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DNN Blog
Feb
27
Posted by:
Charles Nurse
2/27/2007
In part 2 of this series of blogs on the new features that we will be including in DotNetNuke 4.5.0, I will begin to introduce you to the most significant enhancement in this release.
For the past few weeks we have been working on the design and implementation of a new Wizard based installer. The aim of this installer is to supplement the current "Auto-Install" installer, by providing a more interactive installer.
If you visit the main page of the Forums on this site, it is clear that one of the most popular Forums is the "Install It" forum, and that one of the most significant challenges that new users face is installation (especially on a remote Hosting account).
The Windows-based Installer project (headed by Antonio Chagoury) aims to solve the issues for users who need to install on their local system, as well as configure IIS and SQL Server (Xpress). This new Web-based Wizard will complement this to provide a more interactive system for installing DotNetNuke remotely (although it will still work on the local system).
Just as with the "Auto-Install" install process in DNN 4.4.1 and earlier, you will need to have IIS configured and the Database will need to be configured and ready to use. (We hope to be able to support SQL Server 2005/2000 Databases, SQL Server Express Files and Oracle Databases out of the box - Note, that to use Oracle databases you will need the Oracle Dataprovider from WebAcuity).
When you first browse to your DotNetNuke site, the AutoInstall logic will now redirect you to the Install Wizard if it detects that DotNetNuke has not been installed yet (Note: for hosters and others who like to use the unattended auto-install feature, this can still be accessed through the url - portalalias/Install/Install.aspx?mode=install).
Here is the first page of the Wizard.
This is the first page of ten possible pages. This page allows you to select the Installation method (Full/Typical/Auto). If you select the Full installation method every page of the Wizard is "visited" during the installation process allowing you to completely customise your site. Selecting the Typical installation method bypasses some of the "optional" pages making typical choices. Finaly selecting Auto switches you to the "legacy" auto-installer.
You can also select the language of installation. For the intsaller the languages need to be included in the release package, so at this stage, while the feature is present, we cannot say which langauges will be available.
I hope this has given you a taste of things to come - remember this is still under development so the final version may not look exactly as described.
In future blogs I will describe some of the other Wizard pages.
13 comment(s) so far...
Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
As you said: The "Install It"-Forum is one of the most popular. If you go little deeper inside forum thread, you fast will learn an other point: The pain point is not only the first installation off a DNN-Instance - its the upgrade and migration process!
DNN's releases are rolled out in quite a high cadency and if you are hosting DNN on at a hosting provider, this is the point that generates headaches to most webmasters ...
Thus I would say: A installer is a great thing but, it should be the first step to a real installation, upgrade and migrate (backup/restore) Modul.
By bennowyss on
2/27/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
PLEASE provide an more pain-free way to move sites and databases from dev to production. EvB's blog/FAQ is a good start, but it does not properly address transferring login information from dev to production, it doesn't cover updating an existing dev or production setup...
As a newcomer to DNN I'm disappointed that the install/upgrade/update process is so complicated, I really hope it gets better.
Thank you for working on it...and I really agree with bennowyss' comments above.
Thank you, Tom
By tlyczko on
2/27/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
Is the new DNN 4.5, will it support the AJAX right away ? Please do so, if not already considered
By IndianGuru on
2/27/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
charles, i like it .
By bbhermann on
2/27/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
I agree with bennowyss on the upgrade process being as critical to handle (along with backup/restore).
The variance between hosting providers is still vast and the end to end lifetime experience of using DNN should be great. Moving the responsibility of the install/backup/restore process from host (uncontrolled/uncontrollable) to DNN wizards (structured standards and user control) is good for everyone.
PS love your work.
By Genratec on
2/27/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
It will be possible to localize the wizard or it will show only in english??
By spakinz on
2/28/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
To answer some of these points.
1. The install wizard is a first step - next we will look at Upgrade issues.
2. Localization of the wizard is built in - the availability of languages depends on resources available to do the job.
3. We will be providing some AJAX support in 4.5 - I will let shaun and Jon blog on the solution as I do not know what they have included.
By cnurse on
2/28/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
Thanks in advance for newer version.
DotNetNuke can learn lot of more features from JOOMLA!. Please try to put these features in New version.
By Sunil MIshra on
2/28/2007
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IzGe CoM
i'm web site in www.izge.com not install :(
By izgecom on
2/28/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
I hope all these demand are from payers of he benfactor program. We are developers and some work has to be done to get things to work a little. After all this framework is bascially free. Stop complaining no much and join a project..
By kingcomtech on
2/28/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
Good work, guys.
I'm with kingcomtech. IMO, transfer from dev to production is no different from any other data driven web app. Export/Import and backup/restore are really a function of the DBMS, not the application. Any tools DNN provides are just frosting, but it's really just transfer the files and transfer the database.
As for upgrading... well, yeah, sometimes there are some breaking changes. But the process can't get much simpler than copying new files. It's bugs and version control that are the problem there.
By wesclyburn on
3/1/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
There's one problem that I can see with the Wizard, and i'm sure it can be taken care of... but... what if we want to FORCE the wizard to ONLY start on a specific URL. This way, we can upload the files, and if someone browses to the main URL (http://www.mysite.com), it just displays a "Sorry not ready yet" message. BUT, if they goto a specific URL (http://www.mysite.com/install/wizard.aspx) then it starts the wizard. The reason I say this is because this is how almost ALL other CMS and portal install wizards work in a hoted environment. Whatif I put the files up on a website, and for some reason someone else happens along the url and goes through the configuration process (setting passwords and all the like) before I have a chance to do the configurations as the administrator? I know it seems unlikely, but still, it is more secure that way. And, you know, I havent' tested it yet, so in reality it may already work that way... I just hope so... :)
By gille001 on
3/2/2007
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Re: DotNetNuke 4.5.0 - A Sneak Peek (2)
gille001 - this has been considered.
Note that unless the user knows the connection string information they cannot pass the Test Database Connection page.
So don't set up the connection string manually before uploading and you will be ok.
By cnurse on
3/6/2007
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