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DnnGallery.net – a place to showcase your DNN sites

2009-04-27T13:55:00.001+03:00

One of the questions I have always found hard to answer is “ok, but show me some ‘wow’ sites made with DotNetNuke”. I always had a hard time finding some sites till I read a post about www.dnngallery.net at the DotNetNuke forums.I think it’s pretty interesting, provided that the “Showcase” section at the official DotNetNuke site is dead and that there is no other place (none that I know of, at

UDT 03.05.01 and incorrect filtering of script in text/html fields

2009-04-21T19:47:00.001+03:00

Those of you using the latest version of the old User Defined Table module (which is to be replaced by the Form and List module in DNN 5.x) may have noticed an annoying bug that makes the UDT module insist on filtering out script, object and embed tags even when you have specifically specified that you don’t want it to. What does this mean? It means that you can’t embed YouTube videos, for

Replacing default module titles in search results with the corresponding tab’s title

2009-04-03T19:43:00.001+03:00

How many times has it happened to you? You put some Text/HTML module here, a Links module there, maybe a third-party module and you forget to change its title, mostly because you’re using a container that doesn’t utilize it, or for any other reason. This can lead to ugly search results, since DNN’s indexer stores the module’s title in the SearchItem table and uses it as the title for each one

Using the PortalSettings class in containers

2009-01-16T14:32:00.001+02:00

It’s simple, but useful: If you try to use the PortalSettings class in code you have added to a container’s .ascx file, you’ll find out that you can’t. The PortalSettings shared class is only directly accessible from skins. That’s dissapointing, especially when you need to grab things like, for example, the current tab id (PortalSettings.ActiveTab.TabId) inside a container for some reeson.

How to enable - disable caching programmatically and on-demand

2008-12-05T09:58:00.001+02:00

Sometimes, when you're doing something programmatically, like moving tabs around, you really don't want caching in your way in any form, since there's a great danger it'll affect the outcome. For some reason, programmatically clearing the cache may not be enough - you just don't need any caching around when you do certain stuff, and you don't want to oblige any host user to manually clear the

Resolving "fileid=xxx" field values to actual file paths

2008-11-28T14:44:00.001+02:00

Following a previous article of mine, The dbo.tabs.IconFile field issue, I would like to share an easy way to resolve any field that holds values of the type "FileID=xxx" (where xxx is the primary key of a record in the Files table) into the actual file path. This is especially useful when you deal with the IconFile field in the Tabs table, as well as with fields of type Image in a User Defined

How to promote a regular DotNetNuke user to a superuser

2008-11-27T13:00:00.001+02:00

I found this in Kevin Southworth's blog and I think it's worth mentioning since it may save your life in case you have forgotten your superuser's password. Using SQL, you can promote a regular DNN user to a superuser like this: -- Promote regular user to SuperUser DECLARE @username varchar(50) SET @username = 'theUsernameToPromote' UPDATE Users SET

Persisting large values in Module Settings when creating a custom module

2008-11-23T01:59:00.001+02:00

So you want to create a simple custom module. At first, it seems easy. Just two or three settings to take care of, no need for complicated, custom tables and unistall/uninstall scripts. DNN's built-in module settings API seems to be enough. But suddenly, needs grow a lot. There are some large values you need to store and the ModuleSettings table won't allow large chunks of information per row.

Creating pages based on templates - eventually!

2008-11-07T17:14:00.003+02:00

All my attempts to use custom templates when creating new DNN pages for my portals were frustrating. Even though I exported the template from a page using the Export feature, the new template would not show up at all in the combo box when creating a new page, although it existed in the file system. Even the default template wouldn't show up! Here's a simple solution to make those template files

Adding Javascript to the BODY tag in DNN

2008-10-24T17:31:00.002+03:00

When working with .ascx skin files, you will sometimes need to add some Javascript to the BODY tag, such as something that runs when the OnLoad event triggers. Well, you can always add a BODY tag inside your .ascx file along with the Javascript you like and hope that the browser will understand that. Essentially, you'll end up having two BODY tags in your source code-one that is generated by

Thickbox and Google Maps API - avoiding random thickbox initialization problems

2008-10-24T17:23:00.006+03:00

Thickbox is a very nice JQuery-based Javascript plugin that allows you to present images and other stuff (even whole pages!) in your page in a popup manner but without leaving the current page or opening a new one. Essentially, it's considered an evolution of the Lightbox script which only works with images.Many developers use Thickbox with Google maps, in order to provide clickable links on

Finding a tab's parent by level

2008-09-26T19:07:00.001+03:00

This is a simple but useful user defined function I have implemented in order to recursively find a tab's parent on a specific level. Syntax is as follows: select dbo.udfGetParentByLevel (level, tabid) where level is the level you need (0,1,2 etc.) and tabid is the id of the tab for which you need to find the parent. Nothing much, but can save you in certain scenarios. CREATE

Copying settings between DNNArticle modules

2008-09-19T15:07:00.001+03:00

ZLDNN's DNNArticle is a really cool article module, loaded with a ton of features. Unfortunately, sometimes you'll have to add more than one modules on your site, and a ton of features typically comes with a ton of settings. In order not to have a hard time setting all the options from scratch, here is a script you can use to copy all those nifty settings you'll find in the "DNNArticle Settings"

MSDN-style core DNN documentation

2008-08-06T06:41:00.003+03:00

Mr. Ernst Peter Tamminga has created a help (.CHM) DNN Core reference file, based on the inline code documentation comments found on the DNN source code. Pretty useful, if you want to have a quick browse at all the DNN classes. The latest download is based on DNN 4.8.4.You'll find it here: http://www.codeplex.com/DNNHelpSystem

Changing what appears on the title bar

2008-07-04T18:07:00.003+03:00

DotNetNuke has two ways of setting the title bar, depending on whether you set the "Page Title" field in Page Properties. It either displays your page title as you have set it, or the full path to your page (similar to the breadcrumb) when you leave it blank.Some third-party modules, though, do use the page title for their purposes so you may want to have a page title exactly the same as the page

Retrieving tabs using SQL, security-aware

2008-06-25T18:36:00.001+03:00

There are times when you like to go deeper with DNN and retrieve certain information by means of an SQL Query or a stored procedure. That's what happened to me when I needed to create a custom combo box which would redirect the user to specific pages. In order to achieve that functionality, I had to use a module which would permit me to issue SQL queries to DotNetNuke and then format the

The dbo.tabs.IconFile field issue

2008-05-16T17:04:00.003+03:00

The case is fairly simple: In a DNN installation, we needed the user to use the IconFile field (i.e. the "Icon" field in the Advanced Settings section of the Page Properties page to add a custom icon to each page they made. We would then use a query created in Bi4Ce's ListX module to present a list of pages in the form of an in-page navigation menu for a specific portion of the portal.To our

Solving the Search Results problem when using the free MMLinks localizable module

2008-03-13T18:54:00.003+02:00

(This article assumes that you have an advanced knowledge of what's going on inside the DotNetNuke portal framework and its Search indexer.)For those of you who don't know what the MMLinks module is, go here to find out.(waiting for you to read...)Okay, now you know. With MMLinks, you can replace your standard Text/HTML modules with fully localizable ones, localizing both the title and the Text/

Integrating the Lightbox JS 2.03.3 image overlay script with DNN

2007-12-06T12:00:00.002+02:00

According to its creators, "Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers."And it really does what they say. So, why not use it with DNN? The fact that it can also work with groups of pictures providing basic back/forward navigation functionality makes it ideal as a lightweight picture gallery. Of course,

Video: Creating DotNetNuke Modules

2007-11-03T17:44:00.001+02:00

A free video from JumpStart TV explaining how to create your own DotNetNuke modules. You can watch it online right here.

Using the ListX module to create a database-driven master-detail interface on a single web page

2007-09-29T17:41:00.000+03:00

Warning: This article assumes that you're aware of the ListX module by Bi4ce and that you have a basic understanding of what this module does, as well as a basic understaning of what DotNetNuke is. This article requires you to have the ListX module installed in your DotNetNuke portal.Needless to say I am not a Bi4ce employee, I have just been using ListX and I'm thrilled about what this module

Testing the ISearchable interface

2007-09-26T09:18:00.001+03:00

When you create a DotNetNuke custom module you often have to implement the ISearchable interface which allows you to integrate your module's data in DotNetNuke's Search indexer so that they are available when a user performs a search on your portal.The ISearchable interface is very powerful but unfortunately there is no easy way to test your module's integration - except if you start trying

Getting locked out of DNN's login page

2007-09-26T09:07:00.001+03:00

One common accident while developing DNN portals is to change DNN's default login page through the Site Settings page. This is ok, as long as the new page you set contains a user login module. But if the new page does not, you usually get "locked out" of DNN, not being able to login since there is no way to get to the login page again.Here are two simple ways to overcome this:1. If you have