Visual Studio LightSwitch provides the fastest and easiest way to create Line-Of-Business, Forms-Over-Data applications. Previously LightSwitch produced only Silverlight applications. Now with LightSwitch in Visual Studio 2012, LightSwitch now allows you to communicate with its security and business layer through OData…

The LightSwitchHelpWebsite.com now has multiple bloggers. I realized that the Tags menu is really the only way for people to find past Blogs.



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Since I installed Active Social on http://LightSwitchHelpWebsite.com in April, my traffic has increased…



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Years ago I created a series of tutorials for creating DotNetNuke modules, using a sample application called ThingsForSale.



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I just posted an article on deploying a Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch application to your DotNetNuke website.

An important thing to note, is that you can use your existing DotNetNuke users and roles with your LightSwitch applications. This is really important because you already have accounts and roles. You don’t want to require your users to learn a new username and password, and need to log into, each application. Deploying your LightSwitch applications in DotNetNuke allows a seamless user experience.

The Entire Page Issue LightSwitch has a problem that I call “the Entire Page issue”. LightSwitch wants to fill the entire screen. In the business world, users usually use more than one business application. They want to switch between, say the Accounting application, and the Shipping application easily. Users also want to log in one time and access all the applications.

DotNetNuke is perfect for scenarios like this.

I believe that DotNetNuke, because it is a powerful Application...

A year ago Ian Lackey and I decided to create a DotNetNuke site that allowed users to upload .Mp3 files and play them using Silverlight visualizations. We planned to expand the site and to make a SDK so that people can create their own visualizations. However, we became busy with our latest DotNetNuke book,  and other projects, and we never got around to making the enhancements.

We decided to publish the...

I just posted a new DotNetNuke Silverlight 4 View Model (MVVM) module. This module allows you to easily gather, and process Expense Reports, from users in your DotNetNuke portal.

Advantages of Using Silverlight It is faster - When viewing the Expense Reports for a single user, there are no post-backs. The application moves considerably faster than a normal web application. It will not time-out - Normal web applications require you to input something every 20 minutes, or you will be timed-out, and will lose any un-saved information. Large file uploads - Users can upload scans of any size. It can be re-designed with no code - This application was created using View Model / MVVM. This allows a designer, to completely redesign this application using Microsoft Expression Blend, with no code changes. Simply open the source up and make changes. When you compile the...

When using web services with DotNetNuke, there are three primary methods to secure the web services that I use:

Using Http Context – When a user logs into your DotNetNuke website, their web browser is given a “authentication token” in the form of a cookie. Web service calls made using Ajax or Silverlight, use this cookie for authentication. This cookie will “time out” like a normal log in if it is not used for a period of time (usually 20 minutes). Using A “Custom Token” – SilverlightDesktop.net uses this to provide a token that wont time out. Authenticating Manually – IWeb uses this method to allow you the most flexible authentication.  

Using HTTP Context

This is the simplest method. You can download a simple module that demonstrates this at this link.

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At the last Southern California DotNetNuke Users Group, we had Chad Nash From Data Spings. He talked about using JQuery in DotNetNuke modules and all the tips and tricks he has learned.

At one point he casually mentions that Data Spings has two free services:

RESX Translate – A free service of Data Springs, Inc.

This service can be accessed via www.resxtranslate.com. This is a very useful tool that will translate your modules (or any ASP.NET application that has RESX files in it). The module will translate via google translator every RESX file property from one of 30+ languages. The module will send a report of the translation to an email address and also will rezip the files with the exact file path/structure in place (i.e. app_localresources). For users of...

I want to use OData to make DotNetNuke modules. For that, I need ASP.NET 4.0. I develop on a Windows 7 computer using IIS7. My DotNetNuke website runs under ASP.NET 3.5. This is what I did to run it under ASP.NET 4.0...

Over the years I have created several DotNetNuke Silverlight File managers. Each one is actually different and handles a different scenario. What they all have in common, is that they use Silverlight to enable uploads of large files...

I just posted a DotNetNuke version of the Silverlight 4 Drag and Drop File manager covered in these CodeProject articles:

Silverlight View Model Style File Manager Silverlight View Model Style File Manager Drag and Drop Upload (part 2) This project uses the View Model Style pattern that allows for a complete separation between program and design. This allows a Designer with no programming...

I think the hardest part of writing a book, is having to accept the negative reviews on Amazon. I expect my latest book, Building Websites with DotNetNuke 5,  to get about 2 stars due to the negative reviews I am expecting. Now, this book has a lot of things to offer. Ian Lackey wrote most of the book and it covers the latest version of DotNetNuke 5, inside and out. I wrote the module development chapters that cover:

Creating modules using Silverlight Creating modules using Linq to SQL Creating modules in VB.NET and C# That is where the problem is. I know from experience that anger is caused by an expectation not met. This book will be known more for what it does not have, than what it does.

What...

At the last Microsoft MVP summit, I was eating lunch with Jeff Paries who I had collaborated with on previous Silverlight projects, but had not met in person until that week. I commented that I had not used the Silverlight gauge he created about a year ago because it was too big...

While you will find a bunch of free DotNetNuke modules with source code in the DotNetNuke Forge, I recently found a list  on Software’s Edge that contains some modules not found in the Forge.

Here is my disclaimer, Cathal has a post explaining the correct way to install DotNetNuke on Windows 7 so that you can use the “cross-app pool isolation feature”.

However, I posted a tutorial that explains how to install DotNetNuke the “old way” using Network Services.

http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/DNN5_DevelopmentEnvironment/Default.htm

You are probably thinking “Didn’t he already post a free DotNetNuke Silverlight file Uploader ?”. Well yeah I did, but this one is different.

This one allows a DotNetNuke portal administrator to place an instance of the module on a page and upload files. Each file has the ModuleID saved in its database record. The module will only show files for that module instance.



Each module instance has it’s own set of files, so you can set different visibility and permissions. It uses a Silverlight upload control so you can upload large files and select multiple files to be uploaded at one time.

You can download the module and the source at this link.

If you have a page that contains a lot of information for users to enter, you can run into a problem where their authentication will “time out”. Usually this authentication is set to expire after 20 minutes of “inactivity” (the user has not submitted a request to the web server). The problem is that if they, for example, click the Save button after their authentication has expired, their content is not saved and they are logged out of the site instead.



To prevent this, you can install the Silverlight Keep Logged In module. When you place it on a page, there is no UI just a Title.



You can go into Settings for the module and change them so that nothing appears at all on the page but the module will still work.



Note, it has to be set so that Registered Users have View Module permission.

Any page that the module is on will not “time out” for the user. The module works by making a “call” to a web service in the website every 10 minutes. It uses a hidden Silverlight application to do this.

Silverlight runs in the “context of the user’s web browser”, so if the user is logged in, the Silverlight application running on the web page is “logged in”. When it makes a request of the website, the website detects that the user is making a request and it refreshes the the users “authentication token”.

The Problem When a DotNetNuke module displays it’s first page, or it’s “default page”, all other modules on the page are also displayed. If the Silverlight Keep Logged In module is on the page, the user will not “time out”. However, if any other page in a module is displayed, all other modules are not displayed. In this case, the Silverlight Keep Logged In module will not work.

In this case, it would be necessary to incorporate the Silverlight Keep Logged In module code into the code of the custom module. The module structure is simple:



There is a View.ascx control to launch the hidden Silverlight application (SilverlightKeepLoggedIn.xap), with a supporting Silverlight.js file. There is also a web service that contains this code:

C#" Class="SilverlightKeepLoggedIn.WebService" %>...

At my day job we have an advanced developer who was given a difficult project where he has to implement a dozen business rules. I’m talking “ask for a blessing before you go in” and “ask for forgiveness when you come out” complicated code.

I watched him work on the code, and he is methodical at writing down the rules and writing a test case to make sure he properly implemented it.  This usually involves creating a “test case” by setting up data in the database just right and then clicking buttons and links and checking the expected output. I have worked with him over a year, and I can assure you he has probably deleted more good code than I have ever written. Everything is properly structured and segmented and the overall design will bring tears to you eyes with the beauty of it’s implementation.

But management keeps asking for major changes.

So I see this developer...

I just posted a module that allows you to easily create a sign-up list of verified email addresses.

A DotNetNuke portal administrator can place an instance of the module on a page and customize the sign-up message and the email verification message. The captured data can also be exported to Excel.

The module and code are posted here:

http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/Misc/SignUp/

I get an email every time a person joins one of my DotNetNuke sites. Lately I noticed that I am getting more emails than usual. This is across all sites like:

ADefHelpDesk.com – DotNetNuke Help Desk module OpenLight Group – DotNetNuke and Silverlight Blog Site DNN Silverlight – DotNetNuke and Silverlight example code and tutorials SilverlightDesktop.net - A framework that allows you to dynamically load Silverlight modules into resizable draggable windows IWeb – DotNetNuke and web services I have more DotNetNuke sites but these have been around for years and the traffic for all sites has been steadily increasing.

The traffic on ADefHelpDesk really has me puzzled. it took nearly a year to get to 1000 users but only 2 weeks to get to 1100. There is always...

I just posted part II to the DotNetNuke Hello World tutorial that demonstrates connecting to the database: http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/DNN5_HelloWorld/DNN5HelloWorld2.htm

I just posted a DotNetNuke 5 Hello World tutorial. The difference between this tutorial and the DotNetNuke 4 tutorials is that the module set-up is easier.

You can see the tutorial here:

http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/DNN5_HelloWorld/

Someone asked me how to display the user name rather than just the UserID in the Survey module results export file.



When you create a Survey with the Survey module, you can...