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ASP.NET DotNetNuke Installation with Visual Web Developer Express
You're skilled enough with ASP.NET to construct a static website. But the Internet is all about dynamic sites, and adding content to keep visitors (and the search engines) coming back for more. You can't add all that content by hand and have time to do anything else; you need a content management system. That's where DotNetNuke comes in. This tutorial will teach you how to install it and walk you through the basics of how it works.
Contributed by Codex-M Rating: / 6 December 22, 2009
It is expected after reading those tutorials that you know how to basically construct a static website using ASP.NET in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express. However, one of the most important web development skills is using CMS (Content Management system) templates. Doing so offers more usability and flexibility for large scale implementation of dynamic websites.
Microsoft-based CMS templates require ASP.NET to connect to a database like MS SQL Server. It is also true that the majority of ASP.NET websites on the Internet use CMSes. One of most popular open source ASP.NET-based CMS templates is DotNetNuke.
The CMS (community version) has been released in open source; this means any developer can use the CMS for free. However, before you can upload your DotNetNuke website to an ASP.NET host, development should take place on your Windows local host server. This tutorial will discuss the steps required to install ASP.NET DotNetNuke's default template in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express. Instead of installing IIS, which is available only in Windows professional editions, Visual Web Developer 2008 has a built-in web server that can serve dynamic pages, such as ASPX or ASP.
Requirements and Preliminary Steps
You need to have a full installation of Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (you can download it). Also, DotNetNuke installation seems to work with the following system specifications:
Windows XP SP3 Home Edition
MS SQL server 2008 (included in the full installation of Visual Web Developer). Refer to the screenshot below for the installed MS SQL Server in the system, as well as those activated under “Services” (Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Services).
You need to ensure that SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) will be set to “Automatic” and “Started” under services.
Once you have the items above, you need to download DotNetNuke.
DotNetNuke requires any user of their community edition to register. After registration, you are then presented with a download page. On this page, click “Install package” only. See the screenshot below (inside the blue box):
After clicking on “Install package,” you will see the Terms of Use page. click “I agree” and then save the installer file to your Windows desktop. Note that the DotNetNuke basic installer is in .ZIP format, so you need software to extract it (recommended: Winrar).
When the download is complete, just close it; do not open or install it yet.
Now that you have downloaded the DotNetNuke installer, you need to create an ASP.NET basic file system using Visual Web Developer. To do this, follow the steps below:
Instead of naming it E:website, change the name to “DotNetNuke.” So, if you save the files in Drive E of your Windows computer, the location of the file system will be: E:DotNetNuke. Finally, click OK. It will create a basic file system like the one below:
Do not edit default.aspx or any other files. Also, you can use any available hard drives to store system files like Drive C, F, etc. In this tutorial, we are using Drive E.
Step 3: Now you need to unzip the entire DotNetNuke folder downloaded to your desktop. If you are using WinRar, click the DotNetNuke_Community_05.02.00_Install.zip (this is the installer version at the time this tutorial has been written). Then right click on it and select “Extract to DotNetNuke_Community_05.02.00_Install”
This process will extract the entire contents of the zip file and transfer it to a folder named DotNetNuke_Community_05.02.00_Install
Step 4: Now go inside the folder, select all files (you can use the Control–A command), copy and then paste all the files to the newly-created “DotNetNuke” folder location in E:DotNetNuke (if you placed your files in Drive E). Let them overwrite the basic file systems created there previously by Visual Web Developer. After pasting those files, you should see something like this (entire files shown):
At this point you are now ready to install DotNetNuke in your Windows local host server.
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is launch Default.aspx using a browser. Launch Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, and in the dashboard click “DotNetNuke” under “Recent Projects.” Once it is open, go to File -> View in Browser.
Step 2: The browser then loads the “DotNetNuke” Installation Wizard. Under “Select Installation Method,” choose “Typical” and set your language. Click “Next” to continue the installation.
Step 3: The installation steps right after clicking “Next” are straightforward. One of the confusing parts in the installation process is “Configure Database Connection.” If you have confirmed that you have SQL Express enabled under Windows Service (discussed in the previous section), then under “Select database,” select “SQL Server 2005/2008(Express) File.” Under server it should display:
.SQLExpress
For the file name of the database, you can use the default: Database.mdf. do not forget to check “Integrated Security.”
Just leave the “Object Qualifier” blank. If you click “Test database connection,” it should give no error. Once everything is set in this stage, proceed to “Next.”
Step 4: In the next step, DotNetNuke will install the database scripts. After this is completed, click “Next.”
Step 5: In this stage, you are required to “Configure Host Account.” Enter your first name, last name, username, password and email address. Just leave the “SMTP Server Settings” blank. See sample screenshot below:
Click “Next” if this is completed.
Step 6: After configuring the host account. DotNetNuke will then ask you to configure “Portal Administrator.” It is required that you use a different username and password in this step (not the same as you used in the “Configure Host account” part).
You will then select the Portal Title and set the template to “Default Website.”
Step 7: When the installation is completed, you will be able to see the completed DotNetNuke website by viewing it in a browser.
You now need to know how to edit, add content to and customize your DotNetNuke website. Let's start by going to the home page URL (for example, a local host URL might look like this: http://localhost:3191/DotNetNuke/Default.aspx ).
To access the CMS panel, you will need to click the “Login” link. Under “User name” and “Password,” enter the login information you set during the installation stage (at the Configure Host account).
Unlike other CMS/blogging platforms like WordPress, DotNetNuke does not have a strict backend. Instead, you will see “Edit content” links when you are logged in as Administrator.
For example, to edit the content in this particular section on the home page:
Click “Edit Content” and then you will be taken to a content editor like the one below:
To implement this in a web hosting environment, you will need an ASP.NET host with Microsoft SQL Server installed. It is highly suggested that it have specs similar to your local host to avoid incompatibility issues. Once your hosting account is ready, you will then need to upload those files to the hosting space, and install DotNetNuke following the steps discussed in this tutorial.
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