Hi

I am taken the plunge and start converting over dnn3 modules to dnn4 modules. Does anyone have any tips or tricks what is the best way to start this. Any 1.1 > 20. connversion tool etc?

 

I think it depends on what you modules are. I think just about all the modules should be pretty easy to convert to DNN4 without too much trouble, I know some of the ones i've written don't even need to be converted. I think the key is whether or not you are planning to support backwards compatibility. In some of the modules I'm contemplating using, I want to use some of the cool new features of ASP.NET2.0 however I feel that to do so would mean that I'm going to be cutting a large number of users out, unless I create 2 versions, which inevitably means more work for me.

Having said that, I think going forward it'd probably be best to phase out support for the DNN3.x modules and begin to look at taking advantage of what asp.net2.0 has to offer.

"I think it depends on what you modules are."

Yes, this is true - I have found that 80% of my modules for 3.x work on 4.x (although I have not formally endorsed them without further QA).

My Events module and HomePage do NOT work - due to Medium Trust issues (there's a lot of discussions going on at the moment about this) - but I don't think it's the end of the world - I just need to figure out where it's breaking and think of some alternatives...

So - first port of call is trying the modules on 4.x. Then as lomaxx mentioned, it's wether or not you move to the new ASP.NET 2.0 compilation model and start using generics etc. I know Michael has found great productivity improvements and code reduction by using ASP.NET 2.x but I will attempt this in a months time or so... I don't want to branch too early as I don't have the resources to maintain 2 different codelines indefinitely.

I converted our UserManager from DNN 3 to 4.  I copied all the class that do not have ascx associated to App_Code folder and leave all the ascx and their associated ascx.vb files under the DesktopModule folder.

Below are a fews issues I had to manually resolved

1. Codebehind changes to CodeFile - mass replace the this key word.  Then for each ascx file, go in and delele controls that were ref.  (Notice with CodeFile, you would not need to declare control (ex. textbox, lable, etc.) in the ascx.vb file)

2.  DataProvider - replace the second assemly name (where you specify the SQL assembly name) with empty string. 

3.  In the SQLDataProvider where the connection string is read, replace it with the new code for .NET 2.  I copied the code from the Widget sample module from Shawn tutorial.

4.  For our UserManager module, since it used MembershipRole dll, the reference to the old namespace has to be changed to point to new name space (System.Web.Security)

Post conversion issues

1.  VS 2005 Pro does not allow to control the name of the compiled assembly name.  I tried the VS 2005 Web Deployment but the tool has bug when there is same class name, even the class has  different namespace.  For example for each previous DNN3 project, you have a class called DataProvider.  The compile fails cause dup class name.  Hope the final release of the web deployment will fix this error.

2.  Package the module - there is no Create Assembly in the Host->Module Definitions.   You have to do it manually.