’t display in the way you intended. Quite often it displays the actual HTML tags rather than a nicely formatted page.

In order to display an RSS feed in the formatting you require; you need to use a XSL transformation file (named News Feed Style Sheet in the RSS News Feed Module).

This tutorial will allow you to easily set up the display of your RSS feeds. It provides 6 example XSL transformation files for you to download.

DotNetNuke® and Http Compression

creativehost — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

While not a new development, a tool which can greatly improve the performance of your DNN installation is referred to as HttpCompression.

HttpCompression refers to a method of compressing data sent from your server then passing that data to the client browser where it is decompressed on the fly. Thus increasing the display speed of your pages by sending less data across the pipe.