The DNN forums will not let me post, I get errors about add/edit not available, I have emailed the webmaster.

Two questions:

1. I set up DNN 4.7 in the root web directory in anticipation of the live site being in the root of the domain.

In my test VM, I get slightly different results when I open http://localhost vs. http://servername. That is, source code changes usually appear properly for localhost but they don't appear for servername.

I have already set servername in portal aliases.

2. How do I make changes in the skin *.ascx files actually work more or less immediately after I have done them in VWD?? I have tried iisreset, close/open browser, not caching anything, but my changes to skin folder *.ascx files either don't appear right away or I have to wait etc. for them to appear...puzzling!!!

Is there a "correct" way to edit skin/container *.ascx files so the changes appear when the site/page is reloaded??

Thank you, Tom

>In my test VM, I get slightly different results when I open http://localhost vs. http://servername.
>That is, source code changes usually appear properly for localhost but they don't appear for
>servername.

Are these two separate installations, or one installation with two names?

> How do I make changes in the skin *.ascx files actually work more or less immediately after
>I have done them in VWD?? I have tried iisreset, close/open browser, not caching anything,
>but my changes to skin folder *.ascx files either don't appear right away or I have to wait etc.
>for them to appear...puzzling!!!

You could try emptying your browser's cache, too.  Assuming that this is a single site, you should see changes immediately.

>Is there a "correct" way to edit skin/container *.ascx files so the changes appear when the
>site/page is reloaded??

If you change the page on the site, the changes should happen immediately.  If not, but they appear "later" then something is caching them.  If it's not the server, it's your browser.

One install, two names.

Browser is FF 2.0.0.11 -- I have clear all private data on close turned ON, I have cache set to 0...emptying cache seems to have no effect.

Even IE 7.x is not showing me my changes after I modify the *.ascx file, even after emptying its cache...

Thanks, Tom

The changes show up after I log in as host and log off...but not when there is no user logged in...

I thought ascx file changes were supposed to appear automatically with no other intervention...

Thanks, Tom

Where are you making changes? Are the changes on pages that should be visible to a user who isn't logged in. And, make sure that you really are making changes where you think that you are making them.

It seems I have to use http://localhost to make the ascx file changes appear...using http://servername" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://servername does not make the changes appear...

I have not seen any mention of this kind of issue in all my reading so far about skinning.

For development I can put up with this...but when/if (hopefully not) I have to change something in the skin for production...this is not good...and I have to have other people be able to open the site by http://servername" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://servername for their own work with the test/dev server before it goes to production etc., though they won't be touching the skin/ascx file.

Thank you for your patience, I have to leave for several hours, so I won't post anymore for a while.

Thank you, Tom

Hmmm. You might want to check again to make sure that http://servername points to where you think that it points. This is not an issue, as changes that you make to the code in the web directory should be picked up immediately

Well, when I enter http://servername, it displays the only DNN site on the server, just not always the ascx file changes.

Would you please suggest how I "check again"??

Meanwhile I'll keep working with localhost or with whatever works while I work away at this issue, hopefully I can get it solved before I have to have other people working with this local site before it goes to a hosting service etc.

Thanks, Tom

By "check again" I meant that you should verify that IIS points to the same directory. My understanding is that http://servername and http://localhost should point to the same web directory on your computer. The very same physical directory. Is this true?

Well, if the same content (e.g. images, text, etc.) other than the changes I have made, appears when entering either http://localhost vs. http://servername, then I think it's pointing to the same site.

There's only one set of DNN website files on the server, there's no child sites, no other sites, no other collections of ascx files besides other skins. They're all in the standard wwwroot folder.

I'll be going back to this VM later tonight and work on it some more etc., and put this thread to bed until tomorrow, maybe I will find or think of something.

Thank you, Tom

If the changes that you have made do not appear, then I'm not convinced that you are making the changes where you think that you are making them!

Hi,

I understand what you're saying...and I know you know more about DNN than I do...but I have only one ascx file that I've been changing all day trying to understand this ever since I discovered that the ascx file changes were not happening in this file.

I took andreas01.zip, modified skin.css so I could use it as the base of a new/different skin, renamed the zip file to mls01, and uploaded it to the site.

This is the only other skin installed beside the default blue/gray skins.

So far I have only changed index_2col.ascx after it was created. For example, I commented out the lighted village image.

I have not edited any other DNN site files except web.config to change it from (local) to localhost in the SQL statements, I can change this back easily.

I know this is frustrating. I still can't post to the DNN forums, and trying to search on various phrases for this problem did not help me, etc.

Thanks, Tom

The only experimenting I've done was to test adding a paragraph statement, to observe text changes.
Sometimes I can get changes to appear after I close the browser and re-open them, etc.

I probably should not take up too much more of your time...thanks a lot anyway.

Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to post to the DNN forums and someone will suggest something.

Sometimes specifying default.aspx in the URL works too. I have this as the default page in IIS 6.x.

Thank you, Tom

Tom,

I appreciate everything that you've said. Most of the time "our" problems are the result of my not understanding what you are saying.

So ... let's continue!

When you say that you modified the andreas skin, renamed the zip file and "uploaded it to the site" I assume that you mean that you specified that Zip file as a skin to be uploaded using the Skin page. Then I assume that you specified that skin for at least one of your pages. Is that right?

If you uploaded the skin using the host page, you should find a directory under Portals/_default/skins that has the same name as the zip file. Is that correct? You should find the skin files in that directory. You should find the container files in the Containers directory.

Any changes that you make to files in these directories should be visible immediately, provided that the skin or container is being used.

Are you saying that you are not seeing this happen?

(and, for what it is worth, I believe that there have been some problems the last couple of days at the DotNetNuke site.)

I've been able to figure out that the ascx changes don't readily appear for UN-authenticated (logged-in) users, as opposed to when the host user logs in.

I'll keep working on it and post when I know more.

Thank you, Tom

The changes should not depend on being logged in or not, provided that either kind of user should see the same page.

I don't have a full cause/effect explanation yet.

But I now know that Shift-F5(or Refresh) solves the problem in FF, and that Ctrl-F5(or Refresh) solves the problem in IE, hopefully this will help others.

I think it's something to do with DNN and PageBlaster caching.

Thank you, Tom

>But I now know that Shift-F5(or Refresh) solves the problem in FF, and that Ctrl-F5(or Refresh)
>solves the problem in IE, hopefully this will help others.

Those reload the page. Were you not reloading the page after making changes?

>I think it's something to do with DNN and PageBlaster caching.

Aha! You have PageBlaster installed? Make sure to use John Mitchell's preferred settings, especially with respect to caching. Your first message said that you weren't caching anything ...

I meant the FF *browser* was not caching...I set it to 0 or something, I was clearing the cache too with 'Clear Private Data' too...

I have set Mitchell's 'preferred' settings for caching relative to PB.

I was clicking the Refresh button and not seeing the changes appear.

Now I have to figure out my CSS etc. for the skin...it will take forever...

CSS changes of course require a refresh, but I still need the extra reload effort if I modify the ascx code.

Thanks, Tom

Going back I did notice one more thing. You said:

"How do I make changes in the skin *.ascx files actually work more or less immediately after I have done them in VWD??"

If you are building and running the web site inside of VWD, you (probably) need to stop and rebuild the website after making changes.