Monday, August 28, 2006
by Nik Kalyani
Monday, August 28, 2006 5:36:32 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Testing an implementation of the DNN ISearchable interface implementation for a module can be time-consuming and slow if you rely on the DNN search engine indexer to run and then either check the database for results or use the Search UI. There is a simpler way.

Copy and paste the below script into DNNSearch.aspx (or grab the attachment at the end of this post), place the file in the root folder of your app and you can test ISearchable for any module instance with ease. The script requires you to provide a TabId and a ModuleId. It then queries the database for the BusinessController defined in the DesktopModules table and instantiates it exactly as the DNN search indexer does. It then calls GetSearchItems() and displays the results.

Unlike the DNN search indexer, DNNSearch does not make any changes to the database. It is useful only for testing if the ISearchable implementation is working correctly and does not provide any insights into any issues that the search index provider you are using may have.

 

DNNSearch.aspx

<%@ Import namespace="DotNetNuke.Entities.Modules" %>
<%@ Import namespace="DotNetNuke.Services.Search" %>
<%@ Import namespace="DotNetNuke.Common" %>
<%@ Page Language="c#" AutoEventWireup="false" %>
<script runat="server">
 
    void Results_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int moduleId = -1;
        try
        {
            moduleId = Convert.ToInt32(ModuleId.Text);
        }
        catch
        {
        }
 
        int tabId = -1;
        try
        {
            tabId = Convert.ToInt32(TabId.Text);
        }
        catch
        {
        }
 
        if ((moduleId > -1) && (tabId > -1))
            GetSearchResults(moduleId, tabId);
        else
            SearchResults.Text = "Both Module ID and Tab ID are required";
    }
 
    void GetSearchResults(int moduleId, int tabId)
    {
        ModuleController moduleController = new ModuleController();
        ModuleInfo moduleInfo = moduleController.GetModule(moduleId, tabId);
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
 
        if (moduleInfo == null) 
        {
            SearchResults.Text = "No module found with ModuleID=" + moduleId.ToString() + " and TabID=" + tabId.ToString();
            return;
        }
 
        if (moduleInfo.BusinessControllerClass == "")
            SearchResults.Text = "The BusinessControllerClass in the database is blank.";
        else
        {
            try
            {
                object bizController = DotNetNuke.Framework.Reflection.CreateObject(moduleInfo.BusinessControllerClass, moduleInfo.BusinessControllerClass);
                if (bizController == null)
                    SearchResults.Text = "The Business Controller Class <b>" + moduleInfo.BusinessControllerClass + "</b> could not be instantiated.";
                else
                {    
                    SearchContentModuleInfo contentInfo = new SearchContentModuleInfo();
                    contentInfo.ModControllerType = (ISearchable) bizController;
                    contentInfo.ModInfo = moduleInfo;
                    SearchItemInfoCollection results = contentInfo.ModControllerType.GetSearchItems(contentInfo.ModInfo);
                    if (results != null)
                    {
                        int counter = 0;
                        foreach(SearchItemInfo searchItem in results)
                        {
                    if (moduleInfo.ModuleID == searchItem.ModuleId)
                    {
                        sb.Append("<p>Title: " + searchItem.Title);
                        sb.Append("<br>GUID: " + searchItem.GUID);
                        sb.Append("<br>Date: " + searchItem.PubDate.ToLongDateString());
                        sb.Append("<br>Description: " + searchItem.Description + "</p>");
                    }
                    counter++;
                        }
                        SearchResults.Text = counter.ToString() + " results found.<br>" + sb.ToString();
                    }
                    else
                        SearchResults.Text = "No search results.";
                }
            }
            catch(Exception e)
            {
                SearchResults.Text = "Error: " + e.Message + "<br><br>" + e.StackTrace;
            }
        }
    }
 
    override protected void OnInit(EventArgs e)
    {
        Results.Click += new EventHandler(Results_Click);
        base.OnInit(e);
    }
 
</script>
 
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
    <HEAD>
        <title>Speerio ISearchable Test</title>
        <style>
              body, p {font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt}
        </style>
    </HEAD>
    <body>
        <p><font size="4">DNNSearch Script - by <a href="http://www.speerio.net">Speerio, Inc.</a></p>
        <p><font color="red" size="4">WARNING: Do not leave this script installed on a production system.</font></p>
        <form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
            <p>Tab ID: <asp:TextBox ID="TabId" Runat="server"></asp:TextBox></p>
            <p>Module ID: <asp:TextBox ID="ModuleId" Runat="server"></asp:TextBox></p>
            <asp:Button ID="Results" Runat="server" Text="Get Search Results" /></p>
            <p>To test for user-specific results, add code to GetSearchItems() to check for userid=N in querystring.</p>
            <p><b>Search Results:</b></p>
            <asp:Label ID="SearchResults" Runat="server" />
        </form>
    </body>
</HTML>

DNNSearch.zip (1.48 KB)

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 Wednesday, August 16, 2006
by Nik Kalyani
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 8:21:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Note to startups -- When coming-up with marketing language for your site, pay attention or you will end-up with self-fulfilling prophecies. "Kiko is a great, dead simple calendar" might not have been the most appropriate choice of words for Kiko.

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by Nik Kalyani
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 9:46:10 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Wouldn't you know it...I post a spoof about Web 2.0 Design Guidelines and the very next day discover a site that dynamically generates Web 2.0 logos. Here's the devTao Web 2.0 logo rendered by the site:

 

Get your own Web 2.0 logo here: http://msig.info/web2.php

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by Nik Kalyani
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 6:02:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

On the DotNetNuke forums today, jstemper posed a question about how to speed up DNN development, specifically, the delay caused by app re-start when a module is recompiled.

I have invested a considerable amount of time researching the intricacies of Fusion probing to faciliate the co-existence of third-party assemblies with different versions in the same bin folder. In an earlier post on Managing assembly versions in ASP.Net I had provided tips on doing this. Reading this post got me thinking about applying the same technique for DNN development. I did a quick test and everything seems to work. Here is how you can speed-up DNN module development by skipping the app restart that occurs when assemblies in the "bin" folder are updated.

1) Create a "bin" folder under ~/DesktopModules (i.e. ~/DesktopModules/bin)

2) Modify your DNN web.config as follows:

            <runtime>
              <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
                   <probing privatePath="bin;DesktopModules\bin" />
              </assemblyBinding>  
           </runtime>

If you have a <runtime><assemblyBinding> section already present, just add the <probing ... > element, otherwise, you can just add this whole block right before </configuration>.

The "privatePath" attribute tells Fusion where to search for assemblies referenced by an application.

3) Change your module's script (ascx) file so the "Inherits" attribute includes the assembly name like this:

Inherits="Speerio.DNN.Modules.SkinStudio.Editor, Speerio.DNN.Modules.SkinStudio"

This corresponds to a typename of "Speerio.DNN.Modules.SkinStudio.Editor" and an assembly file "Speerio.DNN.Modules.SkinStudio.dll" (note: the extension should not be included in the "Inherits" attribute value).

4) Change your module’s VS.Net project build folder to ~/DesktopModules/bin

That's it. Now, when you recompile your module, there will be no application restart and the only assemblies that are converted from bytecode to native code are your module assemblies.

Please post a comment if you encounter any problems so I can modify the procedure if necessary.

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 Tuesday, August 15, 2006
by Nik Kalyani
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 6:26:51 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

If you create enough DotNetNuke modules, you will soon notice that you repeat code to retrieve and store settings. I got fed-up with this and wrote a common engine with an XML-driven UI to manage settings in my modules. Now, when I create a new module, I just change one XML file and I have the UI for the user to edit/save module settings ready to go.

I am not ready to share the complete UI yet, however, I thought I would start by sharing my code for managing the settings. For any DNN module, the code allows you to store and retrieve settings with three scope types -- User, Module and Global.

"User" scope is a user-specific value that is persisted using the DNN core personalization support; "Module" scope is a value that is specific to one instance of a module; "Global" scope is a value that is specific to all instances of the current module type.

I suspect the User scope may have been rendered obsolete by the profile capabilities in DNN 3.3.4/4.3.4, however everything still works. There are some useful helper methods that can check if a setting exists and strong-typed methods for retrieving string, numeric and boolean values.

One item bears explaining -- enumerated values. The enumeration is quite limited and is actually a "role enumeration." It allows you to have a setting that indirectly refers to the roles granted view/edit rights at the module level. For example, if you store an enumerated value as "e", when retrieving the value, GetEnumerated() will return true if the current user has edit permissions for the module. The enumerations are as follows:

"*" -- All Users -- always returns true
"r" -- Registered Users -- returns true if user is member of Registered Users role
"e" -- Editors -- returns true if user is member of a role that has edit permissions
"a" -- Administrators -- returns true if user has administrator rights for the portal
"n" -- No access -- returns false

I use this to set a module's boolean property to True or False. This approach makes it a lot easier to deal with simple permissions instead of having the user select actual Roles for various settings.

The code is simple enough that you should be able to figure it out quickly (sorry for the lack of comments). The key methods are "Save," "Get" and "Delete."

Here is the code. Use it as you wish, but please do not delete the copyright line.

Speerio Module Settings Controller

SettingsController.cs

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Collections;
using DotNetNuke.Security;
using DotNetNuke.Entities.Modules;
using DotNetNuke.Entities.Users;
using DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals;
using DotNetNuke.Services.Personalization;
 
// Copyright 2006 Speerio, Inc. (Author: Nik Kalyani)
 
namespace Speerio.DNN.Common
{
    public class SettingsController
    {
        private int moduleId = -1;
        private int globalId = -1;
        private Hashtable moduleSettings = null;
        private Hashtable globalSettings = null;
        private Hashtable userSettings = null;
        private UserInfo userInfo = UserController.GetCurrentUserInfo();
        private PortalSettings portalSettings = (PortalSettings) HttpContext.Current.Items["PortalSettings"];
        private PersonalizationController personalizationController = new PersonalizationController();
        private ModuleController moduleController = new ModuleController();
        private ModuleInfo moduleInfo = null;
        private bool createMissing = false;
 
        public enum SettingScope { User, Module, Global };
 
        public SettingsController(int moduleId) : this(moduleId, false)
        {
        }
 
        public SettingsController(int moduleId, bool createMissing)
        {
            ModuleId = moduleId;
            moduleInfo = moduleController.GetModuleByDefinition(portalSettings.PortalId,"Site Settings");
            GlobalId = moduleInfo.ModuleID;
            if (HttpContext.Current.Request.IsAuthenticated)
                userSettings = personalizationController.LoadProfile(userInfo.UserID, portalSettings.PortalId).Profile;
 
            moduleSettings = moduleController.GetModuleSettings(ModuleId);
            globalSettings = moduleController.GetModuleSettings(GlobalId);
        }
 
        private bool CreateMissing
        {
            get{ return(createMissing); }
            set{ createMissing = value; }
        }
 
        public Hashtable GlobalSettings
        {    
            get{ return(globalSettings); }
        }
 
        public Hashtable ModuleSettings
        {    
            get{ return(moduleSettings); }
        }
 
        public Hashtable UserSettings
        {
            get{ return(userSettings); }
        }
 
        private int ModuleId
        {
            get{ return(moduleId); }
            set{ moduleId = value; }
        }
 
        private int GlobalId
        {
            get{ return(globalId); }
            set{ globalId = value; }
        }
 
        public void Delete(string key)
        {
            Delete(key, SettingScope.Module);
        }
 
        public void Delete(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            try
            {
                switch(scope)
                {
                case SettingScope.Module : 
                    moduleController.DeleteModuleSetting(ModuleId, key);
                    break;
                case SettingScope.Global :
                    moduleController.DeleteModuleSetting(GlobalId, key); 
                    break;
                case SettingScope.User :
                    PersonalizationInfo pInfo = personalizationController.LoadProfile(userInfo.UserID, portalSettings.PortalId);
                    Hashtable userProfile = pInfo.Profile;
                    pInfo.Profile.Remove(key);
                    personalizationController.SaveProfile(pInfo, userInfo.UserID, portalSettings.PortalId);
                    break;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
            }
        }
 
        public string Get(string key)
        {
            return(Get(key, "", SettingScope.Module, false));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, bool replaceTokens)
        {
            return(Get(key, "", SettingScope.Module, replaceTokens));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            return(Get(key, "", scope, false));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, SettingScope scope, bool replaceTokens)
        {
            return(Get(key, "", scope, replaceTokens));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, string defaultValue)
        {
            return(Get(key, defaultValue, SettingScope.Module, false));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, string defaultValue, bool replaceTokens)
        {
            return(Get(key, defaultValue, SettingScope.Module, replaceTokens));
        }
 
        public string Get(string key, string defaultValue, SettingScope scope, bool replaceTokens)
        {
            string settingValue = GetSettingValue(key, scope);
            string returnValue = "";
            if (settingValue == null)
            {
                if (CreateMissing) Save(key, defaultValue, scope);
                returnValue = defaultValue;
            }
            else
                returnValue = settingValue;
 
            // PortalTokens does a search and replace of embedded
            // tokens in strings. Since it is not included with
            // this code, I have commented it out. 
            // if (replaceTokens)
            //    return(PortalTokens.Replace(returnValue, "~Public", moduleInfo));
            //else
                return(returnValue);
        }
 
        public void Save(string key, string keyValue)
        {
            Save(key, keyValue, SettingScope.Module);
        }
 
        public void Save(string key, string keyValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            SaveSettingValue(key, keyValue, scope);
        }
 
        public int GetNumeric(string key)
        {
            return(GetNumeric(key, 0, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public int GetNumeric(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            return(GetNumeric(key, 0, scope));
        }
 
        public int GetNumeric(string key, int defaultValue)
        {
            return(GetNumeric(key, defaultValue, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public int GetNumeric(string key, int defaultValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            string tmpSettingValue = GetSettingValue(key, scope);
 
            if (tmpSettingValue == null)
            {
                if (CreateMissing) SaveNumeric(key, defaultValue, scope);
                return(defaultValue);
            }
            else
            {
                int settingValue = defaultValue;
                try
                {
                    settingValue = Convert.ToInt32(tmpSettingValue);
                }    
                catch
                {
                    settingValue = defaultValue;
                }
                return(settingValue);
            }
        }
 
 
        public void SaveNumeric(string key, int keyValue)
        {
            SaveNumeric(key, keyValue, SettingScope.Module);
        }
 
        public void SaveNumeric(string key, int keyValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            SaveSettingValue(key, keyValue.ToString(), scope);
        }
 
        public bool GetBoolean(string key)
        {
            return(GetBoolean(key, false, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public bool GetBoolean(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            return(GetBoolean(key, false, scope));
        }
 
        public bool GetBoolean(string key, bool defaultValue)
        {
            return(GetBoolean(key, defaultValue, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public bool GetBoolean(string key, bool defaultValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            string settingValue = GetSettingValue(key, scope);
            if (settingValue == null)
            {
                if (CreateMissing) SaveBoolean(key, defaultValue, scope);
                return(defaultValue);
            }
            else
                return(settingValue == "1" ? true : false);
        }
 
 
        public void SaveBoolean(string key, bool keyValue)
        {
            SaveBoolean(key, keyValue, SettingScope.Module);
        }
 
        public void SaveBoolean(string key, bool keyValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            SaveSettingValue(key, (keyValue ? "1" : "0"), scope);
        }
 
        public bool GetEnumerated(string key)
        {
            return(GetEnumerated(key, "n", SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public bool GetEnumerated(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            return(GetEnumerated(key, "n", scope));
        }
 
        public bool GetEnumerated(string key, string defaultValue)
        {
            return(GetEnumerated(key, defaultValue, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public bool GetEnumerated(string key, string defaultValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            bool returnValue = false;
            string settingValue = GetSettingValue(key, scope);
            if (settingValue == null)
            {
                if (CreateMissing) SaveEnumerated(key, defaultValue, scope);
                settingValue = defaultValue;
            }
            switch(settingValue)
            {
            case "*": returnValue = true; break;
            case "r": if (PortalSecurity.IsInRole(portalSettings.RegisteredRoleName)) returnValue = true; break;
            case "e": if (PortalSecurity.HasEditPermissions(ModuleId)) returnValue = true; break;
            case "a": if (PortalSecurity.IsInRole(portalSettings.AdministratorRoleName)) returnValue = true; break;
            case "n": returnValue = false; break;
            }
 
            return(returnValue);
        }
 
 
        public void SaveEnumerated(string key, string keyValue)
        {
            SaveEnumerated(key, keyValue, SettingScope.Module);
        }
 
        public void SaveEnumerated(string key, string keyValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            SaveSettingValue(key, keyValue, scope);
        }
 
        private void SaveSettingValue(string key, string keyValue, SettingScope scope)
        {
            try
            {
                switch(scope)
                {
                case SettingScope.Module : 
                    moduleController.UpdateModuleSetting(ModuleId, key, keyValue); break;
                case SettingScope.Global :
                    moduleController.UpdateModuleSetting(GlobalId, key, keyValue); break;
                case SettingScope.User :
                    PersonalizationInfo pInfo = personalizationController.LoadProfile(userInfo.UserID, portalSettings.PortalId);
                    Hashtable userProfile = pInfo.Profile;
                    if (pInfo.Profile.Contains(key))
                        pInfo.Profile[key] = keyValue;
                    else
                        pInfo.Profile.Add(key, keyValue);
                    personalizationController.SaveProfile(pInfo, userInfo.UserID, portalSettings.PortalId);
                    break;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
            }
 
        }
 
        public bool SettingExists(string key)
        {
            return(SettingExists(key, SettingScope.Module));
        }
 
        public bool SettingExists(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            bool returnValue = false;
            try
            {
                switch(scope)
                {
                case SettingScope.Global : if (GlobalSettings[key] != null) returnValue = true; break;
                case SettingScope.Module : if (ModuleSettings[key] != null) returnValue = true; break;
                case SettingScope.User : if (UserSettings[key] != null) returnValue = true; break;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
            }
 
            return(returnValue);
        }
 
        private string GetSettingValue(string key, SettingScope scope)
        {
            string settingValue = null;
            try
            {
                switch(scope)
                {
                case SettingScope.Global : settingValue = (string) GlobalSettings[key]; break;
                case SettingScope.Module : settingValue = (string) ModuleSettings[key]; break;
                case SettingScope.User : settingValue = (string) UserSettings[key]; break;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
            }
 
            return(settingValue);
        }
    }
}
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by Nik Kalyani
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 9:38:39 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

If you want your website to be Web 2.0–worthy, there are some guidelines you can/should follow to ensure that your site visitors will instantly develop an appreciation for your insightful design and ability to stay current. Here is a partial list:

1) Markup: Ensure that your site’s markup is XHTML 1.0 Strict standards-compliant. For bonus points, place appropriate chiclets at the bottom so visitors know that you are a CSS God and should they wish to examine the source code, they will not find any ugly <table> tags. (In case you missed the memo, having a <table> tag on your site is the sure-fire path to ruin for your business since most users look for this and shun businesses that use this tag in their HTML markup.)

2) Gradients: I cannot stress how important this is — use gradients for all background and buttons. Without them, your site will look pathetic and laughable. If you can, try and include gradients in headers of sections within your site. If you really want to be hip, add a pattern of angled lines. Be careful with this one…an angle of 15–25 degrees is considered cool. Any more and you risk turning-off users.

3)  Lists: Use HTML lists for organizing as much content as possible. By using <UL> and <LI> tags combined with style classes, you can make information that would have been very difficult to comprehend in <TD> tags, much, much easier to comprehend. When defining the style classes for the list elements, try and include as many CSS hacks as possible. Sure, this makes your site work in all browsers, but most importantly, it conveys your commitment to customer satisfaction. It shows how you will go out of your way to ensure that the three users visiting your site with the WallyWollaWidget Browser v0.5 alpha also have a fantastic user experience and, of-course, ease of content comprehension.

4) AJAX: Do a search-and-replace of all site content and change all occurrences of “XMLHttp” with “AJAX.” If your search does not return any results, then you have a serious problem. Immediately edit content to ensure that there are at least 3–4 references to AJAX on each page. If you have the time, add functionality that allows users to drag things around the page. This will keep them occupied and if you don’t have any meaningful content on the site, it will convince them that your site is a must-bookmark anyway.

5) Soft lines: Thoroughly check your site to ensure that there are no unsightly dark lines. Change the color of all lines to light grey. If possible, ensure that one end of each line fades into the background. Dark lines have been known to cause problems with content flow. By using light grey lines, you can be assured that your site visitors will not lose their train of thought between paragraphs.

6) Rounded Corners: Web designers are finally catching-on to a concept that furniture desginers are all too familiar with. Sharp corners hurt! Round-off all corners on your site. It’s OK to leave the occasional odd corner sharp if the other three are rounded. This is stylish and as long as the sharp corner is out of the way, it is unlikely to cause any harm. Superior web sites will combine gradients, rounded corners and soft lines for the ultimate in user comfort while browsing the site.

7) Badges and Chiclets: Badges and chiclets are an important aspect of any Web 2.0 site as they give users choices that they would otherwise not have. For instance, an average user would never know the URL for the official CSS specification. However, the convenient CSS chiclet on your site will put this spec one click away. Your site visitors will be overjoyed. I don’t have to tell you how critically important it is to have one or more RSS feeds on your site. Note that the orange XML chiclet is now uncool. You must use the official RSS logo and for best results, include chiclets from 5–10 other sites for the huge numbers of people that are specific about the feeds they subscribe to such as RSS 0.91, RSS 0.92, Atom, PomDiddly 1.0 etc.

8) _____ this: Include as many action links as possible within your content. It is terribly inconvenient to copy and paste URLs and it significantly raises the bar for site visitors to share content if you do not provide action links such as “Blog This,” “Email This” or “Digg This.”

9) Tabs: Find a way to incorporate tabbed-navigation on your site. It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway — make sure the tabs are rounded, have a gradient and use soft lines. It is also helpful to include numbers in tabs. It’s OK if the visitor has no way of knowing what the number represents. Just seeing the number there hints at the plethora of content that awaits them if they should choose to click the tab.

10) Reflections: Adding reflection to one or more images and text on the page will instantly add a lustre to your site pages that your content never can. Another advantage is that you do not need to update content for many months and your site will still continue to look fresh. Remember to add a "beta" kicker to your primary site logo.

11) License: Having put in all the effort in creating a fantastic Web 2.0 site, the last thing you would want to do is confuse site visitors who want to borrow a background image or graphic from your site. Eliminate the guesswork and include an ultra-cool “Creative Commons License” chiclet on your site. Even if no one borrows the graphics, at least they get a sense of your fairness and willingness to share.

(If it isn’t clear, this is a total tongue-in-cheek post.)

 

 

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 Monday, August 14, 2006
by Nik Kalyani
Monday, August 14, 2006 9:52:49 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Microsoft’s announcement yesterday of the free XNA Game Studio Express will bring about huge changes in XBox game development. Now, any teen with time to spare (ummm…that would be all of them) can create games for the XBox.

It’s unlikely we will see games with the detail and quality that million-dollar development budgets can bring about, but the difference will be made-up in creativity. While the established game developers focus on the high-end gaming experience, expect to see a wave of engaging, if not as visually/aurally immersive, games flood the net.

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 Wednesday, August 09, 2006
by Nik Kalyani
Wednesday, August 09, 2006 4:36:56 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Starting with DotNetNuke v3.3/4.3, all dependencies on the Microsoft MemberRole assembly were removed. DotNetNuke includes a Role Provider, a Profile Provider and a Member Provider that works directly with ASP.Net membership. When the MemberRole dependency was introduced in DotNetNuke v3.x, many portal administrators who used the multi-portal Single Sign-On capability in DotNetNuke v2.x had to resort to third-party solutions to make SSO work across portals. With DNN v4.3 (possibly v3.3 also; I have not tested), it looks like SSO, or at least the potential for SSO is back.

If you add a row for a user in the UserPortals table, the user will effectively be able to authenticate seamlessly to every portal for which her/his user ID has a portal ID assigned. It’s that simple. Everything works as you would expect — roles are portal-specific; the user’s profile is portal-independent and authentication works regardless of which portal a user initially logs into.

Implementing a UI for administering SSO looks to be as simple as having a module where you can link/unlink users to/from portals. Nice.

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