I Hello,

I have a few questions but first of all I need to get DNN installed on my clients server.

I don't understand it because we're both using the same ISP (Fasthosts) and the same database (also hosted with Fasthosts).  I have managed to install DNN 4.06.02 without any problems, but when I try to install on my clients server it fails when it's starts to install the database, simply giving me this error:

"Installing Database - Version 4.4.0...FAILURE null - null"

We're sharing the same database, I have my DNN tables pre-fixed with "brDNN_" and I am trying to install this with a prefix of "apDNN_", but it isn't working.  It gets so far, it looks to have created all the tables and all the stored procedures so I can't see why it's failing. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong, or is there a log that might give me more details?

OK, on to my other questions

1. I have created a skin for my site, and obviously I have my own CSS file, but DNN seems to inherit some CSS from somewhere and use it by default for things such as the inline editor - my background is dark and the text is dark and hard to read when in edit mode (when I'm not editing it's white) so I was wondering if there is a list of styles somewhere that I can override.

2. Is it possible to display some news items on the homepage i.e. a summary of the 2 latest news entries with a read more link? Do I have to do this manually or can I pull this out and format it somehow?

3. Is it possible to mix editable links up with system links i.e. I have a menu along the top of my page (not my main menu) that should be in the following order: About us (link to CMS page), Recruitment (link to CMS page), Register ([USER]), Login ([LOGIN]).  I can get the [USER] and [LOGIN] links to show but what about the About Us and Recruitment links that will link to the CMS pages?

OK that's me, sorry if these questions seem dumb I'm an absolute beginner with DNN (like, 2 days, heh) and my boss is pushing me to show him something tomorrow morning (which is damn unfair if you ask me, especially if I can't even get it installed) so I'm kinda jumping in at the deep end.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Blackred.

Some answers ...

I would suggest that you NOT try to have two DNN installations inside of a single database. While I understand that the prefixes ought to safely allow you to do this, it just scares me. Instead, why not have either (a) two separate databases or (b) two DNN portals within the same installation?

As for your other questions:

1. There is a default.css file that fills in the styles for things not defined in your skin. Lee's tutorials on using skins and creating skins deal with much of this. Also, the tutorials on troubleshooting skins are a great resource.

2. I think that there are "news" modules that will do what you want. Check the Ventrian New Reader (or similar name). I've seen it get good recommendations.

3. Yes, you can do that with your skin design.

I think that it probably takes a week or two to get acclimated to DotNetNuke. I'd not start by building a new skin, either. See what you can do with the available stock modules, move on (if necessary) to other modules. Leave the skin for last.

2. - www.ventrian.com - News Articles Module - we use it here on DNN C and that's what automatically creates the 'Latest' posts on the home page