I just uploaded a lot of pictures to my Facebook profile, and also attached the photos to the ODUG group.  Below is a summary of the photographed events.

We recently had a DevConnections tweetup, partially sponsored by the Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group. ...

The Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group (ODUG) website finally has the speaker files from the sessions that were presented at the South Florida Code Camp last month.  Among the files are the power point slides, skin files, widgets, and more.  Make sure that you read the included “read me” file, as it will point you to other download locations for some of the speaker files.

2009 South Florida Code Camp DotNetNuke Track Speaker Materials

Technorati Tags: DotNetNuke,DNN,DNN Blog,Sessions,Code Camp,Widgets,Skinning,SKins

The WillStrohl.FeedHandler module for DotNetNuke has just had another release.  Version 1.01.00 is now available for download at CodePlex.  In this release, I added some missing validation in the edit views.  I also added a feature that should have been part of the initial release.  You can now import feeds using a URL, and not just using the dropdownlist.

Download it now, and let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: DotNetNuke,DNN,DNN Blog,Module,Open Source

It's no secret that I was the contributing technical editor (TE) for Professional DotNetNuke 5: Open Source Web Application Framework for ASP.NET, by Wrox. Being a TE has some great perks, not the least of which being one of the first people to see the content of an upcoming book.  I had the responsibility of looking over the 4 module...

I just released the WillStrohl.FeedHandler module for DotNetNuke websites.  This module is meant to be used to manage the RSS feeds for a DotNetNuke website.  Why?  There are many times when an RSS feed might render output that you are not happy with. 

For example, the image paths might be virtual, and not full paths.  If someone consumes and renders the feed, they would see broken images.  Another example would be with the core Announcements Module.  It’s output puts the module title before the announcement titles for each feed item.  In either case, you probably are not happy with the results.  This module aims to address that issue.

Here are the minimum system requirements for the module:

DotNetNuke:  4.06.02 + .Net FrameWork:  2.0 + SQL Server:  2000 + Check out the module for yourself on DotNetNuke Forge,...

The 4th Annual Orlando Code Camp is literally days away.  There is plenty of exciting content, and great speakers.  As usual, we are expecting people to fly in from various place to attend and speak.  Orlando Code Camp is primarily put on by the talented folks from the Orlando .Net User Group (ONETUG).  They are well-known for doing a fantastic job...

On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, the Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group (ODUG) is welcoming Tom Kraak.  Tom is a very well-known consultant in the DotNetNuke eco-system for his work as an Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert.  His specialty these days appears to be in DNN implementations.  While he also provides other services and support in his...

We all pretty much know that DotNetNuke has officially adopted jQuery, beginning with version 5.00.00.  Although version 4.09.02 has the scripts in the installation, jQuery still does not have “official” support until version 5.  I have built a module that facilitates this need, and blogged about how to do so, but if you already have PageBlaster installed, why install another module to use a feature you already have in your possession?

PageBlaster (PB) does many great things, among them is the...

Scott Willhite just blogged, announcing that the DotNetNuke project, and many of its affiliates and ecosystem vendors are nominated for a possible Readers Choice Award for 2009.  Scott does a great job of summarizing the award and the vendors/affiliates,...

I am not sure that the entire DotNetNuke community knows about the Ignite IT Awards, put on by Microsoft Canada, despite Shaun Walker blogging about it.  As of this morning, DotNetNuke is only in 3rd place, and I would certainly have expected for the project to be number one.   In the past, DNN have been in 1st and 2nd place, so we appear to be dropping in the rankings.

Did you know…

That you can vote every day? That anyone in the world can vote? Voting...

During my day today, I stumbled across something with the help of my followers and followees on twitter.  In all actuality, I should already know this little trick, but when I fire up Visual Studio, the last thing I want to do is fish through the settings.  I am simply interested in coding, and if you’re reading this, you probably feel the same way.  Anyhow, let’s get to why you are reading this blog entry.

When you start Visual Studio, you’re certainly used to seeing the start up page.  This page has all of the latest Microsoft marketing and development blogs.  However, after a quick poll, I found out that most folks feel the same way that I do.  First, it usually takes too long for the RSS feed to load up, and second, we usually don’t look at it anyway.  So what can we do about this?  We can do a few things.

In order to change the way that Visual Studio starts up, we need to turn to the Options dialog in the Tools menu.

...

If your G1 phone, otherwise called the Google phone, seems to be losing its charge faster today, than it normally does, that’s probably because it is.  As of today, one of the most popular Android applications began charging for their program.  The program is called Power Manager.  It is the most important application you can possibly install on the G1, as it helps to make your battery life last longer.  This application does more than just say that it will save battery life.  Once it is set up to save power according to your usage patterns (which you set), it makes an incredible difference.  For me, that meant only charging my phone once a day, compared to the typical owners that charge theirs 2 or more times a day.

As of today...

At a recent event, one of the people attending asked me why I do what I do.  We were at the after event social party, and had just finished going over a lot of the volunteer things that I do.  The fact is, I really do not realize how many things I volunteer for until that question is asked (or another like it).  I indeed keep myself pretty busy, especially in the DotNetNuke community.

So, I really haven’t answered the question yet.  And I do not think that I effectively answered it when I was asked either.  The question ate at me, as I hadn’t really reflected on it in a while.  I just set myself in motion, and I have been going non-stop for a long time now.  Before I can effectively answer that question, I need to really explain what brought me to the point of making the decision to speak.

Point A to Point Now My career in my current profession began many moons ago, in a technical support position, supporting WAN and LAN environments, mainly ...

I announced a class that was to be given by Andy Warren of End to End Training earlier this week.  I just got home from it.  I must say that I was very impressed and found several areas that I need to improve in my own presentations.  The attendees ranged from those who have never spoken in front of an audience before, to people like me who have a decent background speaking.  However, I would suggest that speakers of ANY level take this class, or another like it.

Why Did I Go? Even though I am already presenting various topics fairly regularly, and speaking to members of the ODUG on a monthly basis, I still thought there was plenty that I could learn.  I subscribe to the belief that no one knows everything on any given topic.  I also have learned through leadership training that in order to achieve your goals as a leader, one of the most...

On Thursday, March 12, 2009, I presented a session to the Space Coast SQL User Group in Melbourne, Florida.  The topic was Managing DotNetNuke Using SQL Server.  This was my first time presenting to a user group other than the Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group, but I hope to do this some more in the future.  I have presented at several code camps, and the OpenForce Connect event in Orlando last year, but I really enjoyed the coziness there is to be had in presenting to a user group.

I left from my Clermont home just after 3 PM, expecting to hit a lot of traffic, and arrive around 5:00 – 5:30 PM.  According to Google Maps, this trip is supposed to take about 1.5 hours.  However, I have known from my past trips to this area, to expect a 2-hour drive (or more).  Amazingly, we arrived in an hour!  I was floored.

I brought the family with me, as my lady was having...

For the longest time, DotNetNuke has assumed in many areas that administrators and hosts know what they're doing.  Why shouldn't we assume that?  I will not advocate that we should rethink that philosophy, because I don't believe that should.  But the DNN team has done just that with a usability "feature" that was introduced in DotNetNuke version 5.00.00. 

A well-known feature of DNN, is allowing administrators to change the "page" that is used when a visitor clicks the Login link on a DNN site.  This is very useful if you want to decorate the login form with advertising, instructions, or if you want to enable SSL on the login page.  It's easy enough to do as well.  Just login using an account with administrator permissions.  Then change the setting, like shown in the screen shot below.

...

If you live in the Central Florida area, an event just came to my attention that you should consider.  Unfortunately, it is very short notice.  If you are thinking about speaking to a user group or at a code camp event, or just want to brush up on your existing speaking skills, I suggest you attend.

Here is the official event text:

Technical Speaking Class oPASS President Andy Warren is teaching his free semi-annual class on Technical Speaking this Saturday (Mar 14) at the offices of End to End Training, 225 S Westmonte Dr Ste 2010, Altamonte Springs, FL. The class begins at 8:30 am and runs 4-6 hours based on the number of attendees, and is designed for the beginner to intermediate level speaker - perfectly appropriate to attend if you're wanting to prepare for the big step of doing a presentation for the first time, whether it's for a user group, SQL Saturday, or just co-workers. This class focuses on all technical speaking, not just SQL Server.

Registration: http://www.endtoendtraining.com/public/classes/coursedetails.aspx?courseid=38

...

Following the creation of the WillStrohl.Injection module, I was on a roll.  So I quickly readapted a private module I had to be another public module.  This happened to become the WillStrohl.CookieCheck module, also available on DotNetNuke Forge and CodePlex.

Unlike many modules out there, this module is very simple to manage, and even more simple to use.  In short, it just works.  First of all, it has been tested to work with DotNetNuke version 4.06.02 and up.  When you install it, and drop it on one of your DNN pages, it will inherit the container setting just like any other module.  It will look similar to the following screen shot.

...

Recently, I created my first Forge and CodePlex project.  This one was called WillStrohl.Injection.  The purpose of this project was two-fold.  First, I wanted to build a useful module to give to the community for free, in an attempt to give back.  Second, all of my module development up to this point has been private modules, unavailable to the public in most capacities.  I wanted to have something publicly available.  :)

This first venture was to be in the form of an injection module.  The basic idea was to allow DotNetNuke site administrators to easily inject HTML content into a DNN page.  This, in hopes of preventing the site administrators from modifying the DNN page source code.  I hopefully have achieved that for those that use the module.

This module can...

UPDATED! There is a video from a co-workers cell phone that captures me taking a picture of our CEO taking a picture of the commotion. Scroll down to see it...

I wear noise cancellation headphones most of my day at work in an attempt to block out unwanted distractions, and to get some great sounds from my Pandora stations.  This afternoon, there was a sound that I couldn't block out.  I kept hearing the fast clatter of high heels in the office.  I even saw a few of the women here talking loudly, and running past my office.  Curiosity got the best of me, so I got up and followed the noise to its source.

I made it to our back door, but on the way I began to get a whiff of a familiar smell.  It smelled like electrical wires burning.  Whew! Stinky!  As I approached the back door, there were people circled around it, and it was clear that no one wanted to exit.  I had no idea what was up, so I made my way out the door.  Here is what I saw once outside:

...

If you haven't been keeping up, I will be presenting a session at the newly formed Space Coast SQL Server User Group in Melbourne, Florida this Thursday.  That's on March 12, 2009.  Well, to be fair, I have been so busy, that I have not been plugging it as much as I normally would have as well.  Sorry guys!

Basically, I will be going over the relationship that DotNetNuke has with SQL Server, and some of the ways that I use SQL Server to manage my DNN sites.  Hopefully, everyone will find value in it.

I always try to stream my presentations, but I am not 100% sure that I will be able to this time.  I will definitely record it, but I am not sure how fast I can post it, as I am back logged in video rendering right now.

Here is the user group information.  Please try and make it.  I am going to be giving away at least one Wrox DNN book.

Start Time: 6:30 PM

...

The Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group (ODUG) was very fortunate this month to have an INETA sponsored meeting.  It was INETA who paid the bill to fly and accommodate Chris Hammond.  If you don't already know, Chris Hammond is a pretty well known name in the DotNetNuke community. ...

In a previous blog entry tonight, I briefly outlined that I was not able to import one of my child blogs when attempting to use the Windows Live Writer (WLW) method of blogging to a DotNetNuke blog.  It was quite perplexing.  I even posted a forum post about it, as I could not find any information about anyone else having the same issue.

To quickly recap, I followed the instructions provided in a blog post by Antonio Chagoury.  In Step 4, WLW shows you a list of available blogs to choose from.  I would imagine that most folks would only have a single blog entry available in the list.  However, if you're like me, that may not be true.

In my instance, I have a parent blog of which I do not post to.  Then, I have two child blogs, Personal Edition, and Professional Edition.  (I named my child blogs before the DNN PE announcement.)  The Professional Edition is where I post all of my DotNetNuke related entries.  Everything else goes into the Personal Edition.  I go into more detail about this configuration in an earlier blog post.  Basically, it allows me to split up the RSS feeds pretty painlessly.

Back to step 4... Professional Edition was missing from my list of available blogs to connect WLW to. There didn't appear to be any real reason for this.  My first instinct was that this was a new bug that I had found.  This turned out to be mostly true.

Background Information The DotNetNuke Blog Module allows any blog owner to create child blogs for a variety of reasons.  When the blog owner creates such a blog, the blog module inserts their UserId into the new blog record.  Sounds simple enough, but if you're not careful, this work flow can be easily disrupted.

The Super User or Host account was designed to be able to do anything on an entire instance of DotNetNuke.  In the case of the blog module, this account takes more of a moderation role.  For example, being able to manage rogue bloggers, or inappropriate posts.

In the case of existing blogs, the Host account can create child blogs for the actual blog owner.  This behavior is important to note, as this is the cause of the problem I am writing about.

Why is the Child Blog Missing from WLW? When the actual owner of a blog creates their own child blog, everything works as expected.  But when a Host creates a child blog on someone else's existing blog, the UserId that is inserted into the blog record is that of the Host account.  If you are not using a tool like WLW, the different UserId might never present a problem.  However, when you use WLW, the first step asks for authentication information.  This information includes the blog URL, username, and password.  When WLW pulls a list of available blogs from your blog website, it only pulls the blogs that match the UserId matching the given username.  BINGO!

How Do We Fix This? Fortunately, the fix for this problem is quick and easy.  That is, as long as you have either direct access to the database, or a Host account.  I will assume here that you're using a Host account.  The first thing we need to do is figure out what the BlogID is for the child blog that is missing.  We can do that using a bit of T-SQL.

Using the host account, you would run the following query using the SQL page, found in the Host menu.  Make sure you check the "Run As Script" checkbox.

SELECT * FROM {DatabaseOwner}{ObjectQualifier}blog_blogs...

Today is the first that I am trying Windows Live Writer (WLW) to post to my blog.  This post is mostly just to see how everything works.  However, I have run into one major problem.  Searches on the DotNetNuke website have yet to lead me to anyone else having the same problem though.

Basically, I followed the excellent instructional blog post by Antonio Chagoury. When I get to Step 4, I am missing my most active and popular blog, Professional Edition. I only see my main parent blog, The Mighty Blog, and Personal Edition.

I posted this problem in the DotNetNuke Forums,...

In one of my DotNetNuke sites, I have a folder full of XML files. Some had become invalid recently. Here's how I tracked them down.

There have been some "interesting" discussions happening on the DotNetNuke Forums recently, so I thought I'd touch on a couple of points that were being missed throughout all of the chatter.

Don't worry. Lowes is not on my boycott list yet, but they may snag you with a financial customer service snafu...

I was invited to speak at the next Space Coast SQL User Group meeting. Of course you know I will make it all about DotNetNuke...

Yesterday, I kinda vented about a press release that the DotNetNuke Corporation sent out.  Today, we have a happy end to that...

Today started out innocently enough.  But it was clearly a day for me to remember, as far as my DotNetNuke involvement goes...