Entries for May 2008

I just wanted to publicly announce here that this week I have launched a new website for my company IowaComputerGurus Inc.  It is now a DotNetNuke based site running a skin created by ThinkOfDesign.com. This new company website is full of new information, including updated references and a portfolio. Also coming soon is a new design for this...

Comments (0)

Well after following a similar practice for upgrading my DotNetNuke sites since pre DNN 4.4.1 days I have just learned of a very helpful new feature for those upgrading from 4.6.2 or later versions.  Starting with 4.6.2 a new function was added to the DotNetNuke core known as XML Merge, which removes the need for you to manually update the web.config file on each and every upgrade.  This takes the complicated manual merge process and reduces an upgrade to two simple steps.  I will detail these steps below.

Read more...

Comments (19)

Three months ago I created an article discussing my thought process on selecting a hosting provider for DotNetNuke installations.  I recently modified that article due to a recent change in opinion.  I have sense decided to re-visit the article entirely as I wanted to expand a bit on a few items that were referenced by others in the comments with the older article.  As most people are aware my hosting provider of choice is 3Essentials, being with them for almost a year and a half now I have only good things to say about them, however, I'll be the first to admit that they might not be for everyone.  In this article I will look at the various items that lead me to select and retain 3Essentials as my hosting provider.  These statements in no way are considered offical, and you MUST take the time to do your own research to form your own conclusions before making a decision.  Moving hosting providers is not all that complicated, but it is a somewhat complex and time consuming actiivity and something that you don't want to do unless you have to.  If you are having problems finding a hosting provider that meets your needs, please feel free to e-mail me at msellers@iowacomputergurus.com and I'll try to help you out with the decision.   Please click the link below to read the full article!

Read more...

Comments (8)

Installing DotNetNuke can be somewhat difficult at times, therefore I am writing this article to give you a full step by step guide to installing DotNetNuke on a Windows XP Pro system. The instructions are similar for Windows 2000 but might vary slightly, I have tried to note as many differences as possible. Windows Vista installation is similar but requires a few different steps relating to IIS. I will be publishing a text version of this guide for Windows Vista users within the next 2-3 days.  This guide is my seventh revision and includes additional steps and information based on feedback from previous users.  Additionally a few new instructions and notes have been provided for users installing on Windows 2003 Server to address a few common "stumbling blocks" that have prevented successful installations.

Read more...

Comments (23)

This is my fourth revision of a DotNetNuke remote hosting provider installation tutorial.  This tutorial will provide you the basic overview of how to perform a clean installation of DotNetNuke 4.8.3 on a remote web hosting provider.  In the article I will try to point out the most common differences between different hosting providers, I will also be providing specific examples regarding the use of the Plesk control panel which is what my hosting provider (3Essentials) uses.  All steps within this tutorial are promised to work with 3Essentials hosting, others are most likely possible, but have not been fully confirmed with the provider.  Additionally this guide is geared towards a manual instlalation at the root of the site, which is not supported by all hosting providers.

Read more...

Comments (7)

This is my eighth revision DNN Upgrade guide.  This version includes an important notice regarding the need to upgrade to take advantage of the most recent security inprovements provided in DNN 4.8.3.  Many portions of this upgrade guide are the same as previous versions, however, there are some new items and many minor changes/clarifications.  This is simply due to the LIMITED changes that have truly occured in the area of DotNetNuke upgrades.  This should be the final version of these guides for the 4.x DNN platform, keep an eye our for 5.x guides shortly before the public launch of DNN 5.x.

Read more...

Comments (25)