DNN Module Creation, Explained. (part 2)

Chris — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:14:44 +0000

Let’s assume for the sake of presenting this, that you have a copy of SQL server Express 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. Not that this is the only system you can run DNN on, but the only one I’ve ever tried doing this with. Once finished, we will have an instance of DNN running, and the default compiled module, with a LINQ Data Access Layer added in Part 3. Thanks to Mitchel Sellers for his description on how to build DNN modules here: http://www.mitchelsellers.com/blogs/articletype/articleview/articleid/179/developing-a-c-wap-module-in-dnn.aspx .

Get a copy of DNN. We can’t really use it without getting it, now can we? From this page, pull down the Visual Studio starter kit. After installing, you should be able to build DNN sites and projects from Visual Studio.
Create a new Web Site project. Open up Visual Studio, and create a new Web Site project (WSP). Make sure that ‘Visual Basic’ is chosen as the language (don’t worry, you won’t have to write much VB), and choose ‘DotNetNuke Web Application Framework’ as the project type. Give it a place to live, and verify that everything looks right:
Build. The site comes ready to go out-of-the-box, so either hit ‘Start without Debugging’ from the ‘Debug’ menu (thanks VS), or press Ctrl+F5. After building, a browser window will pop up, and you will be face-to-face with the DotNetNuke Installation Wizard: Click on the “Auto” option to have the site automatically set up a SQL Server database file, and default administrator and host user credentials. NOTE: If you don’t have the “Auto” option selectable, because of a SQL Server error (it’d show up in red on the bottom of the screen), something’s up with your sql server install. Either hand configure your server (outside the scope of this tutorial), or fix SQL Server (also outside of the scope of this tutorial).
Open a new instance of Visual Studio. There might be a better way around this, but I haven’t found it yet. The instance holding our web site project needs to stay up, so we keep the web site running.
Create a new Compiled Module Project. In our new instance of VS, go to ‘File -> New -> Project…’ Pick your preferred language (I’m going with C#), and under ‘Project Types:’, select “Web.” In the ‘Templates:’ window, under My Templates, select DotNetNuke Compiled Module. Give the module a meaningful name. IMPORTANT! Follow these next steps TO THE LETTER, or this doesn’t work. Make the project’s location point to the DesktopModules folder inside our web site, and DESELECT the checkbox that says ‘Create Directory for Solution’. It should look something like this: Finally, Create the solution by pressing “OK”.
Run the database script. One of the files created along with the rest of the Compiled module project (or WAP project) is ‘xx.xx.xx.xx.sqlprovider’, where the xx represents a version number. This script generates the SQL tables and stored procedures for handling the new module. We need to run this so our Data Access Layer has something to access. In the web site, log on as host, with the default username and password ‘host’ and ‘dnnhost’. Once logged in, go to the host menu, and find SQL. Copy the contents of the sqlprovider file, and paste them into the text box. Important: check the box below the text box that says “run as script.” This allows DNN to replace generic pieces in the script with their specific counterparts provided by DNN. Run the script by pressing ‘Execute.’
Install the module. In the website, go to host->Module Definitions. From here, at the bottom of the page, there should be a link that says ‘Create New Module’. Click that, and this menu pops up: in the Dropdown, select ‘Manifest’, and the page will reload, with more options. Under Module folder, select your module, and the page refreshes again. a modulename.dnn file should be in the ‘resource’ dropdown. Hit ‘create module’ to put the module into your website.

Hope that this helped anyone needing it.

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DNN Module Creation, Explained. (part 2)