DotNetNuke can be installed on Windows XP to provide a test and development environment.
Implementing DotNetNuke on Windows XP allows for:
- a backup up for a live DotNetNuke website
- try out ideas and development for the live website
- development of custom modules and skins
To add a DotNetNuke website to Windows XP, the files available from the DotNetNuke website are added to a configured directory; IIS is configured to handle the website and a database is created for the DotNetNuke to implement the tables and stored procedures.
DotNetNuke
Unzip the downloaded DotNetNuke archive to the directory. The DotNetNuke archive is obtained from http://www.dotnetnuke.com/.
The web.config file is edited to add the information regards the database, username and password.
No further configuration of the DotNetNuke source code is required.
IIS
For DotNetNuke development I am happy to accept the default IIS directory of c:\IntePub\www.
Only one site can be run on IIS on Windows XP so there is no requirement to divide the directory into multiple sites.
In IIS a virtual directory is used to point to the DotNetNuke directory.
Open IIS and add a new virtual directory under the default website. Ensure that all access rights are available, including writing, directory browsing and source code access.
Windows XP
The default setting for directory security under Windows XP is hidden. We need this to be revealed so that we can add full access rights for the user Network Services.
From an explorer window select tools and folder options
Under the View tab scroll to the last item, “Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)”, ensure that this is not checked.
SQL Server
Using SQL Web Data Administrator ensure that there is a database for use by DotNetNuke, calling it DotNetNuke is a good idea. A dedicated user, for example dnnUser, and password to make the connection, rather than using the SQL server/MSDE SA account. Configuring MSDE is covered in another article.
Now edit the file web.config in the DotNetNuke directory, There are two instances of the configuration and connection details for the SQL database connection, one in the appSettins section and one in the providers section. Change the values of mDBname, mUsername and mPassword to suit your Database name, SQL user name and associated password.
<appSettings> <addkey="connectionString" value="Server=localhost;Database=mDBname;uid=mUsername;pwd=mPassword;"/> <appSettings> <addname = "SqlDataProvider" type"DotNetNuke.Data.SqlDataProvider, DotNetNuke.SqlDataProvider" connectionString"Server=localhost;Database=dnndb;uid=mUsername;pwd=mPassword;" providerPath"~\Providers\DataProviders\SqlDataProvider\" objectQualifier"" databaseOwner"dbo" upgradeConnectionString"" />
References
Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator may be downloaded from here.
MSDE may be downloaded from here.
