Here is my experience installing a fresh copy of the source version of DotNetNuke 4. This is for installing the "source version" not the "install version"
(because you do want to make modules and give back to the community, right?).

1. Download "DotNetNuke 4 Source" from DotNetNuke.com

2. Unzip it to "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4"

3. (and here is why I decided to post this because all of this is not obvious)

• First I have to install ASP.NET 2.0 (if it is not already installed, then reboot my machine)
• Next I have to go into IIS server configuration
  
• I Right-Click on "Default Web Site" and select "Virtual Directory"
  
• I enter "DotNetNuke4" and click "Next"
  
• I browse to "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\Website" NOT "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\"
  (this is the kind of thing that is not obvious)
  
• Accept the defaults and click "Next"
  
• Right-click on the website that was just created and select "Properties"
  
• Select the "ASP.NET" tab and change the "ASP.NET version" to "2.0" then click Apply
  
• Then, using the file manager I go to "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\Website\Documents"  and double click on "Welcome.html"
  
• Then a wonderful page comes up and tells me how to configure DotNetNuke!
  
• At this point you follow the directions on that page...

 

Now the fun part...

(I simply did not read ALL the directions closely enough. the problems below were of my own making)

• I Right-clicked on the "DotNetNuke4" folder and went to properties
  
• Then on the Security tab I selected ADD
  
• I typed in ASPNET and clicked "Check Names"
  
• The ASP account comes up and I click OK
  
• On the next screen i click on the account and give it "Full control" and click OK
  
• I go to my web browser and go to: "http://localhost/dotnetnuke4/" and I get this
  
• ARGGGG!
• Then I go to: "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\Website\Documents\NTFSConfig.html" and actually READ the directions. It tells me to set the permissions for "NETWORK SERVICE" not "ASPNET" oh....
  
• I confugure the permissions for the "NETWORK SERVICE" account, then I go to: http://localhost/dotnetnuke4 again and it still doesn't work
• ARRGGGGG!
• I then go to Google and type in "Name 'Config' is not declared site:forums.asp.net"
• It brings up this post: http://forums.asp.net/1109319/ShowPost.aspx
• Oh! I need to compile it first. I double-click on "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\DotNetNuke.sln" and get this:
  
• It opens up in Visual Studio 2005 with errors. I close Visual Studio and open the "DotNetNuke.sln" in notepad and change "http://localhost/DotNetNuke_2/" to "http://localhost/DotNetNuke4/" (in 2 places)
• I save it and double-click on "C:\Inetpub\Dotnetnuke4\DotNetNuke.sln" again and it opens up!
• In Visual Studio 2005 I select "Build" then "Build Solution"
  
• After it builds I then go to: http://localhost/dotnetnuke4" and Success!
  

 

Ok I did not read the directions closely enough, but how many potential DotNetNukers are turned away because we move too fast and want everything to be easy? What can we do to make things more "idiot proof"?

Perhaps the install .zip can have a install "tutorial" to augment the install documentation. The "tutorial" would be screen shots that walk you through a perfect installation. People hate to read but they will look at pictures..

Excellent Post!!!

I was having some problems doing this in .NET 2.0 on a virtual machine and suddenly it's working.

Thank you so much for giving back

Thanks for this... i did not endevour yet in trying to compile 4.0... but this "tutorial" will be a great help if i do ;)

cheers,

erik

adefwebserver wrote:

Ok I did not read the directions closely enough, but how many potential DotNetNukers are turned away because we move too fast and want everything to be easy? What can we do to make things more "idiot proof"? Perhaps the install .zip can have a install "tutorial" to augment the install documentation. The "tutorial" would be screen shots that walk you through a perfect installation. People hate to read but they will look at pictures..

You have pinpointed very well why newbies (and even seasoned users) fail. This shows why it is good to have a forum like this.

Cheers,

DocHoliday

Well, maybe I'm just a perv. but the post was quite boring until we got to the, as you said, "The Fun Part" and when the "Server Error in '/Dotnetnuke4' Application" kicked in, I really started enjoying the story and especially the red ARGGGG! comments made me laugh almost on the floor probably because I knew you'd fix it eventually...

Or, maybe I'm so familiar with the story and been through it so that I can already laugh at it.

But as said before, maybe newbies don't like it...

Yeah, but why not spoil the fun and make some flash video tutorials on the installation procedure...

adefwebserver wrote:

Ok I did not read the directions closely enough, but how many potential DotNetNukers are turned away because we move too fast and want everything to be easy? What can we do to make things more "idiot proof"? Perhaps the install .zip can have a install "tutorial" to augment the install documentation. The "tutorial" would be screen shots that walk you through a perfect installation. People hate to read but they will look at pictures..

I think the salient point is "Ok I didn't read the directions closely enough".  It is often frustrating that it doesn't matter how many instructions are provided, people sometimes don't read them.

However, having said that I have produced an updated version of the Installation Guide, that provides more detail (including the kind of images Michael has provided).  This should be available soon - it is just going through a proof-reading by somebody less intimate with the process than me, to make sure I didn't forget anything !!

I have also suggested that this document (together with the Module Developers Guide and maybe the Skinning Guide, be made available as separate downloads - the remaining documents are really "White Papers" on technologies, probably as PDFs.

Michael, good job. Maybe you can offer some insight over on this post for the folks having DNNv4.0 questions. http://forums.asp.net/1122774/ShowPost.aspx

If others such as yourself could share their experiences with installation of this version, I'm sure it would be greatly appreciated, as is this post.  I'm going to follow you examples to do my install, so thanks.  (Been away for awhile, so this is good stuff.)

cnurse wrote:

I have also suggested that this document (together with the Module Developers Guide and maybe the Skinning Guide, be made available as separate downloads

First off, you guys do a great job. The webpage documentation that comes in the download has screen shots and is really first rate. All the problems I had were in there. I simply did not read it first.

However if in the zip all I saw was a webpage "install tutorial" (with screen shots) and everything else in another zip I would probably have taken a look at it FIRST rather than later :)

Codepic wrote:

Well, maybe I'm just a perv. but the post was quite boring until we got to the, as you said, "The Fun Part" and when the "Server Error in '/Dotnetnuke4' Application" kicked in,

I laugh when I read it too :) The really funny part is I actually almost posted the part before "The Fun Part..." I started to hit the POST button but then I said to myself "wait a minute, let me get this all the way up..."

Then I typed "The Fun Part" and made screen shots for each step. I knew it would work eventually but I wanted to document my stupidity...

Michael,

One thing you might want to change to make you DNN site more secure is to not give the NetworkServices account full access to the directories.  The only permissions needed to run DNN are (List, Read, Write, Modify and Execute).  The only additional access that full access gives to the user if the right to modifing directory permissions (which only administrators should have).  If a hacker ever hacked your site they would have permission to change the directory permissions (including removing the NetworkServices account which would make your site inaccessbible.  I have 4.0 installed locally and never give full access and have not had any problems.

Thank you for a great post.  I totally agree (and have been pressing for it on some threads) that the right page for install documentation is in a doc called install tutorial, or readme.first etc, and not placed in blogs etc (although I am not knocking blogs as a source of information).  Hopefully with your thread and Charles Nurse's comments, we are getting close. 

One final query.  You use VS2005.  Is it possible to use exactly the same scenario as you did with VWD?  Anyone know?

Great post!!!!!!!
 
There are many ways DNN could be installed, so people should understand how it works and then adapt it to their situation. But a "Quick Start Guide" (or two or three) in this style would be simply awesome for both newbies and experienced code monkeys (the reality is we all just want to get a new release running quickly and learn the detail after that).

Your post resulted in my discovery of a "DotNetNuke_2" folder in IIS that I did not create, I believe it must have been made when I opened the solution in Visual Studio and rebuilt it. My folder was called "site".

Might I also note here, that the readme.txt in the _Docs.zip distribution of DotNetNuke is out of date. Meaning it talks about AccessDataProvider being the default etc...

Somehow and old version accidentally slipped in there..

Confusing

JohnStodd wrote:

One final query.  You use VS2005.  Is it possible to use exactly the same scenario as you did with VWD?

Actually if you follow the directions in Shaun's post (http://forums.asp.net/1114393/ShowPost.aspx) it is written for VWD (Visual Web Developer) the whole process makes more sense. It is best to print it put (35 pages) and sit down and read it first. I am actually reading it now. If you can take anything from my post it is that they changed stuff, made stuff better, wrote it down and then pounded their heads against their computer screens as they read posts about how stuff doesn't work because people wont read the directions...

(S. Mehaffie oops! - Thanks)

adefwebserver wrote:

ARGGGG!

LMAO