Beginning DotNetNuke 4.0 Website Creation in C# 2005 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express phần 5 ppsx

CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS 145 There are two types of superusers for the DNN system. One is a host and the other is an administrator. Here is the difference: • DNN has portal capabilities built in. If you want to administer the whole DNN site, including all portals within the site, you need to log in as the host. • The DNN start page is actually a portal. If you want to administer the settings of this portal, then you need to log in as the administrator. Hosting many DNN portals for many people is not a simple task, and is beyond the scope of this book. After all, the purpose of this book is to teach you how to create web pages for your own purposes. However, in Chapter 9, I’ll teach you how to segment your website functionality into an external website and an internal one, using the DNN portal capabilities. The cover page of the DNN site you created is actually a website portal. You can either cre- ate a new one or edit this one. Since you don’t really want to host other sites right now, let’s edit this one. How DotNetNuke Works DNN is made up of several components. The short list follows: The container: The container defines the look and feel of the website. You can change colors, fonts, and so on, and they will be carried through to the pages and modules within. The page: You can have as many pages as you like. Each page is divided into sections called panes. Panes: There are several areas of the page that are divided into panes. There are five basic panes. There is a top pane, which runs horizontally across the top. There are left, center, and right panes below the top pane. There is a bottom pane, which spans the bottom of the page horizontally. The menu: You can choose the menu placement either along the top or along the side. You can also choose to have the menu be of fixed width or span the page. Modules: A module is a self-contained set of code and design features that you put inside a pane. When a module is inside a pane, it takes on the properties of the container, includ- ing size, colors, and other look-and-feel aspects. The WebPunch project you created in the last chapter will become a DNN module. While there are many modules given to you in DNN, and many more that you can buy, it is the ability to construct one of your own that gives you the power to create a truly unique website. Let’s look at the basic site that DNN gives you. Start by logging into the site using the administrator username and the administrator password. Figure 6-2 shows the login process. 146 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-2. The login page This login page is a part of the whole DNN experience. You can have people log in as admin, host, or as a normal user of the site. You can even register on the site. This login page is created by DNN and is included with every website you create. Once you have logged in, you will see the site in design mode. Figure 6-3 shows the design mode for the basic site. Notice how the page is laid out. There is a menu along the top. You can see that the top pane has nothing in it. The left pane has two modules in it: some links and a list of books. The right pane has a list of DNN sponsors. The content pane has the My Website page in it. The bot- tom pane has nothing in it. A blank page with no modules is shown in Figure 6-4. So, you have seen the main page of DNN and you have seen what a blank page looks like. You also know from looking at the main DNN page that you can put two modules into a single pane. You also know that the panes can be different sizes. CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS 147 Figure 6-3. The basic website in design mode Figure 6-4. A blank page showing the positions of the blank panes 148 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS A Look at Modules While you are still logged in and on the main page, click the question mark next to the word “Sponsors” on the Sponsors module. ■Tip DotNetNuke has a timeout just like any good web page. If you can’t edit the page anymore, chances are good that you need to log in again. It tells you that the module is a text box module. This is shown in Figure 6-5. Figure 6-5. Text box module help You can see from this limited help that the text box can be quite full-featured. Click the Back button on your browser and click the question mark on the My Website module. You will see that this module is also a text box. Click the question mark next to the Links page header. You will see that this module is a links module. You will also notice that the books module is a text box module. Default Modules DNN comes with many modules. Here is a partial list: • Account login • Announcements •Banners • Contacts • Discussions •Documents CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS 149 •Events • FAQs • Feedback • IFrame • Images •Links • New feeds (RSS) • Search input • Search result •Survey • Text/HTML • User account • User-defined table • Users online •XML/XSL If you look at this list and think about it for a minute, you can see that these modules make up about 90 percent of any website you would want to create. For instance, here are some things that a hypothetical website would need: • An account login module to keep track of users and to allow users access to different pages • A user account module for people to register for your website • An announcements module to let users know what is going on at your business • A contacts module to let users call or e-mail you • A text/HTML module in several places to contain the content of your website • A banners module that allows you to show paid advertising • A search input and results module set to allow users to search your website Did I miss anything? Probably quite a bit. You get the drift though. This is pretty much a one-stop shop for website creation. When it comes time to create a website for this DNN project, you will use many of these modules, and I will cover them in detail as needed. 150 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Editing a DNN Site Let’s look at how you can edit a DNN website and what editing capabilities DNN gives you. A quick look at Figure 6-6 shows you an editing bar at the top of the page. Figure 6-6. The editing bar There are page functions that allow you add, copy, and delete pages in your site. You can also change the settings for whichever page you are on. The Preview button allows you to see how the page looks to the user while still editing it. Basically, it hides all the editing features of the page temporarily. The Module section of this editing bar allows you to add modules to a page in different panes. I’ll discuss this feature in detail later. The Common Tasks editing section has a wizard for creating a new site. It also has a Settings button to edit the settings for the site as a whole. The Files button allows you to add files, such as pictures and text files, to the site. For instance, the Sponsors pane on the main page is made up of many pictures with links associated with them. This feature manages those pictures. Click the files button and let’s see what pops up. You should see an editing page, like the one shown in Figure 6-7. Here you can see all the GIF and JPG files associated with this site. You can also change permissions for different classes of people accessing your site. Notice the small toolbar at the top that allows you to add, copy, delete, move, and upload files. CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS 151 Figure 6-7. The DNN File Manager DNN Users DNN has several different kinds of users, as shown in Figure 6-7. You already know about the host user and administrator. There are also unauthenticated users (just browsing, thank you) and registered users. If you want to manage your registered users, click the Users icon in the Common Tasks editing section. The user management screen is shown in Figure 6-8. 152 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-8. The User Accounts management screen This screen allows you to view the users of your website and their activity. A user who is authorized is allowed access to your portal. If you want, you can make these users unautho- rized or delete them. Remember how the main page told you to change the admin password for your system? This is where you do that. Click the pencil next to the admin username (shown in Figure 6-8) and you will be brought to the Edit User Accounts page. The pencil is used throughout DNN to indicate editing capability. Figure 6-9 shows the Edit User Accounts page. Change your pass- word at this time. CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS 153 Figure 6-9. Editing the admin user Settings DNN is constructed such that there is a way to edit the settings of every web page and module. There are settings that can be adjusted for the page as a whole, and there are settings that can be adjusted for individual modules on the page. Page Settings Go back to the view of the main page as a whole. Click the Settings icon in the Page Functions section. (You may need to log back in if you have been away from your computer for a while.) This will bring up the Page Management screen (shown in Figure 6-10). 154 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-10. The Page Management screen You can see from the permissions that you can allow people to view or edit the page depending on their roles. At the bottom of this page there are several links. These links act like buttons. The Update link updates the settings for this page. The Cancel link cancels the changes you made to this page. The Delete link deletes the page that these settings refer to. Do not delete this page accidentally. There is one last link at the bottom of the page. This is the Submit Page To Google button. This is very cool because it allows you to tell Google that your page can be added to its list of URLs to crawl. The Key Words section is what Google uses to index your listing. This means that if you add the word froogelfram to your list of key words, and someone does a Google search for froogelfram, your site will come up. These are the basic settings for a page. There are also some advanced settings that you can modify. Click the + sign next to the Advanced Settings heading. You should get the same screen as shown in Figure 6-11. [...]... the WebPunch program and turn it into a module that you can use on the final page of this project CHAPTER 7 ■■■ Creating a DNN Module S o far, you have been exposed to working with C# in one chapter, web development in another chapter, and creating a DNN website in yet another one This chapter combines the work you did in these three previous chapters with the creation of a new DNN module You saw in. .. be overridden in the individual page settings Portal Container: This container will be applied to all modules on the site It can be overridden in the individual page or module settings Admin Skin: This is the skin for the admin pages on this site You can choose to have a different skin for all the admin pages if you like Admin Container: This is a container that will be applied to all admin modules on... what you can buy online is amazing Try going to the website www.snowcovered.com This site has an astounding number of skins and containers for DNN You can buy just about anything you want here I will cover skinning and how to download new skins in Chapter 9 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-16 Changing individual module color The Project Now that you know how to work a little with DNN, let’s start... add four links The links will be to the following: • The menu page • The registration page • The contacts page • The DotNetNuke website Click the Add Link link, and you will be taken to a page where you can add links to pages or URLs Figure 6-22 shows the complete settings page for the link to the menu page CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-22 Linking to a page Figure 6-23 shows the settings page... allow certain people to edit the inventory Adding Modules to the Registration Page The registration page is where a user will administer his account By administering, I mean changing e-mail addresses, changing physical addresses, unregistering, and so on Account management is not done from here Account management is done by logging in as an administrator or as a host An administrator or host logs in and... module, you will see some icons representing XML, printing, and module settings The Module Settings icon is shown in Figure 6-12 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Figure 6-12 The Module Settings icon Click this icon, and you will see a more extensive settings page than you saw with the page settings Here is a list of the module settings and what they mean: Basic Settings ➤ Module Title: Changes the title... columns Adding Modules to the Inventory Page Open the Inventory page, and add a user-defined table module to the content pane This will be the only module on the entire page Edit the module settings according to the following: • Title the module “Inventory.” • Make the visibility None • Uncheck the Display Container check box • Allow printing for the module This module has two editing modes One editing mode... Upload New File link under the logo heading, and DNN will allow you to find the file It will then copy it to the appropriate directory Included under the Appearance settings on the site settings page are the following settings: Body Background: This is an image that gets painted on the background of every page, which you can specify depending upon the skin you choose Portal Skin: This skin will get applied... on the title bar for the container of the module Basic Settings ➤ Permissions: Allows people with certain roles to view or edit this module; these settings can be inherited from the page settings if you want 157 158 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE BASICS Advanced Settings ➤ Display Module on All Pages: Allows the module to appear on all pages in the same location Advanced Settings ➤ Header: Allows you to enter... container Page Basic Settings ➤ Allow Print: Allows printing of the module contents Page Basic Settings ➤ Allow Syndicate: Allows the module to be an RSS feed (I will cover RSS later) Page Basic Settings ➤ Module Container: Allows you to select a container for the module if one is not already selected Page Basic Settings ➤ Cache Time: Allows you to select the time in seconds that the module is kept in . amazing. Try going to the website www.snowcovered.com. This site has an astounding number of skins and containers for DNN. You can buy just about anything you want here. I will cover skinning. over- ridden in the individual page or module settings. Admin Skin: This is the skin for the admin pages on this site. You can choose to have a dif- ferent skin for all the admin pages if you like. Admin. shop for website creation. When it comes time to create a website for this DNN project, you will use many of these modules, and I will cover them in detail as needed. 1 50 CHAPTER 6 ■ DOTNETNUKE