DotNetNuke 4.08.01 Installation Tips

I was having trouble installing DotNetNuke (DNN) on SQL server 2000. It was giving me the error message that user cannot be recognized etc. Although user and database was properly set up. What was wrong is that by default the database connection string which is active (uncommented) in web.config file is for SQL Server Express 2005. The connection string for SQL Server 2000 is actually commented out.

I could not notice it – although i was making changes to the SQL 2000 settings it was not making any sense. Finally i could catch the culprit comment in both “connectionStrings” and “appSettings” section of the web.config file.

The active SQL Server 2000 settings for my web.config file is as below. The SQL Express 2005 settings are commented out:



<connectionStrings>
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express
<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=.SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
-->
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 -->
<add
name="SiteSqlServer"
connectionString="Server=(local); Database=DotNetNuke; uid=dnn; pwd=dnn;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

<appSettings>
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules
<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=.SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;" />
-->
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules -->
<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=(local); Database=DotNetNuke; uid=dnn; pwd=dnn;"/>

…

</appSettings>

Yahoo Bookmarks with FireFox Yahoo Toolbar Extension

I was really in trouble with all my bookmarks in so many places. In my office PC, home PC, PocketPC, mobile phone, note pad, stumbleupon, everywhere and in overwhelming numbers. It was really really inefficent way of managing bookmarks.

Many days ago I started using google bookmark hoping to manage it on the internet, but rarely had time to update it.

Fewdays ago StartAid, a firefox extension, was released. Since Firefox is my favorite browser I intended to use that. But of course Google and Yahoo services are also always on my favorite list and both of them have bookmark service. Now I had to make a choice. You know, logging in and out to manage my bookmarks is a boring thing for me. Understandably I can not avoid that though.

But at last I make my choice and pick up Yahoo Bookmarks. I could also choose Google’s but Yahoo mail is my prime online mailing system. That is why I picked up Yahoo for my “Note”, and now for “Bookmark” also. Moreover, “Yahoo toolbar” extension for firefox is there to make my life easier. In fact I found that “Yahoo Bookmark+Firefox Yahoo Toolbar extension” is an ideal choice for bookmarks management. The Yahoo bookmarks (still in beta thoug) is fantastic in functionality, it allows you to create tags and folder for your boookmarks, export FireFox bookmarks from your PCs, and make your bookmarks available from the FireFox Yahoo toolbar. And needless to mention that I am be able to use my Yahoo bookmarks from everywhere, on my PC, PocketPC, or mobile phone, while at office or home or on the move.

Now that I am able to consolidate, categorize, tag all my bookmarks at one place and can be efficient on-line. That is what I always wanted.

Minimize Firefox to System Tray

Minimize to tray icon for Firefox (and Sunbird) is what i was looking for for sometimes. The current version 0.0.1.2 works with my Firefox 2.0.0.11. You have to set the option from the Add-ons menus – the options are 1) whether you want the browser to be minimized always or 2) only while closing.

RSS Feed Format for Blogger Blogs

One can easily forget the blogger rss feed format, here is it:

http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

or the xml feed

http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/atom.xml

One has to replace the BLOGNAME with the actual blog name.

SMF Specific

The blogger RSS feed is not directly supported by SMF forum add-on “Feed” for TinyPortal v0.9.8. Because it only support RSS feed. You can however burn your feed in Feedburner. Once burned you can use the feedburner link fro your blog with SMF “Feed” add-on.

The feedburner link will be something like:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOURBLOG

Where YOURBLOG is the unique string you assign during feedburning to identify your blog.

Sent html Newsletters to all SMF members

SMF allows both plain text and html email/newsletters to be sent to forum members. Before you click on the “send” button make sure you choose the right option from below. SMF offers the following two checkbox options immediately before sending your mail.

1. Send in HTML format. (with this you can put normal HTML in the email.)
2. Add <br />s and  s to this message.

The second option is the default for text mail. However, when you want to copy and paste HTML formatted file make sure that you choose the first option and deselect the second one.

Firefox and ScribeFire

Firefox is my favorite desktop web browser. The topmost reason why I like Firefox is, it is free and it has multitude of free Add-Ons many of which are really powerful and useful. One such add-on is ScribeFire (eralier “Performancing”). This is a Blogging utility as an extension to Firefox browser that allows me to manage and post entries to my blogs.

I have my blogs on WordPress and Blogger. ScribeFire allows me to add all my blogs to it and thus I am able to switch between my Blogs from a single interface. I can also see and manage all of my posts, tags, pages, etc. ScribeFire thus not only saves my time, it also encourages me to do blogging as the interface is now just a click away. Without such tool, blogger like me would be usually reluctant to spare some extra clicks required to visit the blog site, login, write and then post.

Also using ScribeFire means you are editing your blog locally on your computer instead of on a remote blog server. That is another big advantage because it is quicker to do stuff like adding links, doing formatting, reviewing multiple times, saving temporarily as note, etc.

To add Blogs site to ScribFire one has to just press the “Add” button from the “Blogs” tab on the right panel. Then enter your blog address like “http://myonecent.wordpress.com”. Next you have to enter user id and password for your blog site. Just remember, if your sign-up email address was abc.xyz@gmail.com your user id is abc.xyz. That is all you need to add your site to ScribeFire.

Happy Blogging!

P.S: This entry was posted using ScribeFire.

Publishing WordPress Blog using a Pocket PC

Usiing my iPaq Pocket PC I have tried to publish my previous blog entry in WordPress, using Opera browser version 8.60 but failed. I love Opera on my Pocket PC iPaq and Opera mini on my Nokia mobile. But in this occassion I had to use the good old pocket internet explorer (Pocket IE), which allowed me to post my WordPress entries without using any third party app and without any problem. Within the Opera the WordPress buttons don’t behave.

P.S. This blog entry was also posted using IE on my Pocket PC.

Simple Machines Forum – Problems in Automatic Installation of Mods

Installing SMF Mods from Admin->Packages option, sometimes, is not a pleasant task even if you want to install with the default theme. Root of the problem lies in the way SMF Mods are developed. Most of the Mods need to rely on search and add/replace method and sometimes copying of some Mod specific extra files. It is the assumption made in the design of the search string that creates the problems most of the time. Because the search string may not match in situation where a previously installed Mod might have changed the string already. As a result Mod installation test will fail and Admin has to manually install the Mod.

Manual installation of SMF Mods have been detailed here.

SMF Email Configuration Settings

Struggled for a few minutes in order to get my email configuration of Simple Machine Forum based site. Finally the following settings seem to work. The settings have to be made to the following section of the Admin panel.

1) Admin -> Configuration -> Server Settings -> Feature Configuration dialog:

Mail type: “SMTP”
SMTP server: “localhost”
SMTP port: “25″
SMTP username: keep it blank
SMTP password: keep it blank
(confirm): keep it blank

2) Admin -> Configuration -> Server Settings -> Core Configuration dialog:

Webmaster Email Address:

It is advised though to use the “PHP default” instead of “SMTP” as the Mail type, because SMTP is suggested to be slow. But for some reason it is not working at the moment.

Tried to set up other my own web host’s SMTP server and also google’s SMTP server using the following settings but failed.

Mail type: “SMTP”
SMTP server: “smtp.gmail.com” (tried also smtp.google.com)
SMTP port : “465″ ( recommended port) or 587 or 25
SMTP username: my valid gmail mailbox for example “myaccount@gmail.com”
SMTP password: my gmail password
(confirm): my gmail password

Appreciate your suggestion if any.

Content Encoding Error (content_encoding_error)

Looks like a series of problems I am facing after I transferred my site from one server to another. This morning I am getting the following error the first time I try to login onto my SMF forum:

“Server response could not be decoded using encoding type returned by server.

This is typically caused by a Web Site presenting a content encoding header of one type, and then encoding the data differently.”

I have a clue from here. Basically it says that it is related to a bug in the content compression code.

Based on this concept, I turned off content compression from “Admin > Configuration > Server Settings > Feature Configuration”. I checked off “Enabled Compressed Output” option and it works!