Michael Washington

Quick And Easy Data Management With LightSwitch

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:39:01 GMT

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

The Tags that I created when I was the only blogger seem inadequate now, and I wanted to add new Tags and reassign Tags for existing Blog entries.

My goal is to do this in a way that is fast and easy. Keep in mind that while the LightSwitchHelpWebsite.com is focused on showing how you can use LightSwitch for full enterprise applications, LightSwitch was primarily designed to be used in the manner described in this article.

Create The Application

The first step is to create a LightSwitch application.

In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the Data Sources folder, and select Add Data Source.

Select Database.

Enter connection information and click OK.

Select the tables related to Blog Tags.

The Entities (tables) will show up in the Solution Explorer.

Right-click on Screens and select Add Screen.

Select the List and Details Screen template and the Blog_Entries table for Screen Data.

LightSwitch is able to see the foreign key relationships between the tables, and allow you to include the related tables.

In this case we only want to add the Blog_Entry_Tags table.

The screen will show in the designer, and the only change we will want to make is to remove the Entry Tag ID field because it is a auto number field that we cannot edit anyway.

Run The Application

We hit F5 to run the application.

We now have an application that allows us to select a Blog entry on the left-hand side of the screen, and edit it’s tags on the right.

Notice that LightSwitch automatically created a drop down of all the possible Tags. It is showing us the Tag name but correctly saving the Tag id in the database.

All of this is customizable, but LightSwitch automatically tries to figure things out for you.

We can also make a screen that would allow us to create new Tags.

Integrating DotNetNuke and LightSwitch

You can easily integrate any LightSwitch application inside your DotNetNuke website:

Easy DotNetNuke LightSwitch Deployment

DotNetNuke Things For Sale

This blog entry is cross posted on LightSwitchHelpWebsite.com

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My DotNetNuke site after installing Active Social

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:19:30 GMT

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

But the percentage of users who are new, has gone down. This is because users keep coming back and their percentage of total users rises.

The average time a user spends on the site has gone up. I think this is because the number of Forum posts (using the integrated Active Forums), rises and people spend more time reading them.

The number of new users each month has been constantly rising.

I bring this up, because as we move into DotNetNuke 6, we can expect new exciting things now that the DotNetNuke Corporation has acquired Active Modules, the creator of Active Social:

http://www.dotnetnuke.comhttp://www.dotnetnuke.com/News/Press-Releases/DotNetNuke-Corp.-Acquires-Active-Modules.aspx

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LightSwitch Things For Sale

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:14:05 GMT

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

The application allows Registered users to create posts of items they want to sale. They have to post their email address, because that is the only way for a visitor to contact them.

To demonstrate the productivity that LightSwitch provides, I recreated the application in LightSwitch, with the added feature that it allows visitors to send messages, and the poster to respond to them.

The entire application can be created in under an hour.

The tutorial is here:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/silverlight/DNNThingsForSale.aspx

I also have the application running live, in my DotNetNuke website here:

http://lightswitchhelpwebsite.com/Demos/ThingsForSale.aspx

Note: This is cross posted with my blog on http://OpenLightGroup.net

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Easy DotNetNuke LightSwitch Deployment

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Tags: Applications,DotNetNuke

LightSwitch and DotNetNuke

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:11:05 GMT

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 Framework, not just a content management application, provides the best deployment for LightSwitch applications. DotNetNuke is already a proven deployment tool for other Silverlight applications, I have DotNetNuke Silverlight applications, posted over several years at: http://dnnsilverlight.adefwebserver.com/.

You can see the tutorial for deploying LightSwitch applications in DotNetNuke at:

http://lightswitchhelpwebsite.com/Blog/tabid/61/EntryId/15/Deploy-Your-LightSwitch-Application-As-A-DotNetNuke-Module.aspx

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MyStudioServer goes Open Source

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

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 source code for the site as Open Source, because… well… we can .

By using DotNetNuke for the site, we did not have to put that much work into it, and other than registering the domain name, and buying a skin, we put no money into the site. When you use DotNetNuke as the base for your website, you do not have to create the majority of your site. Things like the look and feel (you can simply buy a skin), page management, menus, user registration, password recovery, security, roles, permissions, error logging, are all created for you. Using the directions such as the tutorials I have published at: DotNetNuke® Module Development Help Website, you can quickly create the custom functionality you need.

For Silverlight and DotNetNuke code, you can find plenty of free code an examples at: http://dnnsilverlight.adefwebserver.com/

You can download all the custom code and modules for MyStudioServer.com and adapt it for your own uses at:

http://mystudioserver.codeplex.com/

This blog post is cross-posted from my personal blog site (http://openlightgroup.net/Blog/tabid/58/EntryId/155/MyStudioServer-goes-Open-Source.aspx).

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A DotNetNuke Silverlight Expense Report Module

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:13:47 GMT

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 changes, it will create a "ExpenseReports.xap" file. Simply replace the file in the "DesktopModules\ExpenseReports\ClientBin" directory and you're done!

You can use the live demo and download the module and full source code at this link.
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DotNetNuke Web Service Authentication Methods

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:41:54 GMT

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.

First, the user must be using a web browser (this includes Ajax), or a plug-in running in a web browser such as Silverlight (this does not cover Silverlight running out of browser or on Windows Phone 7).

Next, you just use a web method such as this:

[WebMethod]
public string GetUsername() 
{            
  string strUsername = "World!";
  // Get the current user
  
  UserInfo objUserInfo = UserController.GetCurrentUserInfo();   
  // If the user is not -1 they are logged in           
  
  if (objUserInfo.UserID > -1)           
  {              
    strUsername = objUserInfo.DisplayName;    
  }      
  
  return strUsername;  
}

That's it. if they are logged in, their UserID will be greater then –1. The only problem with this method:

They will time-out if they have not made any calls, and their IIS authorization token has expired
This will not work with any non web browser (or web browser plug-in) situation

Authentication Using Custom Token

SilverlightDesktop.net creates a special “user authentication token” and passes it to the Silverlight application:

objUser = DotNetNuke.Entities.Users.UserController.GetCurrentUserInfo();
string strSilverlightPassword = Authendication.SetSilverlightKey(objUser, ModuleId, strIPAddress);

The application uses this password on all web service calls. The advantage of this approach, is that the password will not “time-out”. The user can keep the screen open for hours and never need log-in again. Also, their real password is not transmitted over the network.

The “SetSilverlightKey” code is a bit complex, because it contains code that prevents a hacker from trying to guess passwords (scrambles the password on each bad attempt), or locking a user out by guessing wrong (it tracks the last IP address a user has used, and only scrambles a password if it came from the same IP “block” that the user last logged on to). It also prevents a hacker from using the correct password if it comes from a different IP block.

Ripping out the “SetSilverlightKey” code for your own use is easy, as SilverlightDesktop.net provides you with full source code.

The negative of this approach is:

This will not work with any non web browser (or web browser plug-in) situation

Authenticating Manually

You may have heard of IWeb. This is a long running project created by The Open Light Group (Ian Lackey and myself).

The real purpose of this module is to allow you to easily warehouse web methods for enterprise situations. It allows you to easily set security access of Web methods you create, by DotNetNuke role.

The thing that it does in relationship to this article, is that it authenticates a user from outside of DotNetNuke. This will work for things such as Windows Phone 7, and out of browser Silverlight applications.

You do not need to use IWeb if you don’t need all it’s features, you can just grab the source code from http://iweb.adefwebserver.com. It’s available in VB and C#.

Basically, start ripping out the code starting with the code in Webservice.cs (or .vb) that looks like this:

IWebAuthendication objIWebAuthendication = new IWebAuthendication(IWebCredentials);
if (!(objIWebAuthendication.ValidAndAuthorized()))
{
 return "0,Not Authorized";
}

This article covers using IWeb with Ajax and you may also find it helpful:

http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/Misc/Dotnetnuke_Secure_AJAX_webservices.htm

The negative of this approach is:

You are transmitting the Users DotNetNuke username and password with each web service call. However, you can transmit using SSL, and IWeb does allow you to encrypt passwords (you use the same “encryption key” on both the client and the server).

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Localize Your Modules For Free

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:31:20 GMT

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 DNN, the filename extensions will automatically match with the DNN extension for the language they selected.

RESX Spell Check – A free service of Data Springs, Inc.

This service can be accessed via http://datasprings.com/Resources/RESXLocalizationSpellChecker.aspx. Similar to the translation service but there is no zip file, just a report. You can still choose from 30+ languages for the spell check.

Also note, Chad Nash will be speaking at DotNetNuke Connections '10.

Register before September 1st and save $100 on your conference registration fee!

http://www.dotnetnuke.comhttp://www.dotnetnuke.com/News/Events/DotNetNukeConnections10/tabid/1512/Default.aspx

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Upgrading DotNetNuke to ASP.NET 4.0

webmaster@adefwebserver.com — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:33:35 GMT

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...