iFinity

Written by:
Friday, July 15, 2011 3:13 PM 

If you’re remotely connected to the DotNetNuke world, then you should know that DotNetNuke 6.0 is getting closer every day.

This is a major step forwards for the entire DotNetNuke platform, community and ecosystem.  Many of the long-term ‘bugbears’ are being solved and fixed.  This release marks the first, official conversion of the codebase to C# (not that this matters for day-to-day use).   The Administration experience is such a big jump forward over DotNetNuke 4 and 5 that it genuinely feels like a completely new product, but at the same time intuitive for anyone schooled in earlier versions.  Importantly, it opens up and allows the platform to really move into serious new features in the coming versions of DotNetNuke 6.

However, with any big jump forward, a couple of eggs get broken in the baking of a new cake.  One of those eggs is the Url Master module.

Fundamentally, what the module does (act as a Url Rewriter and Friendly Url Provider for the platform) still works as expected. 

However, the existing Url Master releases (all 1.x versions, and all versions up to and including 2.4.2) are not compatible with DotNetNuke 6.0.

User Interface

One of the big changes with DotNetNuke 6.0 is the implementation of jQuery UI as a major part of the presentation.  Url Master has been using jQuery UI for display of the settings since version 2.0 came out.   For this reason, adjustments have had to happen within Url Master in order to blend nicely into the overall platform.  The good news is because Url Master was already using the same technology as DotNetNuke 6.0 has adopted, with a few tweaks it now looks and feels like part of DotNetNuke itself.  This is good news for anyone who installs the module as a regular part of their client installations, because it reduces any training requirements to acquaint people with how to use the Administration of their site.

Above : Url Master Portal Urls page in DotNetNuke 6.0

New Security Settings

A change implemented in DotNetNuke 5.6.3 incorporated a tightening of ASP.NET settings.  This is a good thing for preventing malicious attacks against websites.  Unfortunately, it broke the ‘paged’ DNN page selection box which is used several times throughout the Url Master module.   For most people, this will present as an error where they click on a page in the list but it doesn’t ‘load’.

If they have javascript errors switched on, they may get an error like this :  Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: Invalid postback or callback argument…

Installation Routine

One of the features that people really like about this module is the fact that it installs itself into the Host and Administrator menus automatically, giving a simple installation procedure.   The drawback for this is that it relies heavily on being integrated on the DotNetNuke database to detect both when the module is installed, and when a new portal is added.  This became an issue when DotNetNuke 5.5 was released, because the existing release of Url Master wasn’t compatible.  The result was that some 5.5 installations failed, and the issue was hard to track down.  This wasn’t a great thing, and resulted in frustration for customers, hosting companies and consultants who have recommend this module to their clients.  This type of thing has happened to a few other module vendors with other releases, and it isn’t a good thing when it happens.

On this front, DotNetNuke corporation has been very pro-active at working with module vendors like myself at making sure any problems like these are uncovered much earlier to give both time for a good solution to be developed, and for this solution to be communicated with those affected.

The bad news is that DotNetNuke 6.0 suffers from a very similar problem to DotNetNuke 5.5 with regards to the Url Master module.

Therefore, the Url Master module should be upgraded prior to upgrading any existing DotNetNuke installation to DotNetNuke 6.0

If you upgrade a DotNetNuke 5.x installation to DotNetNuke 6.x with the Url Master module at or below version 2.4.2, you may experience errors in your DotNetNuke Upgrade.

The good news is that, with more time and resources to look at this problem, I have solved it in a way that ensures it should never happen again, no matter what happens with future DotNetNuke releases.

If you upgrade to DotNetNuke 6.0, you will need the latest version anyway, so the only real difference is that you should upgrade the Url Master module to version 2.4.3 (or later, if available at the time of reading) before you upgrade your DotNetNuke install.

DotNetNuke 6.0 Compatible Version

The DotNetNuke 6.0 compatible version is available for download from the Url Master Downloads Page. 

If you are currently using a 1.x version of the Url Master module (for example, 1.15 or 1.16) you will need to upgrade to 1.17.00.

If you are currently using a 2.x version of the Url Master module (for example, 2.1 or 2.4) you will need to upgrade to 2.04.03.

If you find a problem using these modules with DotNetNuke 5.6.3 or DotNetNuke 6.0, please report it via the Product Support Forums.

As stated above, if you are upgrading a DotNetNuke installation to a 6.0 or later version, please upgrade these modules prior to performing the upgrade.

Update : the build released on 15th July contained a bug which may affect some DotNetNuke 4.x installations.   This is fixed in the build 01 dated 17th July 2011 (02.04.03.01).  See this forum post for more detail.

Update 2 : I’ve been getting a few questions about if you have version 2.0 or 2.1, can you upgrade straight to 2.4, or whether you need an upgrade or licence change.  The answer is no – if you have 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 or 2.3, you can download and install the 2.4.3 version and upgrade by installing it in your DotNetNuke site.  You don’t need to change or update the licence in any way.   

The only circumstance you will need an upgrade or change to the licence is if you have any 1.x version (1.10, 1.12, 1.15 etc) and you want to upgrade to the 2.4.3 version.   If you wish to do this, then you can do so by purchasing a version upgrade.  However, if you are on a 1.x version, you don’t need to do this, you can just get 1.17 (as stated above). A 1.10/1.14/1.15 to 1.17 upgrade requires no change to the licence.

Trackback Print

Tags:

Categories:

Location: Blogs Crafty Code

Your name:
Your email:
	(Optional) Email used only to show Gravatar.
Your website:
Title:
Comment:
Add Comment   Cancel