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Friday, February 11, 2011 10:17 AM 

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about upgrading DotNetNuke whilst using Url Master.  It seems there’s a bit of confusion and disinformation floating around, so I’m taking the time to document the canonical answer to this scenario.  Consider this post definitive.

Question : Do I need to disable the Url Master module in order to upgrade?

Answer : No you don’t have to, but you can if you want.   The upgrade process in DotNetNuke is essentially requesting the /install/install.aspx Url, which loads up the installation page and runs the install process.  The Url Master module knows all about the install Url, and totally ignores it, meaning the module does not ‘do’ anything with it.

If you’re the paranoid type (and it sometimes pays to be paranoid with upgrades) then, before you upgrade, you can go into the Host->Friendly Url Settings page, and click on the big ‘Revert to Standard Provider’ button.  This switches the module off.  Do the upgrade, and when your site is working again, go back into Host->Friendly Url Settings and click the ‘Apply Changes’ button.   This disables the module for the duration of the upgrade process, which doesn’t really do much, but gives you assurance that Url Rewriting is not interfering with the upgrade process.

It’s far, far, far, far more important that you take a full backup of the database and file system of your site before doing the upgrade.  As long as you do this, no matter what happens, you can go back to your pre-upgrade status.

NOTE: This answer applies to all versions of Url Master and DotNetNuke.

Question : Should I uninstall the Url Master module before doing a DNN Upgrade?

Answer : No.  Uninstalling the module removes all of your saved settings and details.  There’s no need.

Question : Is Url Master compatible with DNN 5.5, 5.6, 5.6.1?

Answer : Yes, but you will need the latest version if you haven’t upgraded Url Master in a while.  As of DotNetNuke 5.5 (and later) several changes were introduced to the Tabs and Modules tables to facilitate the new multi-language features of DotNetNuke.   This necessitated a change in the Url Master module.  I stress these changes only affected the database code that automatically creates the Friendly Url Settings and Portal Urls pages.  The actual core functionality of the module doesn’t change.   Thus, the side effects of having upgraded DNN without upgrading Url Master are restricted to errors when creating new portals or (possibly) when adding new modules.

However, you should upgrade the Url Master module to the latest version before you upgrade your DNN version.   This applies to the following scenarios:

1. Url Master module version earlier than 2.2 or 1.16 (ie, 2.1 or 1.15)
2. DNN Version earlier than 5.5 (ie, 5.2, 5.1, 5.4 or 4.9)

NOTE: Whenever a new DNN release is found to be incompatible with Url Master, a patch or fix is usually quickly released.  You can safely assume that the latest version of Url Master module is compatible with the latest release of DotNetNuke.  If you haven’t already done so, you should subscribe to the newsletter where this information is disseminated.

Question : What’s the difference between 1.16 and 2.2?

Answer: 1.16 is the latest release on the 1.x codebase.  If you have a current version which starts with 1 (ie , 1.x) then you can upgrade to 1.16 to stay compatible with 5.5/5.6/5.6.1 (and later).  1.16 was created to give customers who are on 1.15 or earlier versions a way to keep the module compatible with later DNN Releases without having to upgrade.

2.2.4 is the latest (at the time of writing) on the 2.x codebase.  If you have a current version which starts with 2 (ie, 2.x) then you can upgrade to the 2.2.4 version.  The 2.x version is the current version, and all new releases will be 2.x versions.  No more features will be added to 1.x.  If you want to take advantage of the DNN Multi-Language features, you’ll need 2.x. 

If you want to go from, say, 1.15 to 2.2, you will need to purchase an upgrade to the latest version.  Here’s the process for that:

1. Purchase the upgrade from the Url Master Version Upgrade page (cost : $30)
2. Obtain your upgraded 2.x licence file by visiting the Licensing page (you will receive the details after purchasing)
3. Upload your new 2.x licence into your 1.x version
4. Download the latest 2.x version from the Downloads page
5. Install the 2.x version of Url Master in your DNN installation

Question : I get this Sql error when I try and do the DotNetNuke upgrade, or uninstall the Url Master module – is this a bug in the Url Master module?

“Subquery returned more than 1 value. This is not permitted when the subquery follows =, !=, <, <= , >, >= or when the subquery is used as an expression”. 

Answer : This module is caused, 99 times out of 100, by another module you have installed on your site.  The other module is the DNN360 Menu, and it creates a trigger on the Tabs table which doesn’t allow the update or more than one Tab record at a time.  The Url Master install, uninstall and (some) upgrades run updates on the Tabs table which affect more than one Tab record.

To fix the error, please see this forum post about the DNN360 Menu module and Subquery Bug – or, just remove the DNN306 Menu.

Question : How do I find out about new Url Master upgrades and the status of Compatibiltiy?

Answer: That’s easy - subscribe to the newsletter.  You’ll be notified of new releases, breaking changes and anything else important.

If there is anything else you want to know or feel that I have missed, please let me know via the comments section below.

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