I have my module that was fine a couple of weeks ago(DNN version 3.0.12) ,but a requirement changed and now it must be updated.Here is my question,because I create stuff on my dev copy of DNN the dll for DotNetNuke is different from the production.Is this going to cause any type of errors when I deploy that same moduel that has a few changes?If so How do you do it?

If you only changed code, just replace the old dll with the new one. Unless you need to reset tables to zero, that's all you need.

so basically just place the new files where they need to go and that should be fine for my changed module?

If you only changed code, yes. If you changed the GUI, both the dll and respective ascx files need to be updated.

Is this a module you created or one you bought? if you bought it I would be concerned with the"upgrade path". If you manually upgrade a module and then later install the module the normal way it may not upgrade properly.

As a module developer I know I am always making an assumption that the person installed the last version the normal way.

If it is a module you bought I would backup the database and all the files in the dotnetnuke directory. Then I would install the module.

adefwebserver wrote:

Is this a module you created or one you bought? if you bought it I would be concerned with the"upgrade path". If you manually upgrade a module and then later install the module the normal way it may not upgrade properly. As a module developer I know I am always making an assumption that the person installed the last version the normal way. If it is a module you bought I would backup the database and all the files in the dotnetnuke directory. Then I would install the module.

I think, in the starting post, he implies he's developing the module.

hooligannes97 wrote:

I think, in the starting post, he implies he's developing the module.

Opps read too fast.

Yes it is a module I built and I updated both code and GUI

The clean way, obviously, is to update the versions in the .DNN file in the PA and upload it. Will take care of all updates of files. You can even include an update SQL script to run.

The quick and dirty way during development is indeed copying the DLL, ASCX and any resource files (RESX, images, ...) over the original ones.

Is there a way to have one PA that can be used to either upgrade an existing module or install it fresh depending on wether or not the previous version is installed?  Possibly have the newVersion.SqlDataProvider script do a check for the existance of the previous version(s) and if found execute the appropriate SQL so as to avoid blowing away existing data.?

Yes, Increment version numbers of the provider. e.g. 01.00.00.SqlDataProvider, 01.01.00.SqlDataProvider, 01.02.00.SqlDataProvider, etc. Make sure you also change your .DNN file version info <version>01.00.00</version> etc. I also like to make my assembly versions match, but that's just me.

Cheers,
Dave

Sorry it took me so long to get back, life got in the way.  Anyways, so it automagically knows to run previous *.SqlDataProvider files if, and only if, it's a new install.  I just want to be sure so here's a hypothetical, and probably common, scenario.  Module version 3.00.00 has just been released.  It's PA includes *.SqlDataProvider files from version 1.00.00 with each successive file containing only the sql needed, if any, to upgrade from the previous version.  A site that has been running version 2.00.05 downloads and installs the new version.  Would I be correct to assume that DNN will start with the next *.SqlDataProvider file, say 2.00.06.SqlDataProvider and ignore the earlier ones?  I'm being so cautious because we're evaluating using DNN at my job and will likely have some custom modules where it would be very bad to lose data.  We keep off site backups, but still it's best to do whatever we can to avoid having to use them.

When there's no installed version of a module. The PA installer will read each consecutive version of the SqlDataProvider scripts from the lower version number until it reaches the highest version number. If there is an installed version, the installer will only run higher versions. The current version is saved in the DB and it is compared with the one indicated in the DNN manifest file. The SqlDataProvider script files must be included in this manifest as well.