Archive for category Programing Languages

DotNetNuke on Windows 7 & IIS 7.5

Posted by Terry Apodaca in .NET, Free Software, Programing Languages, Technology, Web Development on October 18, 2011

There are tons of Forum and Community posts about all these Permission issues when installing the latest version of DotNetNuke, a ASP.Net based, Open Source CMS (Content Management System).

If you are running into this…this is what got me past the install, and past all the permissions issues.

  1. Download and Install the latest version (I installed the Source version so I can modify things and/or build themes (Portals/Skins).
  2. I would also recommend using this Installation Helper Application if you are not too technical, or you just want to make things a lot easier!
  3. After everything is installed, you will run the website either in the browser or from your Visual Studio, either way you will have to run the InstallWizard…and step 2 is where the Permission issues will start.
  4. Go to the web root folder you designated when you installed it, Right Click, Properties –> Security tab –> Edit –> Add (these ‘users’ to the list)
    • IUSR
    • NETWORK SERVICE
    • IIS_IUSRS (yourmachinename\IIS_IUSRS)
    • DefaultAppPool (you’ll have to find it by typing in “IIS AppPool\DefaultAppPool”)
  5. Make sure you grant Full Control to the Application in the Web.config and if you want to even to the AppPool Identity
  6. If you still get the “your site failed permissions check” error after all this, you will need to go to IIS Management Tool –> Your Website –> .Net Trust Levels and change the Trust Level to Full.

I hope this clears some things up. I spent two days trying to get a local installation and everything I tried was failing…until the last step above.

Please let me know if this works for you, or if you did something else to get past some of the Permission errors.

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List of Open Source/PHP CMS

Posted by Terry Apodaca in AJAX, Code, CSS, Design, Free Software, HTML, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, Programing Languages, SilverStripe, SQL, Technology, Web Development, Web Service, XHTML on January 19, 2011


I’ve seen a few recent blogs ask where are all the good PHP and/or Open Source CMSs? I’ve even seen a few touch the surface of this subject: The Great CMS Roundup, Judging Five Open Source CMS. EDIT: and Matt has pointed me to a nice site that might list just about all of them: http://php.opensourcecms.com/

I am not going to do a ‘Roundup’ because I am not going to review every single one of them. I am not going to even list features, nor am I going to show what each one supports. All I want to do is put together a nice LIST of all the PHP based CMSs out there…so please, if I missed one that you know of…leave a comment for me.

Here is your list, in no particular order other than by maybe popularity and my personal preference. It can be argued between Joomla, WordPress and Drupal about which is in the lead….but either way…here they are:

  • SilverStripe
  • Drupal
  • Joomla
  • GetSimple
  • Frog
  • WordPress
  • ExpressionEngine
  • Concrete5
  • CMSMadeSimple
  • Contao
  • Modx
  • Phire
  • TomatoCMS
  • Habari
  • Croogo

I will be adding to this, if/when someone suggests another one because I know there are hundreds of them out there. So keep this bookmarked!

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SilverStripe Tips & Essential Modules

Posted by Terry Apodaca in PHP, Programing Languages, SilverStripe, Technology, Web Development on January 6, 2011

Along with all the greatness that comes with the latest version of SilverStripe 2.4, there are a few (sometimes several) Modules you should install along with your base SS installation. A few tips I would like to make before we begin is to First: always install ONE module at a time. Read it’s readme file and/or _config file to know what is required for installation. Sometimes you will need to copy some stuff from the module _config to your project _config. It might also tell you the order of installation needed if it depends on another module to work. Second: is to ALWAYS run yoursite.com/dev/build?flush=1 after each Module you install. This will make it much easier to debug if you find problems with an installation. THIRD: is once you get to a point where you are pretty comfortable with SS, I always install everything I can before I modify or create my Custom Templates/Themes. Most modules are developed by their maker on top of the default BlackCandy theme and probably look the best there too…so if you install some modules after you have already implemented a new Theme…you might have some debugging and layout fixing to do.

  1. The very first Module you should upload is the DataObjectManager by UncleCheese. This module has always been great and it has only one [optional] requirement, and that’s to install the SWFUploadField Module. You didn’t need the SWFUpload, but it made uploading things so much better. Up until UncleCheese came out with Uploadify which in my mind makes SWFUpload obsolete. The good thing here is that if you have them all installed, the latest versions will check for Uploadify first, and if not installed, it will fall back on SWFUpload, and if that’s not installed, no worries…still works.

    Install Order:
    SWFUploadFile (I keep installed just in case)
    DataObjectManager
    Uploadify

  2. The next Module is also from UncleCheese, and just about every website I go to and/or build has some sort of Photo Gallery. He has also come out with ImageGallery which also works wonderfully and seamlessly with the modules I listed above. In fact, since they are all by UncleCheese, you can guarantee he makes sure they all work and compliment each other. This newest version is very very feature rich…so much so you don’t want to fiddle around with using some jQuery plugin…because they are already there… you can pick and chose your settings!
  3. Everyone that builds and/or runs a website should have some kind of stat tracking. The most robust and FREE is Google Analytics. I use to use one or the other that is listed in the Modules pages of the website. That was until Ty Barho posted an article on SSBits that gives a very good tutorial on how to: Quick & Easy Google Analytics with SiteConfig…and he’s right. This is a good tutorial to also get you started in creating your own Modules. Because you follow this…you can use it and extend it on any website you build.

I will be adding more to this as SilverStripe matures more and more. I am becoming a huge supporter of this framework and CMS. So much so that I have pretty much used only this for my clients since last year (moved away from WordPress or rolling my own in CakePHP or CodeIgniter).

Also, please let me know if you have other modules you use in pretty much every one of your SS installations. I’d like to try them out. I know there are several out there…especially on github that a lot of people don’t know about. Most notable is Andrew J Short’s module: MemberProfiles. I’ll get back to this module later on though…

One last thing I would like any and all SS developers to be aware of, is A _config.php Cheatsheet by Aram Balakjian. I highly advise you to read this and use as much of it as you can in your early stages of development. The dev portion of it is great!!!

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MS Report Viewer Toolbar

Posted by Terry Apodaca in .NET, Code, HTML, JavaScript, Programing Languages, Web Development on September 8, 2010

I was working on a Web Application that required the use of Microsoft’s Reporting and Report Viewer. I have been use to using these together on a Windows Application and never had any issues with the Reports or the Report Viewer. But, come to find out, the Report Viewer Toolbar does not render properly on IIS 7.0. What’s even more silly is that when you are developing locally it renders just fine (I was using Visual Studio 2008). Nothing worked when I deployed/published to the web server:

< rsweb:ReportViewer ID="ReportViewer1" runat="server" AsyncRendering="False" Width="750px">
< /rsweb:ReportViewer>

Yep, images were missing from the toolbar as well as nothing really working at all. The toolbar uses images and JavaScript that is generated dynamically, using a call to “Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd”. This is usually already completed for you when you add the control, and adds necessary references to your config files. You will usually find this: 

< system.web >
  < httpHandlers >
  < add path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd" verb="*" type="Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.HttpHandler, Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" validate="false"/ >
  < /httpHandlers >
< /system.web >

One thing that has been left off the auto generate is something Microsoft messed up in the switch to IIS 7.0 from IIS 6.0 and you have to remember for this Report Viewer to also add manually:

< system.webServer >
    < handlers >
    < add name="ReportViewerWebControl" path="Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd" verb="*" type="Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.HttpHandler, Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/ >
    < /handlers >
< /system.webServer >

IIS 7.0 will now understand that whenever a call is made to ReportViewerWebControl.axd it needs to route it to the Http Handler Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.HttpHandler

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CSS Frameworks

Posted by Terry Apodaca in Browsers, CSS, Design, HTML, Inspiration, Programing Languages, XHTML on January 25, 2008

Some people can master it. Some people know only enough to get a simple style set on an HTML element. Then there are some people that just don’t have the time, so they look to something that can help speed up the development process…just like most other programming languages. This brings up the notion of a Framework where the developer can just plug into an already built Style Sheet and make his/her changes as needed.

I’ve been compiling lists in my Firefox bookmarks for years, so now it’s time to place some of the most common (and not so common) in a list on here so that the many others can reference to.

  1. Blueprint
  2. YUI Grids CSS
  3. YAML
  4. Tripoli
  5. Elements
  6. WYMstyle
  7. Schema
  8. His CSS Framework
  9. Cw/S Framework

This is a slim list so far as many people are not ready to release an official Framework classification for their CSS. I don’t, but I do use the same setup across most of my projects.

If you see one that is not on this list, please let me know and I’ll keep an updated and continuous list of these much like I have done with my preferred free software post. I’d love to hear what you all have to say about these as well.

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