Lee,
Thanks for the e-mail. I am new to DNN. I subscribed to your site last week and find the videos/forums are very helpful. It may be my inexperience in dealing with the DNN and the MS security issues and connections strings, and ability to debug DNN or backup once an error has been made. My background is in computers but only recently have been getting back into development. I had done a little more with VB and .asp code in the past, so the learning curve is a little steep.
1) For example, I was walking through the Module Develop Part 1. All was going OK until I ran the database scripts. I ran the Versions 4.00.20 and 4.00.06 instead of the 4.00.01 as in the instructions. This introduced an error. I tried to run the uninstall.SQLDataProvider and this just got me into more trouble. I had to delete everything and re-install to get back. This would be very bad in a production environment.
2) I has actually recommended to a client on a DNN installation for their intranet and will be installing it within a week. I plan to used as much out-of-the box as possible initially but will need to develop some interfaces and modules as we go forward. For example, We use the Microsoft Indexing Server for nearly 300,000 documents they have. I will need to be able to search and display results in DNN from queries against the MS indexing server. Can you point me to any examples or modules that do this?
3) Another example will be to integrate their Outlook/Exchange Mail Server for contacts, mail, appointments. Has this been done?
4) Version 4.5 will be out in a week? Should I plan on that version or wait until the bugs are out of it. Are DNN releases pretty stable?
5) Finally, I have read your articles on moving DNN from localhost to live servers and back. I haven’t done it yet but I am hoping the template method works.
Thanks again,
-Dan
Hi Dan,
Glad to hear you find the site useful, it's always good to hear.
1) If you are doing module development and make a mistake with various SQL queries this can corrupt the DNN installation depending on what you are working on. - Before doing any major changes to the database create a backup and then you can easily restore it if a problem occurs and troubleshoot the problem.
2) not sure, have you had a look on
snowcovered.com?
3) I think I have read about a module that covers this, again it should be available on snowcovered
4) It's always hard to say, the point releases are improving and fixing the bugs each time, but a major release can be buggy when first released. I would always wait for a couple of weeks and check the forums before upgrading any site that is of any importance. - On a major release I would wait until a point release has been created before implementing it on a critical site. I would also test the upgrade on a localhost test environment to see how your own installation reacts to the upgrade.
5) The template method is not great, if it consists of a large number of pages / files it can time out and not complete. - The best method is to use the database backup method. - Most of the time I setup skins / test modules etc. in a localhost installation and then for the content I add it direct to the live site (set so that only admin can view it).
Thanks,