By Ian Lackey on 8/5/2009 12:21 AM

So I have been one of a dwindling number of VB.Net advocates since I moved from Classic ASP (or  in other words shortly after the dinosaurs went extinct and the wheel was invented). However, today was the first time I had to use C# because I simply could handle how I had to code the VB. Don’t get me wrong I am actually language agnostic and truly believe that any .Net developer worth their salt should be able to code in either C# or VB. I use C# for a few projects, but usually default to VB for production application because it is my “native” language. I figured I should preface this article with these statements in hopes of preventing the typical language wars that ensue when topics like this are addressed. Now to the point.

I have recently started an application for my employer (Washington University School of Medicine – Pediatrics Department) that would be built in Silverlight 3. It all began as every other project I have built for...

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By Ian Lackey on 8/4/2009 1:00 AM

In the previous article we outlined a possible solution to getting links to your Silverlight Navigation Application indexed in the search engines. However, the implementation of the process left much to be desired. This article will address how to make a more robust solution to the problem and deal with some rules imposed by the search engines to prevent your from penalized by the search providers.

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By Ian Lackey on 7/31/2009 1:24 AM

I have been experimenting with the new Silverlight Navigation Application project template, and the navigation framework in  general. Today, it struck me that there should be an easy way to combine the search engine friendly URLs and content of ASP.Net MVC framework and Silverlight Deep Linking. The MVC framework is setup to easily provide SEO links and content out of the box. However, Silverlight… well it returns “Get Microsoft Silverlight” to GoogleBot and the other search engine spiders trying to index your site. My hunch is this will not get you to the top of any search results.

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By Ian Lackey on 7/25/2009 11:38 PM

It appears that there is not an easy way to override the content or the style for the area that appears in the DotNetNuke menu when you need to scroll through a long list of menu items. This is not an elegant solution, but it works for me. I was hoping there was a property of the menu control that I had simply overlooked. However, the  CSSScrollItem attribute referenced in the spmenu.js file appeared to be ignored by the menu control. So I was left to dig into the JavaScript a little further. I soon figured out that the default Css class used for this element was always output the same:  .dnn_dnnmenu_ctldnnmenu_spmitmscr

So I gave it a shot and entered this class into my Skin.css file... and it worked!!! I had successfully overridden the default style for the little grey box that appears that the top and/or bottom of the menu when it will not fit in the browser window! So I took it a step further and decided, that since I could not modify the content of the div ( ... ), I would create an image and set it...

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By Ian Lackey on 7/24/2009 10:28 PM

I have seen more than one person on the DotNetNuke forums faced with a problem when trying to access their portal. Only to find out that they had moved the portal or changed the hostheader, DNS etc. for the url associated with the portal. As it turns out, the root of the problem is that the Portal Alias is now “out of sync” with the url they are using to access the portal. There are two ways to fix this, that I know of. Updating the records in the PortalAlias table in the DotNetNuke database or pointing the original url back to the portal to align with the portal alias records.

Updating the PortalAlias table should be pretty self explanatory for the most part. Simple open the table in SQL Management Studio and edit the value in the HTTPAlias column to the url you are needing to use for the portal.

The other option of pointing the original url back at the portal may not always be possible. However, there is some trickery that can be used to emulate the original url. This is a well documented and widely...

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By Ian Lackey on 6/18/2009 11:05 PM

 During a conversation with Michael, he mentioned that he would like to have Gravatar support in the DNNSilverlightChat module he created. I had recently worked on a project that included supporting the use of Gravatar images next to user comments. The synchronicity was too much for me to stand, and I volunteered to take on the mission. While working on the original project that supported Gravatar images, I had found that Gravatar.com provided an easy way to integrate a user’s Gravatar image into just about any application.

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By Ian Lackey on 6/11/2009 10:11 PM

In this example I will demonstrate how to modify a DotNetNuke 4.x site to use .Net 3.5 by using the ConfigEditor Module in a step-by-step fashion. Before you being please verify that the .Net 3.5 framework is installed on the web server hosting the DotNetNuke installation. Making these changes without .Net 3.5 installed on the web server will crash your site!

 

1. Download the ConfigEditor module install package from the CodePlex site.

2. Log in as a SuperUser (the default “host” account for example).

3.  Select the Module Definitions page from the Host menu.

...

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By Ian Lackey on 6/7/2009 2:37 AM

I had to publish this bit of information, on how to get the Url of the settings page for a DotNetNuke module. Though it may be simple or even common knowledge to many, I could not find it quickly by Googling or Binging (that’s a post all of its own) it. So I decided I would post it just in case someone else was looking for it.

It turns out, it is very easy to generate the Url needed to navigate to the settings page of any given module. In this example I have used an Asp Hyperlink control on a module and set it’s ID to SettingsLink. Then in the code behind I use this code to set the NavigateUrl property to the Url of the settings page:

Me.SettingsLink.NavigateUrl = NavigateURL("Module", "ModuleId", Me.ModuleId.ToString)  

You could also do this inline on the module control if you like, which would look something like this:

a href=''>Settingsa>  

Using the DotNetNuke.Common.Globals.NavigateURL method makes it very simple to get the Url needed to direct a user to the...

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By Ian Lackey on 6/6/2009 11:52 PM

So, I am just getting into the swing of blogging from Windows Live Writer. In the process, I have been shown and found a few tools that makes this process so much better than how I had blogged in the past.

One of my new favorite tools is this Source Code Formatter plug-in for live writer created by Amer Gerzic. Here is a screenshot of the interface:



And an example of the output:

Public Shared ReadOnly Property AddCommentFormLocation() As String...

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By Ian Lackey on 6/4/2009 11:59 PM

After running into the issue more than once of needing to edit the web.config or a remote DotNetNuke installation, I decided to build a simple module to do just that. Most recently I have came into this issue with upgrading a site to use .Net 3.5 without have FTP access to the site. I used LinqPrep to do most of the heavy lifting and then used the ConfigEditor to tidy up a few spots. The combination of these two modules made the process quick and painless. I understand that the 5.x release of DotNetNuke has an option to upgrade the installation to 3.5 using a Host Setting. However, I am sure there are many of us that will be managing sites on a 4.x release for sometime into the future.

If this happens to describe your circumstances or you would like to change some of the provider settings in the default configuration, add or edit appSettings or...

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