I had a lot of headaches trying to find a single point of information on how to properly configure DotNetNuke 5 along with my current machine configuration. I hope this post serves as a good reference for properly configuring a new DotNetNuke source installation.
Note: This tutorial assumes you already have IIS7, Visual Studio 2008 (standard or higher), and SQL Server 2008 (express or higher) installed. If you do not, please follow the step by step guide located here.
Disclaimer: If you are a new developer, or have Visual Studio Express, please follow the DNN5 installation guide here. My setup method deviates from the recommended settings established by DotNetNuke, however I have found they work better for me.
Step #1: Download the latest “Source Code (New Install + Source Code) release from http://dotnetnuke.codeplex.com/
Step #2: Unzip the latest release onto your local machine @ C:\inetpub\wwwroot\YourProjectName (replace ‘YourProjectName’ with what you would like the name of your project to be.
Step #3: Open IIS7, and right click the “Sites” menu item and select “Add Web Site”
Step #4: Inside the “Add Web Site” dialog, enter the name of your site (I used ‘BlogDemoDNN’) and point to the \Website directory inside the original directory you unzipped your files in step #2 (I used C:\inetpub\wwwroot\BlogDemo\DNN\Website\).
(note: if you get a dialog about binding to ‘*:80′ being assigned to another site, you may select ‘Yes’ to allow this duplicate binding).
Your new website should have a globe next to it, without a “stop icon” (like the one below)
If it does not have the globe, select the one that does and use the “Stop” menu item in the right hand rail, to stop that one. And use the “Start” menu item in the right rail to start your new website.
Step #5: Open the root directory of the files you unzipped in step #2, and double click the DotNetNuke_VS2008.sln (solution) file. With the project open inside Visual Studio 2008, right click the solution file in Solution Explorer, and select “Build Solution”.
Step #6: Open SQL Server 2008 Management Studio and connect to the database server you intend to setup your project on. Right click the “Databases” folder and select “Add New Database”.
With the “New Database” dialog open, enter the name you wish to have for this database. For mine, I selected “BlogDemoDNN”.
Step #7: Under the “Security” folder, select the “Logins” folder and right click it and select “New Login”.
I entered the name “blogdemodnn-user” and used an easy to remember password as well as selected my default database. Here is a shot of how I have it setup.
Now, select the “Security > Users” option under your recently created database and hit “New User”.
From here, enter details for the user you just created. Note that I have selected db_owner as the scheme, and role membership.
Step #8: Back inside Visual Studio 2008, you will notice there is no web.config file inside your web project. This is because DNN5 comes with a release.config (for publishing your website online) and development.config (for working locally). Because we are working locally, double click the development.config file to open it. Highlight all the text in this document, and copy (ctrl+c) that content.
Step #9: Right click the web project, and select “Add New Item”. From templates, select “XML File”, and in the Name field, enter web.config. Once the new file is open, paste (ctrl+v) that content you took from development.config and place it in your web.config (be sure to remove the <xml>tag that was in the original file before pasting).
Step #10: There are two connection strings you will need to set. If you are using SQL Server 2008 Express like I am, then you can use the following connection strings:
inside <connectionStrings>:
<add name=”SiteSqlServer” connectionString=”Data Source=HOME-PC\SQLExpress;Initial Catalog=BlogDemoDNN;User ID=blogdemodnn-user;Password=password” providerName=”System.Data.SqlClient” />
inside <appSettings>:
<add key=”SiteSqlServer” value=”Data Source=HOME-PC\SQLExpress;Initial Catalog=BlogDemoDNN;User ID=blogdemodnn-user;Password=password” />
Step #11: Open windows explorer (explorer.exe) and browse to the directory you unzipped your files in step #2. Right click on the “Website” directory and select “Properties”. Then navigate to the security tab, and ensure (as noted below) that the IIS_IUSRS group as “Full Control” over the website directory. DotNetNuke needs this. As a content management system, it will need to create, delete, and edit files inside the filesystem.
Step #12: Open your default web browser, and enter “http://localhost/” in your URL. You may not proceed through your standard DotNetNuke installation. If you see an error about security permissions, be sure you have completed step #11. Once you reach the Database connection settings page, be sure to uncheck “Integrated Security” and enter the username/password you had created in step #7 and entered in your web.config.
Once you have progressed through the setup, you can then proceed to your newly completed website!
