Hey, Hey...the new DotNetNuke 5.0 Cambrian RC2 release is finally here! You can download the new release at www.dotnetnuke.com . Please note however, that the current download is a release candidate and shouldn't be used yet in a production environment. This video tutorial covers installing on a localhost machine, with SQL Express and also an external SQL Database.
The first thing you need to do is download the package. As usual, there are 4 packages to choose from:
- The Starter Kit is an add in for Visual Studio that will install templates for you for DNN Portal, Skin and Module Development
- The Upgrade package contains the necessary files for upgrading a DNN website
- The Install package contains the required files to install and run the portal "out of the box"
- The Source package contains all the source code used to build the DotNetNuke portal to be used with Visual Studio.
For the purposes of the tutorial, you should download either the Install package or the Source package. If you use the source package, you must open the solution in Visual Studio first and build the solution.
There are three ways that you can begin the installation process.
- If you are using Visual Studio, you can right click on the website and click "View in Browser" (You may need to "Set as Startup Project" first).
- You can simply hit F5 from within Visual Studio
- You can simply browse to the URL where the website is installed. (If you are not using Visual Studio and are using IIS on your local machine, you will need to first create a virtual directory) . For example, typing http://localhost/dnn5 in the browser bar will launch the installation wizard
When the installation wizard screen appears, you will have the option for a Custom, Typical or Auto install. The easiest is to select the auto install option, but all your options will be default. For example, the default usernames and passwords will be created for the host and admin users, the SQL Express database will be selected (unless you modify the web.config file prior to launching the installation)., and all the default modules will be installed as well as the default skin. Or, you can select Custom to enter your own choices at each step along the way. The video below covers the installation using the Custom installation method to allow you to see the options you will have along the installation process.
Click on "Next", moving to the File Permissions Check screen. On this screen, click on "Test Pemissions" to ensure that you are not going to run into any file (not database) permission related issues that will prevent you from successfully installing DotNetNuke. File permissions can be tricky, especially for those folks who are new to .net. and is outside the scope of this article. If you are having trouble, contact me with your issue and I'll see about getting a tutorial up to cover it. When you get the "green" light of success, hit "Next"
On the next screen, you will be able to Configure your database. If you are doing a localhost installation or on a server that allows you to use the SQL Express database found in the /App_Data folder, then you don't have to do anything on this screen, except Test Database Connection. If you are having any trouble with your SQLExpress engine, you would see that here. For example, if the service wasn't running for some reason, you would get the error message back and hopefully be able to resolve it without having to back out of the installation process.
But, if you are installing on a web hosting provider which doesn't allow using the SQL Express database (most don't) or if you just choose to use an external databse, select the SQL Server 2000/20005 database radio option and fill in the corresponding fields. In the video below, I will show you how to install the external database. In the video, you will see that I first create the database, assign the proper security and then return to finish the installation by filling in the appropriate properties. The video then goes on to cover the rest of the entire installation process.
How to Install DotNetNuke 5.0 Cambrian with Custom Installation Options Video
TROUBLESHOOTING ERRORS:
If you receive an error like this as soon as you try to install the website, you may easily be able to resolve the issue by checking your directory files for a "Web.Config" file. Depending on which package you downloaded, you may not have one "out of the box". All you need to do is simply rename either the "development" or "release" config to "web.config"