DotNetNuke Module Development Resources
Location: BlogsChris Hammond    
Posted by: Chris Hammond 11/18/2008 2:06 PM

So for those of you who attended the Post Conference training last week after OpenForce you know we tried to squeeze too much information into the session and had to leave out some of the important items from the module development topics. This blog post will hopefully serve as a pointer to get you headed in the right direction for your module development!

The following information assumes you are using Visual Studio 2008, the Template file could possibly be configure to work with VS2005, but we recommend 2008 for development purposes. WAP development is not supported within the Visual Studio Express line of tools last I checked.

Earlier this fall we released a free C# module template, check out Brian’s post for information on the template. This is the file we recommend using for starting all of your Module development projects, it follows the web application project (WAP) model. Included within the template is a Nant script (.build file) for automating your builds/packages for DNN modules.

I made a blog post last year about our Nant scripts, you can read the post for more info. One thing to be aware of though, the blog post refers to the .85 release of Nant, we now recommend using the .86 release so you can use Visual Studio 2008. The steps for configuring the version are the same as mentioned in my blog post.

Those two blog posts should get you started for coming up with a DNN module quickly using Visual Studio 2008. If you have any questions please feel free to let me know, I will answer them as best I can.
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Re: DotNetNuke Module Development Resources    By Harold Chattaway on 11/23/2008 9:30 PM
Hi Chris<br>I took your post conference class on DNN, great stuff, just had another question on module development we could not get into...<br>How are your module WAP directories setup? Looks like you may put the WAP right in the DESKTOPMODULES directory. If so, in the website project, how do you manage these extra non-website files from the WAP? Or do you have a separate website directory that all files get copied to?<br><br>Also, at what point does the 01.00.00.SqlDataProvider script get created? <br>Thanks<br>Harold<br>
Re: DotNetNuke Module Development Resources    By chammond on 11/23/2008 9:34 PM
Harold, We do set our modules up in desktopmodules with their own folders underneath this level. <br><br>I'm not sure what you mean by the non-website files? All of the files in the VS Project are included in this directory, and with the NANT scripts can be packaged up in the ZIP file that gets created.<br><br>As for the SQLDataprovider scripts, these are manually created, we generate a new script whenever we make have a release (changed version number) so that all new scripts go into the new SQLDataprovider script. <br><br>When creating the scripts it is important to generate the SQL in a manner that it will be reexecutable, meaning you could run it over and over in Query Analyzer without worrying about the effect the script will have. ex: When you generate a script that adds a table, always check to see if that table exists first, and don't run your generate script, or drop it prior to running the create script. This way when you have multiple developers working on a project they can take that script with any changes from another developer and run it completely, without having to worry about only running specific lines.
Re: DotNetNuke Module Development Resources    By Harold Chattaway on 11/23/2008 10:44 PM
Hi Chris, <br>Thanks for your quick reply! By non-website files, I mean the files that are part of the WAP sitting in the DESKTOPMODULES subdirectory for the module, but are not needed for the website. Code-behind files, the project file itself etc. Right now, I develop the modules in a different location and have the ascx and the DLL file copied into their places for the website via a postbuild event.<br><br>Yes, I would create the sql scripts as you describe.. in another template approach I had seen the SQL Script was already written using replaceable parameters and was generated when the template was executed. Was wondering if yours did something similiar.<br><br>Thanks<br>Harold<br>
Re: DotNetNuke Module Development Resources    By chammond on 11/23/2008 10:45 PM
For development we leave them in there, for production we use NANT to build/package our modules into ZIP files that we can install on the website via the module installer. This packaging process creates an INSTALL and SOURCE package, source has all the files for the project, install has all the files necessay for the module to run (no source).

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