DotNetNuke tutorials, tips and tricks

DotNetNuke Bookstore now available in DNN Creative Magazine

2009-07-03T01:42:00.002Z

DNN Creative is pleased to announce that there is now a DotNetNuke Bookstore available.

The Bookstore has been designed to help users of DotNetNuke and web designers find the books that will be the most useful. The store has been separated into various categories which display handpicked books which DNN Creative recommends for your web design library.

The following categories are available:

DotNetNuke Books
Adobe Software Guides
ASP.Net
Business
CSS
HTML
SEO
Software
SQL
Virtualization

By making a purchase through the book store, DNN Creative will receive a small commission via Amazon for the purchase. So if you need a book from any of the categories above, by buying from the DNN Creative Amazon store, you can help towards the cost of running DNN Creative Magazine and support its ongoing contribution to the DotNetNuke Community.

Even if you don’t need any books right now, you can buy anything that Amazon has to offer by clicking on the ‘Other’ category and searching for the items you wish to buy.

So check out the Bookstore here.

DotNetNuke ASCX Skinning and Open Web Studio Tutorials

2009-06-30T23:26:00.002Z

DNN Creative have released issue 46 of the DotNetNuke Magazine

This issue takes a look at the professional's method for creating DotNetNuke skins, ASCX skinning. The main benefit of ASCX skinning, over other skinning methods, is that it is much quicker to create a skin in DotNetNuke using the ASCX method.

Other benefits include:

Make changes live on the website without re-parsing or re-installing the skin
Instantly see edits and changes you make to your skin code
View at a glance all of a skin tokens properties
Visual Web Developer Express will suggest the attributes that are available for each of the DotNetNuke tokens

We demonstrate all of these techniques and show you how to get started with ASCX skinning in DotNetNuke.

We also have part four in our series on the Open Web Studio Tutorials. This latest episode demonstrates how to add personalisation to the knowledgebase module using InterModule Communications and creating a ‘my saved articles’ module. We also demonstrate how to create a Tooltip using JQuery, how to change the “fetching data” message, how to enable Rich Text / HTML articles and how to create a multi-category selection for each knowledgebase article.

This issue concludes with our newest podcast covering the latest DotNetNuke News as well as more tips and tricks.

This issue comes complete with 11 videos and 1 podcast!

DotNetNuke News, Datasprings Dynamic Forms, DNN 5.1 Professional, Openforce '09, Snapsis PageBlaster

2009-06-26T00:09:00.000Z

DotNetNuke Podcast.com are pleased to annouced the release of Episode 32.

This podcast covers the lastest DotNetNuke News, tips and tricks, including:

DataSprings Release v3 of Dynamic Forms
New Features
DotNetNuke 5.1 Professional Edition
OpenForce Dates
Canada Bill Proposal to Force ISPs to give access to the Police without a warrant
Microsoft Sue Ad Click Fraudsters
Rich gets on Twitter and uses Spaz
Google Wave
Amazon Bookstore on DNN Creative
DotNetNuke Backups are great!
Snapsis PageBlaster Community Edition Testing
Comparing Snapsis PageBlaster with the DotNetNuke Core Compression
YSlow Firebug plugin for Firefox
Combining CSS and Javascript files together
How to reduce the CSS files sizes in DotNetNuke
Web Developers Toolbar plugin for Firefox
Undercover Lee
Good support from Snapsis
DNN Creative Testimonial

DotNetNuke 5.1 Released

2009-06-25T23:01:00.000Z

Its been 18 months in the making, but its finally here! DotNetNuke Community edition version 5.1 is now available for download.

Here is a rundown of the improvements you can expect from this exciting new release:

Major Highlights

Added Content Versioning and simple workflow to the HTML module.
Added Admin Console module to simplify access to administrator and host pages
Added publicly accessbile skin engine lifecycle events
Added audit trails to core system tables
Added built in support for Google Analytics
Added custom sitemap priorities
Enhanced the permission system to use the provider model, allowing for custom permission providers
Enhanced caching to enable access by distributed caching systems
Enhanced installation and upgrade logic to automatically detect .Net 3.5 and to upgrade the web.config as appropriate.
Enhanced the extensions pages to show which modules are used and to show the pages where they are currently in use
Enhanced the Scheduler to show a checklist of available servers in the webfarm where scheduled tasks can be executed.
Enhanced the Scheduler to support multiple instances running on the same server
Fixed issue with removing Superuser role from a user.
Fixed issue with deleting users which was not fully recognized by the rest of the application.
Fixed issue with upgrades which would fail if .Net 3.5 was installed
Fixed issue with skins installed using the batch installer.
Fixed change to GetModulesByDefinition API method which resulted in breaking change from DotNetNuke 4.x
Fixed CloakText API method which was broken in 5.0.1
Fixed issue with stored procedure for Dashboard which would fail with an error if database account did not have permissions to the MSDB database.
Fixed issue where pages added while on a host page will not be associated with a portal.
Fixed issue where the ReturnURL for the SendPassword and Register links on the Login page were broken.
Updated Modules/Providers
The following modules and providers have been updated in the 5.1.0 packages. Please see the specific project pages for notes on what bugs or enhancements were corrected with each release.

Modules

Forms and List 05.00.02
Announcements 04.00.03
Reports 05.01.00
Events 05.00.01

Providers

FckHtmlEditorProvider 02.00.04
AD Provider 05.00.02

Data Springs Announces the Release of Dynamic Forms 3.0 for DotNetNuke

2009-06-17T10:24:00.001Z

Dynamic Forms 3.0 offers important new field types and significant enhancements aimed at increasing functionality and ease-of-use for web developers and administrators using the DotNetNuke platform.

Three brand new field types:

Gridview/Survey
Ajax Rating
Datagrid

Dynamic Forms 3.0 now offers more layout options and enhanced user interaction.

New features:

Ability to create PDFs from form results
Edit form entries
Extended options for file/image uploads
Numerous enhancements targeting improved performance and more efficient form maintenance

Chad Nash, Founder of Data Springs, says “We want to highlight that Dynamic Forms easily integrates with other software modules out there. Fostering cooperation among various providers in the industry strengthens our position as a leader in the DotNetNuke® community. Providing more global solutions greatly increases the value of the premium support we offer our customers in web design and project implementation. I also believe that many clients are beginning to take advantage of our products because in the current economic climate they provide more value for their budget.”

Learn more about DataSprings Dynamic Forms in the folowing DNN Creative tutorials:

DataSprings Dynamic Forms Quick Start Guide

DataSprings Dynamic Forms Question Events

DataSprings Dynamic Forms Data Management

DataSprings Dynamic Forms Completion Events

How to Create an Email Opt-In Form with a Third Party Email Service (AWeber) using DataSprings Dynamic Forms

DataSprings Dynamic Forms is Available from Snowcovered.

Markit Modules Slideshow and PageEar, DNN Stuff's Module Rotator, Monitter4DNN and Open Web Studio Tutorials for DotNetNuke

2009-06-03T12:05:00.000Z

DNN Creative have released issue 45 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This issue starts with Markit Modules Slideshow module. This module is useful for displaying your featured articles and products as an image, text content or you can even display an existing module within a slideshow in a similar manner to the msn.com home page.

Still with Markit Modules, the next tutorial covers the free PageEar module which allows you to place Page Peel advertisements on your DotNetNuke websites.

Next, we show you how to use DNN Stuff’s Module Rotator. This module allows you to rotate the content of multiple modules in the space of a single module. You can configure the module rotator to rotate modules each time the page loads, or you can also configure a timer to rotate through modules in milliseconds.

Following this we explore Joe Brinkman's free Monitter for DNN module. This simple module allows you to easily display a real-time feed of twitter search results on your website.

Also released with this issue is the much anticipated third part of our series on How to Build a Public Knowledge Base Module using R2i’s Open Web Studio by Paul Deschenes. This instalment explores how to build the user search page for searching knowledge base articles.

We show you how to:

Implement record paging
Column sorting
Create a categories module
Create a print function for the articles
Add an articles rating feature

Finally, we have a podcast covering the latest DotNetNuke News.

This issue comes complete with 14 videos and 1 podcast!

iFinity URL Master, OnyakTech Host Commander and Open Web Studio Tutorials for DotNetNuke

2009-05-04T11:00:00.001Z

DNN Creative have released issue 44 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This issue demonstrates the iFinity URL Master module. The URL Master module is one of the essential modules for your DotNetNuke websites as it eliminates duplicate content from the Search Engines and creates Search Engine Optimised URLs.

This module allows you to:

Create Human and Search Engine friendly URLs
Lets you replace spaces in URLs with characters you specify, such as hyphens
Allows you to use your own keywords and phrases within the URLs for your DotNetNuke pages
Incorporates various options for custom redirects

This module is very useful for eliminating duplicate content and replacing old websites with new DotNetNuke sites.

Following this we demonstrate OnyakTech’s Host Commander module. This module has many useful functions for the Host Super User, such as scheduling SQL queries, view portal statistics for all portals from one area, view the data from the tables in your database, and execute stored procedures.

Next we have the second part of our new series on 'How to Build a Public Knowledge Base Module' using R2i’s Open Web Studio by Paul Deschenes. This instalment explores the actual coding process, showing you how to manually build a module so you can get a full understanding of building a query, using AJAX calls and OWS actions so that you can go on to build your own OWS modules of any type and requirement.

Included with the OWS tutorial this month is a ‘mini’ tutorial on how to import the configuration source code (which is provided with each tutorial) into Open Web Studio.

The final item in this issue is the latest installment from our DotNetNuke News series

This issue comes complete with 16 videos and 1 podcast!

OnyakTech Sigma Live, DNNStuff Aggregator and Open Web Studio Tutorials for DotNetNuke

2009-04-05T10:54:00.001Z

DNN Creative have released issue 43 of the DOtNetNuke Magazine.

In this very special issue we have reached 400 video tutorials!
This issue, also brings a new video tutor, Paul Deschenes who will be providing a six part series on how to build a Knowledge Base Module using Open Web Studio.

We start off this issue with a tutorial on the OnyakTech SigmaLive Module, which provides Live Chat functionality for your DotNetNuke website. It allows you to engage in a 1-to-1 chat with your website visitors in real-time and it allows you to instantly provide live help, live support, visitor tracking, and proactive sales for your products and services and can be configured as a chat room.

Next we show you how to use DNN Stuff’s Aggregator Module. This is a really flexible module as it acts as a tabbed container or can also be used as a localization container for one or more modules, allowing you to combine several modules together from a page into a tabbed interface and can also display RSS feeds.

Following this we have part one of six for the new series of tutorials on How to Build a Public Knowledge Base Module with R2i’s Open Web Studio by Paul Deschenes. This series will introduce the beginner to Open Web Studio and demonstrate how to create a fully functional web application with little or no coding experience required. This first tutorial in the series provides an introduction to Open Web Studio, installation, the key components, and building your first components with Quick Builder.

To complete the issue we have two podcasts from the DotNetNuke News series.

This issue comes complete with 14 videos and 2 podcasts!

DataSprings Opt In Email and Email Deliverability

2009-03-06T19:27:00.002Z

DNN Creative have released issue 42 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This issue issue demonstrates how to use DataSprings Opt In Email module and how email can be a powerful tool for obtaining and maintaining new clients and customers.

Firstly we demonstrate how you can use DataSprings Opt In Email module effectively, and how it can provide as much funtionality as a third party ESP (Email Service Provider).

Next we have an article on how to improve email deliverability and get the most out of your subscriber mailing list.The article takes you through the steps needed to create a high quality mailing list so you know you are getting your message out to the right people and you are maximising the exposure of your website.

The knowledge gained from this and previous issues will give you all the tools you need to create high quality email campaigns for marketing your websites.

For the final item in this issue we have our latest podcast from our DotNetNuke News series.

This issue comes complete with 10 videos and 1 podcast!

How to Upgrade DotNetNuke v5+, DataSprings Dynamic Forms Completion Events

2009-02-04T12:36:00.000Z

DNN Creative have released issue 41 of the DotNetNuke Magazine .

This month's issue we show you how to upgrade DotNetNuke. We demonstrate how to use the Auto Merge Method for upgrading versions 4.6.2+ and the Manual Method for all versions of DotNetNuke. We bring you more from the DataSprings Dynamic Forms module tutorials, this time we cover Completion Events and using Third Party Email Services.

We take you through how to create a Dynamic Form Completion Event and show you how Completion Events can be used to:

Redirect a user to a URL or page
Send an email
Add a user to a DNN security role
Execute SQL and HTTP Post; which enables you to post data from your form to another URL

We then demonstrate how Completion Events can be used to create an email opt-in form to send user details to a third party email newsletter service such as AWeber.

Next we show you how to upgrade DotNetNuke using the Auto Merge Method which is available from version 4.6.2 onwards. This tutorial demonstrates the steps required to upgrade live DotNetNuke websites from v4.6.2 to v4.9.1 and then onto v5+. We also demonstrate how to upgrade DotNetNuke using the Manual Method. This method will work for any version of DotNetNuke and this is the method you have to use for upgrading any version below 4.6.2.

To complete this issue we have our latest podcast from our DotNetNuke News series.

This issue comes complete with 10 video tutorials and 1 podcast!

Search Modules, How to create Podcasts, plus SEO, Design and OpenForce Interviews

2008-11-03T10:51:00.000Z

DNN Creative have released issue 38 of the DotNetNuke Magazine .

This month's issue focuses on Search. We look at the Core Search in DotNetNuke as well as review two Search Engine modules available for DNN.

We demonstrate:

How to setup and configure the DotNetNuke Core Search
How to ensure your content is indexed
How to increase the search effectiveness of your site
How to configure the Search Results
How to set up a Google AdSense Affiliate ID and insert it into Google search results
How to configure the Search Skin Object to suit the needs of your site

Next we concentrate on Podcasting within DotNetNuke. As an example we demonstrate how we setup the podcasts on dotnetnukepodcast.com.

This month we also have two search engine reviews:

Both of these modules have gone through some thorough testing this month and we share the results with you in the Search Engine Module Reviews section.

Our ‘How Did They Build it..?’ series of interviews makes a return this month, this time we speak to Ilian Alexiev from LogicSpectrum.com covering two of his websites and the processes he took in creating them.

And to finish the issue off we have three Podcasts:
An interview with Tom Kraak from Seablick Consulting where we discuss SEO within DotNetNuke
DotNetNuke News, OpenForce Europe 08 Review
DotNetNuke News, October edition

This issue comes complete with 7 Video Tutorials, 2 Module Reviews and 3 Podcasts!

Alert Styles, FCK Editor Avanced, SEO Interview

2008-10-13T18:32:00.000Z

DNN Creative have released issue 37 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This issue marks the start of Volume 4, that’s three full years of bringing you quality DotNetNuke Tutorials!

In this issue we have almost 2 hours of videos, an interview with Jeff Smith of Venexus talking about SEO, and more DNN Creative news podcasts.

The issue begins with four detailed tutorials on the FCK Editor:

We also introduce the concept of Alert Styles. Alert styles are used to help minimise bad practices and keep control of the content added to your DotNetNuke portals.

To finish off the issue we also have 3 podcasts, the first is an interview with Jeff Smith of Venexus where we discuss SEO within DotNetNuke, and then 2 podcasts with DotNetNuke News and Tips.

This issue comes complete with 14 video tutorials and 3 podcasts!

DotNetNuke Openforce ‘08 Sessions Europe: 6th-7th October 2008

2008-08-31T11:25:00.005Z

DNN OpenForce '08 Europe is going to be held at the "Leeuwenhorst" Conference Centre in Noordwijkerhout, just outside Amsterdam and close to Schiphol Airport.

The following subjects are going to be covered in the sessions at the conference:

General

For Beginners:

Developing a consulting business around Open Source software - Christopher J. Hammond
How to provide and identify Quality of DotNetNuke extensions? - Sebastian Leupold
DotNetNuke 5.0 - Shaun Walker
DotNetNuke Chalk & Talk - Shaun Walker

For Intermediates:

A Deep Dive into the latest version of DotNetNuke - Charles Nurse
DotNetNuke framework: a hidden jewel? - Ernst Peter Tamminga

Skinning

For Intermediates:

Create a DotNetNuke skin from a website design - Cathal Connolly
Skinning Enhancements in DotNetNuke 5 - Nik Kalyani

Administration

For Beginners:

How to provide and identify Quality of DotNetNuke extensions? - Sebastian Leupold

For Intermediates:

Leverage DotNetNuke with SharePoint - Stefan Kamphuis
DotNetNuke Installation, Administration and Optimization Techniques for Cambrian - Christopher J. Hammond

For Advanced:

Building Secure DotNetNuke installations - Cathal Connolly
Friendly URLs and SEO best practices for websites - Christopher J. Hammond

Development

For Beginners:

Using Mail and Messaging Services in DNN5 - Sebastian Leupold
Introduction into Forms & Lists (UDT 5.0) - Stefan Cullmann

For Intermediates:

Developing Vista Sidebar Gadgets Using DotNetNuke - Nik Kalyani
Leverage DotNetNuke with SharePoint - Stefan Kamphuis

For Advanced:

Test Driven DotNetNuke Module Development - Charles Nurse
A Deep Dive into the DotNetNuke Property Editor - Charles Nurse
Create a DotNetNuke module using Delphi.NET - Erik van Ballegoij
Using Web 2.0 APIs in DotNetNuke modules - Cathal Connolly

DNN Creative’s very own Lee Sykes will be attending the Europe Convention, be sure to say hello and have a chat!

For updates on the conference check out his link: http://www.openforce08.com/

DotNetNuke Openforce ‘08 Speakers Europe: 6th-7th October 2008

2008-08-26T15:16:00.001Z

The DotNetNuke OpenForce '08 Europe Conference will be held at the "Leeuwenhorst" Conference Centre in Noordwijkerhout close to Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport.

This year’s speakers:

Erik van Ballegoij - Independent Software Developer
Cathal Connolly - Principle Software Engineer, Liberty IT
Stefan Cullmann - CIO of DGZfP
Chris Hammond - Product Manager for Software Solutions, Engage Software
Nik Kalyani - Chief Visionary Officer and Co-founder of DotNetNuke Corp
Stefan Kamphuis - Microsoft Solution Developer, Giraffe IT
Sebastian Leupold - CEO of Gamma concept mbH
Charles Nurse - Lead Developer, DotNetNuke Corp
Ernst Peter Tamminga - CEO of XCESS expertise center b.v.
Shaun Walker - Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of DotNetNuke Corp

Lee Sykes from DNN Creative will be attending this year’s Conference and will be more than happy to answer any DotNetNuke questions you may have.

For updates on the conference Check out this link http://www.openforce08.com/

CSS Reference Book

2008-08-21T12:57:00.001Z

DNN Creative has released the DNN Creative CSS Reference Book.

This is a 112 page guide which covers how to correctly use all the currently supported CSS properties. Each of the 126 properties is described in full and has examples of their use.

The Reference book comes in pdf format, so it is quick and easy to find the information you need for each CSS Property.

The DNN Creative CSS Reference book is currently available with issue 35 of the DNN Creative Magazine.

DotNetNuke. What’s in a name?

2008-08-17T16:43:00.000Z

This is just a guide for people not in the know.

The name DotNetNuke seems to confuse a few people out there. So we decided to help you out and give you some tips which will help you with minor things like using search engines and keywords.

Firstly: The Dot in DotNetNuke is a word not a punctuation mark!

DotNetNuke = Correct
.NetNuke = Incorrect

Secondly: It is all one word.

DotNetNuke = Correct
Dot NetNuke, DotNet Nuke, Dot Net Nuke = Incorrect

Thirdly: Abbreviations are acceptable

If remembering the first two rule is too much just remember DNN

DotNetNuke, DNN = Correct

So now you know, why not try DotNetNuke and DNN in your search engine and see what happens?

This has been a public service announcement from DNN Creative Magazine!

Note: The use of Dot Net Nuke in a previous blog was purely to see if anyone was paying attention.

DotNetNuke Print Stylesheets and CSS Reference Book

2008-08-13T12:50:00.002Z

DNN Creative have released issue 35 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This month we show you how to create a print stylesheet for use with your DotNetNuke skin.

There is a built in token within DotNetNuke that allows you to print the content of individual modules, however this is limited as it only lets you print one module at a time.

We show you how to:

Create a print stylesheet
Format the layout of the print stylesheet
Remove unwanted content from the print version of your skin.

This is an essential technique for improving the usability of your DotNetNuke websites.

This tutorial comes complete with 7 videos

Also with this issue, we have produced the DNN Creative CSS Reference Book.

This 112 page reference guide shows examples of how to use each CSS property correctly and also displays the examples as they would appear on the page.

This resource is ideal for beginners and experienced users.

Free Trial of DotNetNuke Tutorials at DNN Creative

2008-07-13T16:39:00.000Z

This month DNN Creative magazine has launched a Free Trial to none subscribers!

As an example of the quality of our tutorials DNN Creative Magazine has launched a video tutorial (4 videos in total) and a pure CSS DotNetNuke Skin to non subscribers.

If you are new to DotNetNuke you can check out the free content by visiting the subscribe page on DNN Creative and clicking on the Get Free Trial button at the top of the page.

The content is normally only available with a subscription to DNN Creative Magazine.

300 videos! This is not madness! This is DotNetNuke!

2008-07-10T16:33:00.000Z

DNN Creative has announced they now have more than 300 DotNetNuke video tutorials available to their subscribers.

We are very pleased to announce this month that the number of video tutorials we now have exceeds 300! We have been releasing quality tuition every month to our subscribers for the last three years and we look forward to continuing well into the future.

Hours of research and editing goes into our videos to ensure we give the best possible service to DNN Creative customers. Earlier this year we changed the software and studio equipment we use for recording the videos, and introduced WMV as an alternative to Flash so our subscribers now have a choice of formats for their downloads. And of course the videos are all still available for download direct to your computer – no streaming!

http://www.dnncreative.com/pr300.html

5 Free XHTML Compliant Pure CSS DotNetNuke Skins

2008-07-07T16:34:00.000Z

Dnn Creative have released issue 34 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This month we have converted 5 open source html templates into DotNetNuke skins.

These skins have been chosen due to their different design and CSS techniques used. Each of these designs used a different approach while converting them to a DNN skin, so you will be able to view the code and learn from this variety of implementations.

Skins:

Lazy Days

Zenlike

Bitter Sweet

Greenery

Dark Ritual

Viewing the code from a variety of designers helps to improve your CSS skills and learn multiple techniques for manipulating the layouts and styling of CSS skins in DotNetNuke.

DotNetNuke 4.8.4 Released!

2008-06-19T16:23:00.001Z

DotNetNuke has released version 4.8.4 this month. This has been released due to a few security issues that were found in the 4.8.3 version. DotNetNuke 4.8.3 was released last month due to a security scare which was fortunately no way near as bad as initially reported.

The latest version of DotNetNuke can be downloaded from www.dotnetnuke.com

DNN Creative Magazine recommends upgrading your sites at the soonest convenience.

11 DotNetNuke Video Tutorials - Professional DotNetNuke Administration using SQL (Part 2)

2008-06-06T13:40:00.000Z

DNN Creative have released issue 33 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This month we are dedicating another full issue of DNN Creative Magazine to improving the efficiency of your administration time with DotNetNuke using SQL queries.

The SQL methods we show you in this issue are very powerful techniques which will reduce weeks of work into seconds. The tutorials are especially useful if you are re-skinning a large DNN installation.

To start with we show you how to update the Page Settings of a page using SQL queries.

We demonstrate how to use SQL queries to delete a group of modules from a page, move modules between content panes and insert a copy of a module to a page. Manually moving, deleting and inserting modules when re-skinning your DotNetNuke installation can take up to 10 minutes per page, for a 500 page website this would take 5000 minutes. Using SQL queries will allow you to apply changes across your entire site within seconds.

We then take a look at the DotNetNuke SQL Module. This module comes free with Dot Net Nuke and is only available to the host user on your DotNetNuke installation. Although we thoroughly recommend you use SQL Server Express to build and check your queries, this module is very useful if you already have a good understanding of SQL queries.

Finally, we show you how to work with Skins and Containers in DNN using SQL queries. In the previous tutorials we demonstrated how to change a container on a single page, in this tutorial we show you how to change the container for a copied module that is displayed on several or all 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.

Using the techniques outlined in this issue will literally save you weeks of work.

Shadow Modules in DotNetNuke using SQL

2008-05-20T10:34:00.001Z

DNN Creative Magazine is still in the land of SQL!

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, we have been responding to enquires from readers on how they can update DotNetNuke websites more efficiently.

So another tip we would like to share with you, that will save you lots of time, is how to use Shadow or copied modules.

Shadow or Copied modules can be used to update the same content on several pages from one central area. In issue 32 we demonstrate how to setup a shadow page which contains modules that are displayed on several pages across our Dot Net Nuke portal. From this one central shadow page we can administer the content of several modules at once.

We also show you how to use SQL queries to easily maintain these copied modules, including re-ordering the modules in a content pane across all pages in a DotNetNuke portal, updating the container of a module copied across several pages and how to update the container of a module based on the name of the current container the module is using.

If you were to try and manually update copied modules across a large DNN portal, it would more than likely take weeks of work. With the powerful SQL techniques shown in this tutorial you can apply the updates in seconds.

Here is a short list of what the tutorial covers:

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

Learn SQL Queries in DotNetNuke to reduce administration time

2008-05-08T11:10:00.002Z

So, it’s been a busy month on DNN Creative as we’ve stepped into the realms of SQL Queries.

We've had several enquiries from the readers asking if we know of any ways to speed up the process of updating their DotNetNuke websites without having to change each page one after another.

From our experience of re-skinning and updating already established websites, we found that with simple SQL queries you can quickly and efficiently update multiple elements from modules, pages, and skins to alter the look and layout of your site within seconds – which for some large DNN site updates would take months of work through manually administering the site.

If you are new to using SQL Queries and would like to learn more about this powerful administration tool, checkout issue 32 of DNN Creative magazine. The first tutorial is an Introduction to SQL Queries with SQL Server Express, DotNetNuke and Vista.

This tutorial is especially helpful if you are using windows vista, as setting up SQL Server Express isn’t as straight forward as you would think. We show you how to install and configure SQL Server, and then start you off with simple queries so you can get well on the way to improving your site.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what this tutorial covers:

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

11 DotNetNuke Video Tutorials - Powerful Efficient Techniques for DotNetNuke Administration using SQL

2008-05-01T14:31:00.001Z

DNN Creative have released issue 32 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This very special issue of DNN Creative Magazine is dedicated to improving the efficiency of your administration time with DotNetNuke.

In this issue we focus on using SQL queries to automate some of the repetitive tasks that you have to carry out as an administrator on a DotNetNuke portal.

These are very powerful techniques which for large Dot Net Nuke websites can reduce a week of work into seconds.

If you are new to SQL you can follow each of these tutorials through step by step. We provide a quick start guide to using SQL queries with SQL Server Express. We also show you how to set up SQL Server Management Studio Express using Windows Vista so that you can execute a basic query on both a localhost and live DotNetNuke database.

Following this we demonstrate using SQL queries for working with DotNetNuke security roles and users, focusing on exporting registered users to Excel and removing users from a security role based on their email address.

To finish we demonstrate working with shadow / copied modules. This is an essential and powerful administration task that can enhance your DNN portals and reduce administration time. Shadow or Copied modules can be used to update the same content on several pages from one central area. We 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 and are particularly useful if you are re-skinning an already established site.