InstantASP Support

Using InstantForum.NET 2012 under .NET 4.0

Ryan Healey — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:48:53 GMT

By default InstantForum.NET 2012 targets .NET 3.5 SP1. To run InstantForum.NET 2012 under a .NET 4.0 application pool there are a few changes required to the web.config file.

To assist customers looking to run InstantForum.NET under .NET 4.0 we've provided a .NET 4.0 web.config file attached below for InstantForum.NET 2012. You should copy this web.config file into the root of your InstantForum.NET 2012 web application folder replacing the existing web.config file.

You will need to update the database connection string to point to your InstantForum.NET 2012 database once you apply this web.config. This should resolve any issues running InstantForum.NET under .NET 4.0.

This web.config will also resolve the "A potentially dangerous Request Form value was detected" issue as that affected .NET 4.0 installation.

If you have any questions with regards to this article or using InstantForum.NET under .NET 4.0 please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Request format is unrecognized for URL unexpectedly ending in ???

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:41:44 GMT

After installing InstantForum.NET 2012 I receive the following error when composing topics or replies within the rich text editor.

Exception type: InvalidOperationException

Exception message: Request format is unrecognized for URL unexpectedly ending in '/ParseForPreview'.

To resolve this problem please follow the steps below…

1. Open your InstantForum.NET 2012 web.config file within NotePad or similar.

2. Add the entire <webServices> element as shown inside the <System.Web> element.

<system.web>

<webServices>
<protocols>
<add name="HttpGet"/>
<add name="HttpPost"/>
</protocols>
</webServices>
3. Save and replace your web.config.

These steps should resolve this exception. If the problem continues of course please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

InstantForum.NET Configuration

Ryan Healey — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:33:30 GMT

This section contains information on how to configure various advanced features within InstantForum.NET.

Learn More

Learn More

Learn More

Learn More

Installing InstantForum.NET 2012

Ryan Healey — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:18:03 GMT

To assist with InstantForum.NET installation we've broken the installation process into several steps. Before starting installation please ensure your intended installation machine meets the Minimum System Requirements.

Learn how to download InstantForum.NET.

Learn More
Learn how to copy the InstantForum.NET files for local installation

Learn More

Learn how to configure Internet Information Services (IIS) for InstantForum.NET.

Learn More

4. Creating the InstantForum.NET Database
Learn how to create the InstantForum.NET database.

Learn More

5. Updating the InstantForum.NET Connection String
Learn how to configure the database connection string within the "web.config".

Learn More

Learn how to ensure your installation was successful.

Learn More

Image Resizing & InstantForum.NET

Ryan Healey — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:12:33 GMT

InstantForum.NET allows your users to upload images within posts. This article is intended to help explain how you can control these image sizes within InstantForum.NET and the options we have to help.

With InstantForum.NET we offer two images resizing options.

1. A physical resize in which all uploaded images will be physically downsized before they are saved to disk on the wb server. This can be helpful for example if you don't want to allow any uploaded image to be larger than say 1024x768..

You can specify the maximum physical image dimensions via Permission Sets. You'll need to ensure your logged into your Admin CP. Click Manage Permissions on the left. You will need to edit each permission set and locate the "Maximum image dimensions? (WxH)" option. Set this to your desired dimensions. Images larger than these dimensions will be physically resized whilst maintaining the original aspect ratio before they are saved on your web server.

2. The other resizing option is designed to ensure images are displayed correctly within posts. Within the InstantForum.NET Admin CP > Forum Settings page we have an option called ""Force Image Resize". This allows you to provide the maximum width of images that are displayed within posts.

Images wider than this width will be dynamically resized at runtime through JavaScript to the maximum width whilst preserving the original aspect ratio. This is helpful if your site is constrained in width to say 800 pixels but you wish to allow larger images. This will still allow for large images but will resize images within posts to fit the maximum width you specified in the "Force Image Resize:" text box.

For example if you provide a value of 500 within the "Force Image Resize:" text box all images within posts that exceed 500 pixels wide will be resized to generate a thumbnail. You can then click this thumbnail to see the larger image. The lager image is constrained by the physical dimensions you can set as discussed in option one above.

Please note the ""Force Image Resize" option is new for InstantForum.NET 2012 and does not appear earlier versions.

Further Help & Support

If we can assist with any questions with regards to image resizing within InstantForum.NET please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Enabling Facebook Login with InstantForum.NET

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:16:10 GMT

With InstantForum.NET 2012 or above we now provide an option to allow your users to login to InstantForum.NET using there existing Facebook login details.

Setting up the Facebook login is a very simple process for administrators. You'll need to create a Facebook application via the Facebook Developer site. You can start this process here…

http://developers.facebook.com/setup/

Complete the requested fields. Enter a name for your application and provide the URL of your InstantForum.NET installation. After completing this basic information the application should be created and you'll be taken to your application page on Facebook. On this page make a note of your App ID / API Key.

You'll need this key to enable Facebook login from InstantForum.NET.

You'll then simply need to copy your Facebook Application ID into the new Facebook settings area within the InstantForum.NET Admin CP > Settings > Login & Registration Settings page. Locate the "Facebook AppID" textbox and enter the application ID exactly as it appears on the Facebook page.

Once complete and providing you have alternate logins enabled you should now see an option to login via Facebook as shown below.

If you don't wish to allow your users to login via Facebook simply ensure the "Facebook AppID" textbox is empty on the InstantForum.NET Admin CP > Settings > Login & Registration Settings page.

If you wish to disable all alternate logins ensure the "Enable Alternate Logins" option is set to "No" on the InstantForum.NET Admin CP > Settings > Login & Registration Settings page.

Your users can now login using there existing Facebook details and start posting within your community. This is a great way to increase participation as It reduces the barrier to entry and users don't need to complete yet another registration option.

Updating the InstantForum.NET Connection String

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:36:55 GMT

Once IIS is configured correctly and your InstantForum.NET database is installed the next step is to modify the InstantForum.NET database connection string within the web.config file to point towards the database we created in the previous step.

The web.config file contains several <appSettings> key values that you will need to update to ensure InstantForum.NET functions correctly. The Web.Config file can be found within the root of the InstantForum.NET web application folder. You should edit the web.config within Notepad or similar ASCII editor.

The only setting you'll need to update to ensure you can start using InstantForum.NET is the database connection string. There are other settings for additional functionality such as exception handling which we won't cover right now. All settings within the web.config offer further information within the inline comments.

By default InstantForum.NET is uses a trusted connection string within the web.config file. This is great for local development however you may need to modify the connection string to use a specific SQL Server user account. This is shown below...

<add name="InstantASP_ConnectionString" connectionString="SERVER=localhost;UID=username;PWD=password;DATABASE=Instantforum2012" />

This should be updated to contain a valid connection string to your Instantforum.NET SQL Server database. A typical connection string consists of four parts which will all need to be updated to use your SQL Server connection details.

SERVER=TheSQLServerName
UID=YourSQLUsername
PWD=YourSQLPassword
DATABASE=TheForumDatabase

For example, say your forum database is called "InstantForum2010", installed on a remote server for this example lets say "SQL.MYDOMAIN.COM" and you have a dedicated SQL Server account with username "Jon", password "Bob". You would need to update the connection string as shown below to accommodate these details...

SERVER=SQL.MYDOMAIN.COM;UID=Jon;PWD=Bob;DATABASE=InstantForum2010;

How do i use Trusted Connections?

By default both InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET use a trusted database connection. This is intended to allow you to get up and running quickly without having to configure any specific SQL Server accounts for your database.

Trusted connections will use the same windows account that your ASP.NET worker process is running under. This is typically the ASPNET account for Windows XP, 2000 or the NETWORKSERVICE account for Windows Server 2003, 2008, Vista or Windows 7.

As the software is setup by default to use a trusted connection you need to add the ASPNET or NETWORKSERVICE windows account (depending on your OS) as a user for your InstantForum.NET database.

To ensure the ASPNET or NETWORKSERVICE account can access the various tables and execute the stored procedures required by our products you should associate "db_owner" privileges with either the ASPNET or NETWORKSERVICE account.

For SQL Server 2005/2008 expand your database and click the "Security" note. Right click "Users" and select "Add User". Locate the ASPNET or NETWORKServICE account (depending on your SQL Server OS) and give this "db_owner" privileges for your database.

Copying the InstantForum.NET Files

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:18:07 GMT

After extracting the ZIP file to your desktop you'll see one of two folders based on the license type you purchased.

InstantForum.NET Developer License

InstantForum.NET Developer License customers will see a InstantForum2010DEV folder containing the following files…

InstantForum.NET End User License

InstantForum.NET End User License customers will see a InstantForum2010EUL folder containing the following files…

Copying the Files for local development within Visual Studio.NET

Once the InstantForum2010EUL or InstantForum2010DEV folder is on your desktop for local development within Visual Studio.NET we would suggest you copy the contents of this folder to a suitable location on your hard-drive. For example for local ASP.NET development you would copy the entire contents of the InstantForum2010EUL or InstantForum2010DEV folder to your C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ folder.

Copying the Files directly to your shared hosting account or production server

If you don't intend to work with the InstantForum.NET Visual Studio.NET solution locally on your computer you can skup this step and simply upload your files to a shared hosting environment.

Additional Information

After extracting InstantForum.NET you'll see 3 new folders and a single Visual Studio.NET solution file...

InsantASP.Common (Source Code)

This folder is only avialable with our developer license. This contains all the source code for our InstantASP.Common framework. There are 3 sub folders InstantASP.Common (contains the core InstantASP.Common business code), InstantASP.common.Data (contains the core data access code) & InstantASP.Common.UI (contains the core UI server controls).

InstantASP.InstantForum (Source Code)

This folder contains the source code for InstantForum.NET. There are 3 sub folders InstantASP.InstantForum (contains InstantForum.NET business logic), InstantASP.InstantForum.Data (contains the InstantForum.NET data provider) & InstantASP.InstantForum.UI (contains the code-behind for the various InstantKB.NET skin controls)

InstantForum2010 (Web Site Files)

This folder contains all the web site files & folders. This is the folder you will need to copy into production or upload to your shared hosting provider. The soruce code folders are only required for local development when working with InstantForum.NET within Visual Studio.NET. Upon compliation within Visual Studio.NET the source code is compiled into the various assemblies within the InstantKB20\Bin directory.

Visual Studio.NET Solution (InstantForumDeveloper.sln / InstantForumEndUser.sln)

This file will depend on the license you purchased. To work with the Visual Studio.NET solution file copy all the folders listed above & this solution file into your web site root directly typically c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ . Ensure the InstantForum2010 folder is marked as a web application within IIS. You should then be able to double click the solution file to open all the required projects within Visual Studio.NET. If your using Windows Vista / Windows 7 you will need to run Visual Studio.NET in the context of an administrator.

File Permissions

You should grant write & modify permissions to the "Uploads" and "App_Data" folder within the InstantForum.NET web application folder. You will need to allow write & modify permissions for the windows account under which your IIS application pool runs. We would suggest the following steps…

Open IIS and identify which application pool InstantForum.NET is running under.
Go to the Advanced Settings for the application pool within IIS and make a note of Identity / Windows Account under which the application pool runs.
Navigate to the root of your InstantForum.NET web site folder within Windows Explorer
Right click the "Uploads" folder and go to Properties. Click the security tab and add the windows account used by your application pool. Ensure you allow this account to write & modify files. Click the Advanced button and select the Propagate permissions to all child folders & files checkbox. Save these change.
Right click the "App_Data" folder and go to Properties. Click the security tab and add the windows account used by your application pool. Ensure you allow this account to write & modify files. Click the Advanced button and select the Propagate permissions to all child folders & files checkbox. Save these change.

If you don't have access to IIS or the operating system to adjust folder permissions your hosting company may provide a web based control panel which allows you to modify permissions to specific folders in your hosting environment.

The "Upload" folder permissions are needed to ensure users can upload custom profile photos or upload images within posts. The "App_Data" folder permissions are reuiqred to ensure we can update the devices.dat file with mobile browser requests.

Installation

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:56:31 GMT

Need guidance installing our software. Please use the links below for installation information.

If you have any questions we can assist with please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Learn More

Learn More

Learn More

Before attempting to install either InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET please check our "Minimum System Requirements".

If your not sure if your hosting company will support our products please email sales@instantasp.co.uk and we'll assist further.

Creating Users Programmatically

Ryan Healey — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:12:10 GMT

The code below shows how to create users programmatically using the InstantForum.NET API.If your looking to offer a single sign on experience to your users you would typically need to add users to the InstantForum.NET tables during your main web site registration.

Public Class Register    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load        RegisterUser.ContinueDestinationPageUrl = Request.QueryString("ReturnUrl")    End Sub    Protected Sub RegisterUser_CreatedUser(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles RegisterUser.CreatedUser        ' set forms authentication cookie, this will be shared with         ' InstantForum.NET providing you have a consistaant <machineKey>         ' element within your web.config files        FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(RegisterUser.Email, False)        ' get return URL        Dim continueUrl As String = RegisterUser.ContinueDestinationPageUrl        If String.IsNullOrEmpty(continueUrl) Then            continueUrl = "~/"        End If        ' --------------------------------------        ' create InstantForum.NET user account...        ' --------------------------------------        ' build new user object        Dim User As New InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.User        User.EmailAddress = RegisterUser.Email        User.Password = RegisterUser.Email        User.Username = RegisterUser.Email        User.PrimaryRoleID = InstantASP.Common.Application.Settings.Instance().DefaultUserRoleID        User.Culture = ""        User.TimeZoneOffset = 0        User.ObserveDaylightSavingTime = True        ' add the user data to InstantForum_Users & InstantASP_Common tables        Dim intUserID As Int32 = InstantASP.InstantForum.Business.User.InsertUpdateUser(User)        ' was the insert successful?        If intUserID > 0 Then            Response.Redirect(continueUrl)        Else            ' the username or email address may already exist            ' please prompt the user to provide a unique email address and username        End If    End SubEnd Class

InstantForum.NET 2010-5 to 2012

Ryan Healey — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:00:43 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to upgrade from InstantForum.NET 2010-5 to the InstantForum.NET 2012 update. To assist with the upgrade we've broken this article into 4 sections…

Prerequisites
Installing the 2012 files
Upgrading your 2010 database
Testing your Upgrade
Important Considerations
General FAQs

Before upgrading from 2010 to 2012 you should ensure your upgrade environment meets the following basic requirements…

.NET 3.5 SP1

SQL Server 2005 or 2008

IIS 6 or 7 (Classic or Integrated App Pool)

1. Download InstantForum.NET 2012 from your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx

Once the download is complete open the InstantForum2012DEV.zip or InstantForum2012EUL.zip file and extract the contents to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called "InstantForum2012DEV" or "InstantForum2012EUL".

The folder name will differ depending on your license however within both downloads you'll see a "InstantForum2012" folder. This folder contains all the web site (.aspx) files, skins, database scripts, assemblies and web.config file. This is the primary folder for InstantForum.NET 2012 and the folder that should be uploaded to your web site. This should be very familiar if you've already used our previous 2010 release.

2. Copy the "InstantForum2012" folder to your web site root or the same folder as your existing 2010 installation via FTP. If your installing locally you can copy the "InstantForum2012" folder to your "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\" folder.

If your looking to work with the source code locally within Visual Studio we would suggests copying the entire content of the "InstantForum2012DEV" or "InstantForum2012EUL" folder into your c:\inetpub\wwwroot\" folder. Once you've marked the c:\inetpub\wwwroot\InstantForum2012 folder as a web application as detailed in step 3 below you can then use the Visual Studio solution file at c:\inetpub\wwwroot\InstantForum2012.sln to open the various InstantForum.NET 2012 projects and web application within Visual Studio.

3. Open Internet Information Servers (IIS) and ensure the "InstantForum2012" folder is marked as a web application. By default we would suggest using a Classic or Integrated .NET 2.0 or 3.5 application pool If you don't have access to IIS you can typically define applications or application starting points within your web hosting control panel.

4. Copy your existing "Uploads" folder form the root of your old 2010 installation into the root of your new 2012 installation. Choose yes when prompted to overwrite the Uploads folder. You should ensure the application pool identity has read, write and modify access to the Uploads folder and all child folders.

At this point you've installed all the new InstantForum.NET 2012 files on your web server. The next step will be to upgrade your existing InstantForum.NET 2010 database so we can point the new 2012 files to your upgraded database.

IMPORTANT: Please follow these steps carefully. If you don't complete these steps and your database is not correctly upgraded this can cause numerous problems. Please use the upgrade script provided to upgrade your database and don't attempt to create the new stored procedures or tables manually.

Before upgrading your database we would strongly suggest taking a backup of your current InstantForum.NET 2010 database. This will allow you to revert should you encounter any issues during the upgrade. Whilst we've tested the 2010-5 to 2012 upgrade script we can't predict network or power failure so please take a back-up before attempting to upgrade. The upgrade operation cannot be undone.

We suggest using a back-up in the steps below however we realize you may not always have this option and may need to run the upgrade script directly against your live InstantForum.NET 2010 database. If your limited to a single database we would strongly suggest taking a back-up or asking your hosting company to take a back-up before completing the steps below.

If you are able to test the upgrade process locally or within a test / staging environment first that would certainly be suggested. This would allow you to get familiar with the upgrade process minimizing any downtime in your production installation.

If your able to create multiple databases we would suggest….

1. Connect to your instance of SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

2. Take a backup of your current InstantForum.NET 2010-5 database.

3. Restore this backup to a new database for example "InstantForum2012".

4. Within SSMS Open "[installpath]\InstantForum2012\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2010-5_to_2012.sql"

5. Execute the "2010-5_to_2012.sql" file against the restored 2010 database backup. This will update your existing 2010-5 schema to the new 2012 schema but will of course keep all your existing data.

If your limited to only one database we would suggest….

1. Connect to your instance of SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

2. Take a backup of your current InstantForum.NET 2010-5 database.

4. Within SSMS Open "[installpath]\InstantForum2012\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2010-5_to_2012.sql"

5. Execute the "2010-5_to_2012.sql" file against your existing 2010 database, This will update your existing 2010-5 schema to the new 2012 schema but will of course keep all your existing data.

After you've ran the script you may see some warning message with regards to dependencies. These warnings can safely be ignored. You should not see any error messages. If you do see any read error messages please contact us.

Update the InstantForum.NET Connection String

Once you've installed the InstantForum.NET 2012 files and upgraded your existing 2010 database the next step is to point the fresh InstantForum.NET 2012 installation to your upgraded database. You can do this by updating the database connection string value that can be found within the InstantForum.NET 2012 web.config file. The web.config file can be found within the root of your InstantForum.NET 2012 web site folder.

The default connection string is shown below…

You'll need to update the connectionString value to point to your upgraded 2010-5 database. You can find more information on configuring connection strings at http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Updating-the-InstantForumNET-Connection-String

If your not sure how to update the connection string it may help to take a look at your existing InstantForum.NET 2010 installation and review the connection string within the InstantForum.NET 2010 web.config file. It could be you can use the 2010 connection string as a basis to configure your 2012 connection string.

You should not need to update the username or password within your connection string as the process used above will ensure SQL Server user accounts are preserved. You should be able to take your 2010 connection string and simply update the database attribute to point to your updated database.

Now you've installed the 2012 files, upgraded your database and updated the connection string within the 2012 web.config file to point to your upgraded database it's time to test your work. We would suggest navigating to your forum within your favourite web browser as you normally would.

You should see our InstantForum.NET 2012 interface with all your existing data. You can login as normal to access the Admin CP. If you do encounter any problems at this stage please take a screen grab of the error or problem your seeing and open a support ticket.

New File Permissions

The mobile devices file App_Data/Devices.dat is used to store the details of devices that have previously accessed the web site to determine if they are making a subsequent request. The application pool identity must have read, write and modify access to the file. This setting is needed to ensure multiple worker processes have a consistent view of previous activity.

User Achievements Are Not Enabled By Default

By default the service which awards achievements is disabled out the box. We do this to first allow you to customize the achievement thresholds based on the traffic and activity you anticipate within your community.

For example if you have a very active web site you may wish to first increase the thresholds user much reach before achievements are awarded to make them difficult to achieve.

To view and customize the various achievements awarded by InstantForum.NETr you'll need to first login as an administrator and then visit the Admin CP > Manage Achievements page. On this page you'll see a list of achievements. You can edit each achievement by clicking the edit button.

Once your happy your achievements are suitable difficult to earn based on your anticipated traffic you should ensure the achievement awarder service is enabled. This will poll your database & award achievements over a period on a IIS background thread.

You can enable the achievement awarder polling you'll need to visit the Admin CP and locate the "Forum Settings" link on the left within the "Manage Settings" panel. On the Forum settings page ensure the "Enable Achievement Polling" option is set to "Yes".

New Web.config Settings

The following web.config settings have been added to provide up to date mobile browser detection. If your installing InstantForum.NET under s standard child directory and not a IIS web application you may need to update the highlighted paths below.

</location>

</location>

</locations>

</redirect>

</wurflPatches>

This element is essential as without it 51degrees.mobi will be unable to access the mobile device data needed for detection and redirection.

For further information on the new mobile settings and .NET 4.0 support please see…

http://51degrees.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=User%20guide

New Script Bundling & Minifcation

The new script bundling and minifaction feature you can enable within the Admin CP > Forum Settings page requests a wild card handler mapping be added to IIS similar to our Search Engine Friendly URLs feature to ensure all requests go through the aspnet_isapi.dll.

If you enable script bundling and minifcation please configure IIS as shown here…

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Enabling-Search-Engine-Friendly-URLs

I have customized my InstantForum.NET 2010 skin. How should I upgrade?

Due to the number of updates in our 2012 release to skin and CSS files to provide HTML5 & mobile support we would suggest customers who have previously customized a 2010 ski to re-apply any changes to our newer 2012 skins. Our InstantForum.NET 2012 update comes with te same basic skins as our previous 2010 release and you can use these skins as a basis for your customizations. You can learn more about creating skins here…

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Creating-new-InstantForum.NET-Skins

Our MasterPage.master file remains the same. If you've previously customized the mater page file in your 2010 skin you can copy your 2010 master page into a new 2012 skin.

I get a Security Exception on the Login Page

I get the following error on the login page…

System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.ReflectionPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed.

If you can run InstantForum.NET in full trust please enable this by adding the following to your web.config <trust level="Full"/> inside the <System.Web> element.

If your hosting environment only supports medium trust please follow the steps below.

Visit Admin CP > Manage Settings > Login & Registration Set Enable Alternate Logins: to false. If your not able to login to the Admin area please follow the steps detailed in this article…

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Knowledgebase/Security-Exception-after-installing-InstantForum.NET-or-InstantKB.NET

Cannot insert the value NULL into column '[columnname]', table '[tablename]'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.

Where [columnname] and [tablename] are the corresponding table and field effected. This problem can occur if default constraints / values are deleted for columns within tables during the 2010 to 2012 database upgrade. This would typically only effect one of two columns

Whilst we make an attempt to preserve these the names of the default constraints are random and can vary. For this reason we can't guarantee you won't encounter this problem.

To resolve these problems please follow the steps below...

Connect to your SQL Server database through SQL Server Management Studio
Open the table shown in the error in Design View / Modify View
Locate the column shown in the error message
Add a default value / binding of 0
Close design view and save the changes

Test the operation again that first generated the exception to ensure it's resolved.

I receive numerous JavaScript errors when composing messages

The new live preview feature uses a AJAX call-back as you type within the editor to present a preview of your message below the editor. This call-back uses a web service and for security reasons the web service must reside on the same URL used within your browser to access the page. An issue can occur if you have previously hard coded an Application URL within the InstantForum.NET Admin CP but use a different URL (maybe without the "www") to access the page in your browser.

To resolve these issues you should add the following to your web.config file inside the <System.Web> element….

We've covered all the important points of the upgrade. Hopefully this article has helped you upgrade. If you did run into any problems of course please don't hesitate to contact us or open a support ticket.

A potentially dangerous Request Form value was detected from the client

Ryan Healey — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:42:24 GMT

After installing InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET under .NET 4.0 you may receive the following error when trying to save articles or post topics with HTML inside...

A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client (strSearchEventArgsXML="<s/>").
Resolution

1. Open your web.config file and locate the <httpRuntime> element This may look like...

<httpRuntime maxRequestLength="30720" />

2. Update the httpRuntime element and add the requestValidationMode attribute as shown below...

That's It!

Implementing these suggestions should resolve this exception message. If you require further assistance please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Uploading Large Files (80mb+) with InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:12:33 GMT

If your attempting to upload files within either InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET and the upload times out or you receive a 404 page half way through the upload please add the following tags to your InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET web.config files….

With both InstantForum.NET and InstantKB.NET you'll need to modify the existing <httpRuntime/> element within the web.config as shown below…

For IIS7 you'll need to add the entire <security/> element below to your <System.WebServer/> element…

<system.webServer>
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="524288000"/>
</requestFiltering>
</security>
</system.webServer>

If you still experience problems uploading large files please also modify the connection timeout property within IIS as shown below…

We hope this helps. If we can assist as always please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Integrated Authentication with the Active Directory Module

Ryan Healey — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:32:13 GMT

One of the queries we most often receive from InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET users of our Active Directory Module, is "How can I bypass the login step altogether and use my Active Directory/Windows Credentials to authenticate to the system". This is certainly a feature we spent alot of time on in the development of our LDAP module, and this article will hopefully shed some light on how to configure this.

Client Configuration

Firstly, you should note that all clients must have their browsers configured to enable integrated windows authentication, without this, your browser will not send your existing credentials to the server for validation. To enable this in Internet Explorer, simply go to

Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced

and ensure the option in the "Security" area of the tree 'Enable Integrated Windows Authentication' is checked.

Server Configuration

You will find a page added to the KB by the LDAP module "WinLogin.aspx", which handles all seamless logins, this page takes the passed windows credentials and feeds them into the LDAP module, which then processes authentication and uses several verification/safety steps to ensure that the system is not compromised.

It is Vital that any client attempting this, is already authenticated to the relevant active directory domain, if they are not, then you will need to trigger this at the server level. Ways to do this vary between IIS 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0, the most common is to set your IIS Security settings to require Windows Authentication to access WinLogin.aspx.

IMPORTANT: Ensure WinLogin.aspx is set as your default document within IIS so this loads as the first page when you request your application folder.

If you wish to be automatically logged in if you are authenticated, you will need to make this page your default page, however, in this case, any users non-authenticated (if you have correctly configured windows authentication on this file) will receive an HTTP 403.2 Error 'Read Access Denied', or a 401.3 Access forbidden area. as such you will need to access the custom errors tab of the website within IIS as illustrated:

Alternate Windows Integrated Access Strategies

Alternatively, you can have a sub0domain or some other method, which points towards WinLogin.aspx deliberately, exclusively for your Pre-Authenticated users, and everyone else may use the existing login/authentication system.

We reccomend for security reasons, that ONLY internal users use the WinLogin method, and that all external users use the provided authentication form, which may or may not authenticate via Active directory as per your specified configuration.

Further Reading for Advanced Administrators

The most complex configuration to run, is one with complete seamless windows authentication, and forms authentication, side by side within the same environment, this is made difficult because of the architecture of IIS and was chief among our considerations in the development of the Active Directory Module,

The related links below may be of use to you when configuring windows authentication with your installation of the AD Module.

Should you have any questions please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

InstantForum.NET 2010-4 to 2010-5

Ryan Healey — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:06:03 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantForum.NET 2010-4 installation to the InstantForum.NET 2010-5 release.

You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within 2010-4.

2010-5 Improvements

Improved support for InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET SSO

With InstantForum.NET 2010-5 and InstantKB.NET 2011-2 Single Sign On (SSO) has been improved to ensure you can use both the InstantASP.InstantForum and InstantASP.InstantKB APIs / assemblies from the same Visual Studio.NET project.

We'll be publishing a sample application and further documentation here within our online documentation soon.

Internet Explorer 9 RC1 & FireFox 4 BETA Support

Internet Explorer 9

FireFox 4

You can read more in the following blog post...
http://blog.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum.NET/InstantForum.NET-2010-5-Update

Dedicated Print.Master

The print topic page now has it's own master page file (Print.master). Previously it shared the main Master.master paster page which was not ideal as if you modified this and added your own HTML it would also appear when printing topics.

HTML Support within Email Templates

Added support for HTML within the Emails.XML templates. As this is a XML file you'll need to use [ ] instead of < > however you can use any HTML tag. For example if you wanted to include your company logo within emails generated by InstantForum.NET you can now add the following markup to the emails.xml file…

[img src="http://company.com/images/logo.gif" /]

Fixed issues with WYSIWYG editor In IE9 RC1
Fixed issues with WYSIWYG editor In FireFox 3 & 4
Fixed problem when deleting a user - there sent PMs are now deleted
Fixed (http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Knowledgebase/The-resource-URL-cannot-be-longer-than-1024-characters)
Fixed issues with "propagate member groups" option when creating new forums & categories
Fixed problem with forums limiting to 500 topics even if you disable limit
Fixed issue with Logout not working as expected in FireFox & Chrome
Fixed issue with ban options on user profiles if SEO URLs are enabled
Fixed issue with task directory being duplicated when updating general settings
Fixed issue with post backs if you used the enter key to submit search queries in FireFox
Fixed issue with FireFox posting back if you used the enter key when editing topic titles
Fixed issue with OpenID username not displaying in Admin CP
Fixed object reference error with OpenID cookie in SSO scenarios
Fixed issue with WYSIWYG editor sometimes disabling form submissions after adding a link or image
Fixed issue with date filter drop down list option not working when viewing forum
Fixed issues with default sort & paging options for forums not taking affect
Fixed issue with report post button alignment
Fixed issue with topic title quick edit in FireFox not reflecting changes after save
Fixed issue with client side and server side page size drop downs not matching
Fixed issues with resynchronizing forums if you updated from 4.1.4
Fixed issues with null database default values when upgrading from 4.1.4.
Improved support for international character sets with SEO URLs
Moved several strings previously hardcoded in the UI into localized Strings.js

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Downloading the 2010-5 Update

Quick Update

You can download only the files that have been updated with 2010-5 at the bottom of this article.

You should extract the contents of the attached ZIP file and copy the folders into the root of your InstantForum.NET 2010-3 installation. If your using a custom skin you will need to copy the updated files within the Classic skin folder into your custom skin.

To download the full 2010-5 release including source code please goto your My Licenses page.

Full Update

Download the 2010-5 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing InstantForum.NET 2010 customer the 2010-5 download will be available on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx.

Download the 2010-5 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called "InstantForum2010-5Dev" or "InstantForum2010-5EUL" depending on your license.

How to upgrade from 2010-4 to 2010-5

1 Update your existing 2010-4 files

Download the 2010-5 update as detailed above.

If your performing the "Quick Update" simply extract the contents of the ZIP file at the bottom of this article to your desktop. This will create a folder called InstantForum2010-5_UpdatedFiles. Copy the contents of this folde into your existing InstantForum.NET 2010 web site folder. You should overwrite the existing 2010-4 files with the updated 2010-5 files.

If you've downloaded the full 2010-5 update and would like to update an existing 2010-4 installation you will need to copy the files detailed below into your existing 2010-4 installation.

2. Update your 2010-4 Database

There have been a number of database changes from 2010-4 to 2010-5. To update your 2010-4 database please run the SQL Script provided within the 201054 download against your 2010-4 database.

InstantForum2010\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2010-4_to_2010-5.sql

Executing this script against your 2010-4 database will update a number of stored procedures required for 2010-5.

Updated InstantForum.NET 2010-5 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2010-5 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantForum.NET 2010-5 download into your existing 2010-4 installation folder.

Updated Assemblies

The following assemblies will need updating. Copy the latest versions from your InstantForum2010\Bin folder.

InstantASP.Common.dll
InstantASP.Common.Configuration.dll
InstantASP.Common.Data.dll
InstantASP.Common.UI.dll
InstantASP.InstantForum.dll
InstantASP.InstantForum.Data.dll
InstantASP.InstantForum.UI.dll
InstantASP.Licensing.dll

Updated JavaScript Files

InstantForum2010\js\forum.js
InstantForum2010\js\richtextbox.js

Updated Localization Files

InstantForum2010\Globalization\en-US\Strings.js
InstantForum2010\Globalization\en-US\Resoruces.xml

New Skin Files

No updated skin files

Updated Skin Images

No updated images

New InstantForum.NET 2010-5 Files

The files below are new within InstantForum.NET 2010-4. You will need to copy the files detailed below into your existing InstantForum.NET 2010-3 installation.

New Skin Files

Sloms\Classic\Print.master

You should also copy the new images into any custom skins you've created.

That's It!

Once you've updated the files listed above (or for download below) you should visit your existing InstantForum.NET installation. If everything was successful you should be able to continue using your forum as before. As always if you have any questions or run into any problems during the upgrade don't hesitate to leave your comments below, open a support ticket or contact us.

InstantKB.NET 2011-1 to 2011-2

Ryan Healey — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:00:07 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantKB.NET 2011-1 installation to the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 release. You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within InstantKB.NET 2011-2.

The primary focus for this release has been to resolve issues reported since the 2011-1 release and to improve various areas based on issues we've identified since the previous release and customer feedback.

InstantKB.NET 2011-2 Improvements

Improved Rules

Added options which allow you to now send rule generated emails to the ticket author, assigned to, last modified by etc. This is helpful if you wish to automate an email confirmation for new ticket replies. Or for example you may wish to generate an email to the person who the ticket is assigned to via the rule.

Search By Category in Staff CP

We've now added the ability to filter by category when searching within the staff control panel. Within the advanced search view you'll see a small arrow within the keywords field. This will display a tree with checkboxes allowing you to select specific categories to return.

This has been added for all tabs - knowledgebase, troubleshooter, downloads & tickets.

HTML Support within Email Templates

Added support for HTML within the Emails.XML templates. As this is a XML file you'll need to use [ ] instead of < > however you can use any HTML tag. For example if you wanted to include your company logo within emails generated by InstantForum.NET you can now add the following markup to the emails.xml file…

[img src="http://company.com/images/logo.gif" /]

This will work for any HTML tag for example [strong] [a href="http://domain.com"]my link[/a] [h1]. The important thing to remember to simple replace the greater than (>) and lesser than (<) characters with square brackets [ ] as < > are special entities within XML. You will also need to ensure emails are sent as HTML within the InstantForum.NET email settings page.

Improved support for InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET SSO

With InstantForum.NET 2010-5 and InstantKB.NET 2011-2 Single Sign On (SSO) has been improved to ensure you can use both the InstantASP.InstantForum and InstantASP.InstantKB APIs / assemblies from the same Visual Studio.NET project.

We'll be publishing a sample application and further documentation here within our online documentation soon.

InstantKB.NET 2011-2 Fixes

Fixed issues with work flow notifications within tickets
Fixed issues with work flow step edit permissions within tickets
Fixed issue with submitting new tickets with attachments
Fixed issue with articles assigned to me counts
Fixed issue with ticket assigned to me counts
Fixed issues when deleting tickets or ticket replies from user control panel
Fixed issue with work flow next steps not applying when responding to tickets
Removed workflow drop down from work flow change actions - caused confusion
Fixed issue with work flow step field templates in tickets not being applied
Fixed issue with automated email sent to users when staff reply to tickets
Fixed issue which prevented you from removing assigned to
Fixed issue which caused trouble shooter steps to not display when updating workflow
Fixed issues with SLA sort options not working correctly

How to upgrade from 2011-1 to 2011-2

1. Download InstantKB.NET 2011-2

Download the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing 2011 customer the 2011-2 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx.

Download the 2011-2 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called InstantKB2011-2DEV or InstantKB2011-2EUL depending on your license.

2. Update your existing InstantKB.NET 2011-1 files

The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents of the "InstantKB2011" folder (excluding web.config file) again to your current InstantKB.NET 2011-1 installation.

This will replace all existing 2011-1 files. If you choose to replace all files you may wish to keep your existing master page. If so you can skip the Skin\Classic\MasterPage.master file to preserve any changes to your existing master page.

Replacing only the updated files

If you've customized / modified a number of InstantKB.NET files you may wish to simply copy only the updated files into your installation. There are no new files with this update. You'll need to ensure you update the existing files with the latest versions from the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 download. You can find below a complete list of all updated files within the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 release.

3. Update your existing 2011-1 database

We have updated a number of stored procedures with 2011-2.

To apply the update to your InstantKB.NET 2011-1 database please run the file lcoated within the 2011-2 download at...

[InstallPath]\InstantKB2011\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2011-1_to_2011-2.sql

Updated InstantKB.NET 2011-2 Files

The following files have been updated with the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantKB.NET 2011-2 download listed below into your existing InstantKB.NET 2011-1 installation.

Updated Assemblies

The following assemblies will need updating...

InstantASP.Common.dll
InstantASP.Common.Configuration.dll
InstantASP.Common.Data.dll
InstantASP.Common.UI.dll
InstantASP.InstantKB.dll
InstantASP.InstantKB.Data.dll
InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.dll

Skin Files Updates

If you've created your own skin for InstantKB.NET you will need to copy the following files into your skin folder. If you've customized the CSS for your skin we would suggest using a tool like WinMerge to see the changes we've introduced and apply these to your CSS.

\Skins\{SkinName}\ControlPanelMyIssues.ascx
\Skins\{SkinName}\Staff\Controls\StaffInsertUpdateTicketReply.ascx

CSS Files

\Skin\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.css

JavaScript Files

The following JavaScript files will require updating...

\js\jb.js

Language Pack Files

To accomodate for the new strings within 2.0.6 you will need to replace your Respirces.xml file.

\Globalization\en-US\Resources.xml
\Globalization\en-US\Emails.xml

Database Changes

We have updated a number of stored procedures with 2011-2.

To apply the update to your InstantKB.NET 2011-1 database please run the file lcoated within the 2011-1 download at...

[InstallPath]\InstantKB2011\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2011-1_to_2011-2.sql

That's It!

Once you've updated the files listed above and updated your database you should visit your existing InstantKB.NET installation. If everything was successful you should be able to continue using your knowledgebase as before. As always if you have any questions or run into any problems during the upgrade don't hesitate to leave your comments below, open a support ticket or contact us.

InstantForum.NET Upgrades

Ryan Healey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:24:14 GMT

Helpful information for customers upgrading InstantForum.NET.

Learn More

Learn More

InstantKB.NET 2011

Ryan Healey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:22:29 GMT

Helpful information for customers looking to upgrade InstantKB.NET 2011.

Learn More

InstantForum.NET 2010 Upgrades

Ryan Healey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:28:34 GMT

This section contains helpful information for customers upgrading InstantForum.NET 2010.

InstantForum.NET 2010-4 to 2010-5

Learn More

InstantForum.NET 2010-3 to 2010-4

Learn More

InstantForum.NET 2010-2 to 2010-3

Learn More

Learn More

Learn More

Learn More

InstantKB.NET 1.3 to 2.0

Ryan Healey — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:14:22 GMT

This document details the steps to upgrade an existing InstantKJB.NET 1.3 installation to the latest InstantKB.NET 2.0 release.

We've broke the upgrade process ito four simple steps...

1. Install a fresh instance of InstantKB.NET 2.0

You should download and install the latest InstantKB.NET 2.0 release. You can find further information on how to download & install the update can be found in the link below...

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Installing-InstantKB.NET-2011

You should follow the steps detailed in this article to install a fresh instance of InstantKB.NET 2.0. Please ensure you read the system / installation requirements for InstantKB.NET 2.0. There are two key installation requirements...

InstantKB.NET 2.0 / 2011 now requires the .NET framework 2.0 or above.

2. Upgrade your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database

IMPORTANT: Before running the upgrade scripts please ensure you have a backup of your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database. Our upgrade script should execute successfully however if you have a network or power failure whilst executing this script it could potentially corrupt your database. We cannot be held responsible for any loss of data if you experience any problems during the update. We would strongly recommend you backup your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database first.
Once you've successfully installed a fresh instance of InstantKB.NET 2.0 the next step is to migrate your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database to the latest InstantKB.NET 2.0 schema. To upgrade your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database you'll need to connect to your InstantKB.NET 1.3 database within SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager or SQL Server 2006 Management Studio.

Once connected to your InstantKB.NET 1.3 database you should execute the "InstantKB20\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\1.3_to_2.0.sql" file as shown below.

You can also find the 1.3_to_2.0.sql script attached at the bottom of this article.

Ensure your InstantKB.NET 1.3 database is selected as shown above and click the "Execute" button to update your database....

The warning messages within the results pane are perfectly normal and can safely be ignored. Once you've executed the upgrade script if you refresh your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database you should see a number of new database tables as shown below...

That's it. Your database is now updated. The next step is to update the connection string used within your fresh InstantKB.NET 2.0 installation to point towards your updated 1.3 database.

Note: You should execute the following scripts against your 1.3 database to ensure the schema is fully upto date.

[InstallDir]\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\...

1.3_to_2,0.0.sql
2.0.0_to_2.0.1.sql
2.0.1_to_2.0.2.sql
2.0.2_to_2.0.3.sql
2.0.3_to_2.0.4.sql
2.0.4_to_2.0.5.sql
2.0.5_to_2.0.6.sql

If your upgrading to InstantKB.NET 2011 you'll also need to run...

2.0.6_to_2011.sql
2011_to_2011_1.sql

3. Update the InstantKB.NET 2.0 connection string

Now your InstantKB.NET 1.3 database has been updated to the 2.0 schema you can update the database connection string within the InstantKB.NET 2.0 / 2011 web.config file to point towards your updated database.

To update the connection string open the "InstantKB20\web.config" file within NotePad or similar ASCII editor. Locate the "InstantASP_ConnectionString" setting. The default setting is shown below...

You should update this connection string to point towards your updated InstantKB.NET 1.3 database. For more information on connection strings please see "Updating the InstantKB.NET Connection String".

Note: If you connect to SQL using SQL Server authentication you'll need to update the connection string to include the username and password for the SQL Server user account you used when connecting to run the update script. You can modify the connection string to use a SQL Server username & password as shown below...

add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString"
value="SERVER=localhost;UID=username;PWD=password;DATABASE=InstantKB20;"/>
4. Copy over the "Attachments" folder from InstantKB.NET 1.3 to 2.0

To ensure all your attachments and image uploads from InstantKB.NET 1.3 continue to work correctly within InstantKB.NET 2.0 simply copy the "Attachments" folder & all it's contents from the root of your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 installation into the root of your fresh InstantKB.NET 2.0 installation. This is shown below...

You will need to configure permissions on on folders to allow the writting of files by InstantKB.NET to those folders. For further information please see "Configure InstantKB.NET File Permissions".

The update should now be complete. You should now attempt to connect to your fresh InstantKB.NET 2.0 installation via a web browser. If everything was successful you should see a skelaton InstantKB.NET 2.0 installation with all your exiting InstantKB.NET 1.3 articles, categories, users etc.

You can login using your existing email address & password. To access the administrator & staff control panels you'll need to login using your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 login credentials.

Of course should you have any questions please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

How to restict / force login for InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:21:45 GMT

One if the requirements we see over and over again with both InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET is the ability for customers to restict access to all but the login & registration page for anonymous users. This is useful for example if you wish to enforce registration before users can view your forum or knowledgebase.

Thankfully this is quite straight-forward with both InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET and can be achieve by adding standard <authorization> tags to your web.config to restrict access to specific areas based on the role / member group the current user belongs to.

For example…

Use the following code to restrict access to all but the login & register page for anonymous users within InstantForum.NET.

<location path="">
<location path="">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow roles="Administrators,Forum+Members,Moderators,Awaiting+Activation" />
        <deny users="*" />
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>



<location path="Register.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="CaptchaImage.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="ConfirmationMessage.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="Logout.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="Logon.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

InstantKB.NET

Use the following code to restrict access to all but the login & register page for anonymous users within InstantKB.NET.

<location path="">
<location path="">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow roles="Administrators,Registered+Members,Moderators+Staff,Awaiting+Activation" />
        <deny users="*" />
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>



<location path="Register.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="CaptchaImage.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="ConfirmationMessage.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="Logout.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

<location path="Logon.aspx">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
</location>

Where do I place this code?

You should add these tags just below the closing </appSettings> element within the web.config file.

I have defined custom groups how can I handle these?

You can add the name of any custom member group you create within InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET to the allow / deny roles element. For example lets say you create a member group called "Internal Staff" and you wanted to allow these access to all pages.

You would modify the allow roles element as shown below...

Ensure you separate groups / roles with a comma and also use a plus "+" character to indicate a space within the group name.

After applying the tags above any visitor who does not have access to a page will be redirected to the URL / location specified within the LoginURL attribute of the <forns> element. For example…

You can update the "loginUrl" to point to your own login page if you have one in place. Any user who then attempts to access a page they don't have permission to will be redirected to your login page.

If you leave this as default users will be redirected to the standard forum login.

To ensure InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET store the users roles within the forms authentication cookie you'll need to ensure the following application setting within the web.config is set to true…

Role checks will NOT work if "InstantASP_StoreRolesInFormsAuthenticationTicket" is set to false.

You can apply these techniques to other pages within InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET. We hope this information helps. If it's helped you please rate the article below. As always if we can assist further don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Deploying InstantKB.NET on 64-bit servers

Ryan Healey — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:23:07 GMT

This problem was resovled with InstantKB.NET 2011. This only applies to InstantKB.NET 2.0.x.
InstantKB.NET does support 64-bit operating systems. However due to the obfuscation used on the InstantASP.Licenses.dll you may receive the following error when running InstantKB.NET in 64-bit environments...

Exception Message: is not a valid Win32 application. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700C1)

If you do receive this error message please download the correct "InstantASP.Licensing.zip" for your InstantKB.NET version below…

64-bit DLL for InstantKB.NET 2.0

To download the 64-bit version of our InstantASP.Licensing.dll please use the link below...

http://downloads.instantasp.co.uk/licenses/InstantASP.Licensing(Any_CPU).zip

Extract the InstantASP.Licensing.dll into your InstantKB.NET \bin directory. You should overwrite the existing InstantASP.Licensing.dll file with the 64bit version.

Before overwritting your InstantASP.Licensing.dll we would suggest you make a backup of your current InstantASP.Licensing.dll should you encounter any problems and wish to revert.
This will ensure InstantKB.NET works as expected under 64-bit operating systems.

Installing InstantForum.NET in a standard child directory

Ryan Healey — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:20:30 GMT

If your installing InstantForum.NET on a shared hosting account you may not have the option to install InstantForum.NET within a dedicated IIS web application. Your hosting company may only allow one IIS web application for the root of your web site.

This article only applies if your not able to install InstantForum.NET within the root of a IIS web application / virtual directory also sometimes referred to as application starting point.

To install InstantForum.NET in a standard child directory of a IIS web site or web application you'll need to follow the steps below.

Our Example

We'll use the InstantForum.NET Single Sign-On example as a basis for this article. This example offers a single IIS web application with InstantForum.NET installed in a standard child directory / folder called "InstantForum". You can see this below…

As you can see the "InstantForum2010SSOSample" folder is our IIS web application / web site root and InstantForum.NET is installed in a standard child directory called "InstantForum". The name of the child folder you choose to install InstantForum.NET to is important as we'll need to use this to update our URLRewrite.config & web.config file.

If your using InstantForum.NET 2010-2 or below you'll need to ensure you also copy the "App_Code" folder from the InstantForum.NET folder into the root of your web site. This is not required for InstantForum.NET 2010-3 or above however you will still need to follow the steps bel;ow.

1. Copy the InstantForum.NET DLL files into your web site root "bin" directory

You'll need to copy the InstantForum.NET assemblies shown below into the bin directory under the root of your web site….

InstantASP_Licenses.config

Ennsure you leave the "InstantASP_Licenses.config" file within the InstantForum2010SSOSample\InstantForum\Bin folder.

2. Add the following entries to the web.config within your web site root

Application Settings

You'll need to add the InstantForum.NET database connection string to your web sites web.config file.

<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="server=localhost;trusted_connection=true;database=InstantForum20102"/>
You'll need to add the virtualpath application setting as shown below. This should be the relative path to your InstantForum.NET folder from the root of your webs site. For exmple we've installed InstantForum.NET to a child folder called "InstantForum" so we simply enter this name...

<add key="InstantASP_VirtualPath" value="InstantForum"/>
This will ensure our HTTP modules (see below) are able to find the configuration & localization files.

You should leave the InstantForum.NET web.config file within the "InstantForum" folder. You should remove the InstantASP_ConnectionString setting from the InstantForum.NET web.config but leave the InstantASP_VirtualPath setting in place unmodified.
HttpModules

You'll need to add the following HTTP Modules to your root web sites web.config file.

<httpModules>
<add type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.SecurityModule, InstantASP.Common" name="SecurityModule"/>
<add type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.ServiceModule, InstantASP.Common" name="ServiceModule"/>
<add type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.EmailModule, InstantASP.Common" name="EmailModule"/>
<add type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.ExceptionModule, InstantASP.Common" name="ExceptionModule"/>
<add type="InstantASP.InstantForum.HttpModule.URLRewritterModule, InstantASP.InstantForum" name="RewriterModule"/>
<add type="InstantASP.InstantForum.HttpModule.ForumModule, InstantASP.InstantForum" name="ForumModule"/>
</httpModules>
Or if your using IIs 7 "Integrated" application pools you'll need to add the same HTTP modules to your <System.WebServer> element as shown below…

<modules>
<add name="SecurityModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.SecurityModule, InstantASP.Common"/>
<add name="ServiceModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.ServiceModule, InstantASP.Common"/>
<add name="EmailModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="InstantASP.Common.HttpModule.EmailModule, InstantASP.Common"/>
<add name="RewriterModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="InstantASP.InstantForum.HttpModule.URLRewritterModule, InstantASP.InstantForum"/>
<add name="ForumModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="InstantASP.InstantForum.HttpModule.ForumModule, InstantASP.InstantForum"/>
</modules>
3. Update the InstantForum.NET URLRewrite.config file

You'll need to modify the rules within the "InstantForum\URLRewrite.config" to accommodate for your standard child directory. For example a typical rule within this file looks like this…

<Rule Value="~/Forum([0-9]+).aspx">Messages.aspx?ForumID=$1</Rule>

As InstantForum.NET is installed within a child folder now called "InstantForum" you'll need to update all rules to accommodate for your standard child directory.

For example…

<Rule Value="~/InstantForum/Forum([0-9]+).aspx">Messages.aspx?ForumID=$1</Rule>

This will ensure when you enter http://yoursite.com/InstantForum/Forum1.aspx within your browser the rule will be found and the URL rewriting will be performed. If you don't modify the rules to accommodate your child directory the URL rewriting will still take place however it will look for the forum files within the root of your web site which will likely result in an exception being raised.

I hope this information has been helpful. As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

Deploying InstantForum.NET on 64-bit servers

Ryan Healey — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:14:21 GMT

This information only applies to InstantForum.NET 2010-3 or below. This has since been resolved out-the-box with InstantForum.NET 2010-4.

InstantForum.NET does support 64-bit operating systems.

However due to the obfuscation used on the InstantASP.Licenses.dll you may receive the following error when running InstantForum.NET in 64-bit environments...

Exception Message: is not a valid Win32 application. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700C1)

If you do receive this error message please download the correct "InstantASP.Licensing.zip" for your InstantForum.NET version below…

For InstantForum.NET 2010-2 or above…

DOWNLOAD

For InstantForum.NET 4.1.4, 2010, 2010-1...

DOWNLOAD

Extract the InstantASP.Licensing.dll into your InstantForum.NET \bin directory. You should overwrite the existing InstantASP.Licensing.dll file with the attached below.

Before overwritting your InstantASP.Licensing.dll we would suggest you make a backup of your current InstantASP.Licensing.dll should you encounter any problems and wish to revert.
This will ensure InstantForum.NET works as expected under 64-bit operating systems.

Enabling Full-Text Search with InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:11:59 GMT

This article details the steps required to enable SQL Server full text search support within InstantKB.NET 2.x / 2011 & SQL Server 2005 / 2008.

Towards the bottom of this article you'll also find information on how to enable InstantKB.NET to search attachments and also how to install 3rd party iFilters to search PDF documents & other file types.

Enabling Full -Text Search

If you've not already enabled full text search for your instance of SQL Server 2005 you can do so by executing the query below. If your using SQL Server 2000 you'll need to ensure you install the full-text service from the add / remove programs dialog.

To enable full text search within SQL Server 2005 execute the following query within SQL Server 2006 Management Studio...

sp_fulltext_database 'enable'
Creating your Catalog

Once you've enabled full-text search the next step is to create the catalog, Expand your InstantKB.NET database within SQL Server 2005 Management Studio and click "Storage".Right click the "Full-Text Catalog" node and select "New Full-Text Catalog" as shown below...

This will popup the create catalog wizard. You can provide any name you wish for your catalog. We suggest leaving the majority of settings as the default when creating your catalog. You will have the option to amend catalog settings later.

Once you've created your catalog the next step is to add the database table columns we want to index to the catalog. For a complete list of column that need to be included within the catalog please see the section below.

Defining the Full-Text Indexes / Columns To Index

You will need to right click on each table listed below and select the "Define Full-Text Index" option for each table listed below.

IMPORTANT: You must always include the following database columns within your full-text catalog.

You will need to define full-text indexes for the following columns...

InstantASP_Tags.TagKeyword
InstantASP_Tags.TagKeywordEncoded
InstantKB_ArticleComments.Comments
InstantKB_Articles.ArticleTitle
InstantKB_Articles.ArticleText
InstantKB_Tickets.TicketTitle (only for InstantKB.NET 2011)
InstantKB_Tickets.TicketText (only for InstantKB.NET 2011)
InstantKB_TicketReplies.TicketText (only for InstantKB.NET 2011-1)

You will need to define an index for each column listed above. The define index dialog is wizard based. You can use the default settings when creating each index however you must ensure you include the database table columns listed above.

Enabling Full-Text Search Within InstantKB.NET

Once full-text is enabled within SQL Server and you've defined the indexes as shown above required by InstantKB.NET you should enable full-text support within InstantKB.NET. To enable full-text support within InstantKB.NET you'll need to visit the Admin CP » Settings » Knowledgebase page as shown below...

To learn more about the difference between ContainsTable & FreeTextTable please see the related links at the bottom of this article.

Maintaining Your Full-Text Catalog

Once you've created your catalog and defined the indexes to include in that catalog you should ensure you set a population schedule for the catalog. This will ensure your search results remain up-to date and new content is frequently added to the search catalog.

To define a population schedule you'll need to visit your catalog properties as shown below...

From within the catalog properties dialog you should click the "Population Schedule" option and then "New" to create your population schedule.

Creating the population schedule is very similar to creating a calendar item within outlook and very straight-forward. We won't cover the options available here. We would suggest you populate your catalog during low traffic times. How often you update is really down to how often your content changes. We would suggest updating the catalog at least once a day.

Searching Attachments with InstantKB.NET

For further information on searching attachments stored within InstantKB.NET please see http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Searching-Attachments-with-InstantKB.NET

That's It!

I hope this information helps. If you have any comments or questions please don't hesitate to use the comments below. I'll do my best to respond as quickly as possible. You can of contact support should you have any questions.