InstantASP Support Center

A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected

Ryan Healey — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:49:16 GMT

When creating new articles within InstantKB.NET or posting new topics within InstantForum.NET you may receive the following error message. "A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client".

This is a standard ASP.NET security feature called request validation. You can read more on this here…
http://www.asp.net/learn/whitepapers/request-validation

Whilst we do already set requestValidation to false by default within both the InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET web.config it could be you encounter this error if you've modified the web.config are are using an alternative web.config.

Resolution

You need to disable requestValidation from within the web.config file. We provide our own protection for all user input against XSS or SQL injection attacks.

Please ensure the validateRequest attribute is present within your <pages/> element and is set to false…

ASP.NET 4.0

For ASP.NET 4.0 installations you'll need to add the following to your web.config...

See this whitepaper for more information.

That's It!

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

How can I remove the Powered By / Copyright footer text?

Ryan Healey — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:18:59 GMT

You can hide the Powered By InstantForum.NET or Powered By InstantKB.NET and / or the standard copyright message that is displayed at the bottom of each InstantForum.NET & InstantKB.NET page by modifying the "\Skins\{SkinName}\Controls\Footer.ascx" file.

Modify this file as so…

<div class="contentFooter" visible=”false” runat=”server”>

    <InstantASP:HorizontalLine ID="HorizontalLine1" CssClass="contentFooterLine" Runat="Server"/>

    <InstantASP:Spacer runat="Server" />

    <div class="SmallTxt" style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
      <InstantASP:HyperLink runat="Server" id="hypCopyright" /><br />
      <InstantASP:Label id="lblRequestTime" Runat="server"/>
      <InstantASP:Label id="lblDatabaseQueries" Runat="Server"/>
      <InstantASP:Label id="lblCompression" runat="server"/>
    </div>

</div>
My changes are highlighted in yellow.

Modify the file like so...

The changes are highlighted in yellow.

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

404 Error When Clicking Articles or Topics

Ryan Healey — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:42:29 GMT

When clicking on an article within InstantKB.NET or a topic within InstantForum.NET you may receive a "404 Page Cannot Be Found" or a "The Resource cannot be found." message.

This typically occurs if the URL rewriting module is not configured correctly.

To resolve this please follow the steps below…

Classic .NET Application Pools

If your using IIS7 please ensure InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET is installed within a Classic .NET Application Pool.

Ensure the following entry is present within your web.config file...

Integrated Application Pools

If your using InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET in a IIS7 integrated application pool you will need to ensure you follow the steps in the articles shown below…

InstantForum.NET

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Deploying-InstantForum.NET-on-IIS-7-Integrated-mode

InstantKb.NET

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/Docs/Deploying-InstantKB.NET-on-IIS-7-Integrated-mode

If this article does not elp resolve your problem please don't hesitate to open a support ticket or contact us.

Security Exception after installing InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:24:16 GMT

After installing InstantKB.NET or InstantForum.NET in a medium trust hosting environment you may receive the following error...

System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Configuration.ConfigurationPermission, System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' failed.

Cause

This error can occur if your running InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET in medium trust and have not installed the System.Web.Extensions.dll to the GAC.

We provide a copy of the System.Web.Extensions.dll within the "\bin" directory for either InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET.

Resolution

Install the correct version of the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions which will install the correct System.Web.Extensions.dll file to the GAC.

Check Your Web.Config File

If your referencing the .NET 3.5 SP1 version of the System.Web.Extensions.dll within your web.config as shown below you should ensure .NET 3.5 SP1 is installed correctly.

<assemblies>
<add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
<add assembly="System.Web.Extensions.Design, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
</assemblies>
If your using .NET 2.0 you may be referencing the older version of the System.Web.Extensions.dll within your web.config as shown below..

<assemblies>
<add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add assembly="System.Web.Extensions.Design, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
</assemblies>
If your referencing the 1.0.61025.0 version of the System.Web.Extensions.dll you'll need to install ASP.NET AJAX 1.0...
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ca9d90fa-e8c9-42e3-aa19-08e2c027f5d6&displaylang=en

This will add the required DLL files to your GAC.

Additional Notes

If your able to run InstantKB.NET in full trust please update the <trust level ="Medium"/> element within your web.config.

Update this to read <trust level ="Full"/>.

This should resolve the problem for customers who can run our software in full trust.

You can check which versions of the System.Web.Extensions.dll is installed within your GAC by navigating to the "C:Windows\Assembly" folder on your server.

That's It!

If we can assist with any questions as always please don't hesitate to contact us.

I've locked myself out of my InstantKB.NET installation

Ryan Healey — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:35:58 GMT

With InstantKB.NET 2.0 we provide the ability within the Admin CP to disable the login & registration features. This is intended for those who have integrated InstantKB.NET with an existing login & registration system.

You can see these options below…

We would not suggest disabling the login or registration pages if you depend unpin these to access your InstantKB.NET installation.

If you do accidently disable the login page and lock yourself out of your InstantKB.NET Admin CP you'll need to modify the InstantKB.NET database directly to re-enable the login page.

To reset your InstantKB.NET login & registration settings please follow the steps below…

1. Connect to your InstantKB.NET database

You'll need to connec to your SQL Server instance with SQL Server Management Studio or similar tool that allows you to execute quries against your database.

2. Execute the following TSQL against your InstantKB.NET database…

UPDATE InstantKB_Settings
SET SettingsXML = ''
WHERE (SettingText = 'AdminSettings_RegistrationLogin')

This will delete all login & registration settings within your InstantKB_Settings table.

3. Recycle the ASP.NET cache.

As you've modified the database directly you may need to recycle the InstantKB.NET application pool to clear the ASP.NET cache and force InstantKB.NET to get the latest settings from your database.

That's It!

When you visit your InstantKB.NET installation you should not see the login & registration links as expected. IF you have any questions or problems please don't hesitate to contact us.

How do I remove the alternate logins within InstantForum.NET?

Ryan Healey — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:38:01 GMT

With InstantForum.NET 2010 we provide the option for your users to login using Google, Yahoo, AOL, OpenID & if configured Twitter…

Whilst this is helpful as you don't have to go through the forum registration process we appreciate your may wish to disable these options.

To remove the alternate logins panel & disable the ability to login via the 3rd party services follow the steps below…

1. Navigate to your InstantForum.NET \bin directory.

2. Remove the following DLLs from your bin directory...

DotNetOpenAuth.dll
DotNetOpenAuth.ApplicationBlock.dll

If InstantForum.NET does not find these assemblies the alternative logins panel won't be displayed.

Open your web browser and navigate to your InstantForum.NET installation. Visit the forum login page and you'll notice the panel on the right showing the alternative logins is no longer displayed.

New Documentation Area Online

Ryan Healey — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:08:19 GMT

All future documentation will now be published within our dedicated documentation area located at…

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/

Our new documentation area is based on the forthcoming InstantKB.NET 2010 update. We feel the skin offers a much easier way to navigate product documentation and this skin will be available with InstantKB.NET 2010.

The new documentation area is very focused and is intended to assist customers quickly get started with our products. We'll also be publishing user guides within the new documentation area to assist end users, administrators & moderators.

We will continue to publish FAQs, common problems & hot-fixes here within the knowledgebase. Also as InstantKB.NET matures and we introduce new features we'll be taking advantage of those features here within our own knowledgebase. For example we are planning to introduce ticketing support in future versions.

No further information will be published under this tab. Once our documentation area is fully complete we'll update this tab to redirect to the new documentation.

Could not load type 'InstantASP.InstantForum.UI.Base.Page'

Ryan Healey — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:05:54 GMT

When integrating InstantForum.NET int an existing VB.NET or C# web site you may receive the following error message "Could not load type 'InstantASP.InstantForum.UI.Base.Page'." as shown below...

To resolve this problem simply copy the "App_Code" folder within the InstantForum.NET directory into your web site folder. We'll be improving this with future versions to ensure the Ap_Code folder is not required when integrating InstantForum.NET with your existing web site solution.

Method not found InstantASP.Common.Data.DataProvider.InsertUpdateUser

Ryan Healey — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:24:57 GMT

When running the InstantForum.NET 2010 End User License you may receive the following error when attempting to update user profile information...

Exception Type:        System.MissingMethodException
Exception Message:     Method not found: 'Int32 InstantASP.Common.Data.DataProvider.InsertUpdateUser(Int32, Int32, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, Double, Boolean, System.String, Int16, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, Int32, Int32, Int32, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String, System.String)'.
Exception Source:      InstantASP.Common
Exception Target Site: InsertUpdateUserInternal
Thi sis a bug that effects the InstantForum.NET 2010-2 releases. To resolve this problem please download the InstantASP.Common.Data.dll (see ZIP file below) and copy this into your InstantForum.NET \bin dreictory.

Overwtite the existing InstantASP.Common.Data.DLL file.

You should notice the file sizes are slightly different.

This should resolve the problem.

This issue has been addressed and the 2010-3 update will be available soon. This issue does not effect developer license customers.

Setting up Twitter Login with InstantForum.NET 2010-2

Ryan Healey — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:21:48 GMT

To take advantage of the new Twitter login option introduced with InstantForum.NET 2010-2 you'll need to follow the steps below.

Creating a Twitter Application

First you'll need to register your web site as an application with Twitter. You can do this at the link below...

http://twitter.com/apps/new

You can specify various snippets of information (name, description, image etc) to help identify your web site on Twitter to users who choose to login. The most important fields when creating a new application on Twitter are the "Application Type" and "Callback URL" fields.

You should ensure the "Application Type" is set to "Browser" and the "Callback URL" field points to your InstantForum.NET URL. You can see the settings used for our own Twitter login at http://community.instantasp.co.uk/ below...

Click the image to display a larger version.

Once you create your application you'll notice Twitter.com provide two unique snippets of information.

A "Consumer Key" and a "Consumer Secret". You can see these below...

The consumer key and consumer secret are very important as you'll need to copy and paste these info the InstantForum.ET web.config file.

Adding the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret tp Web.Config

Once you have your own consumer key & secret locate the InstantForum.NET 2010 web.config file. Open the web.config file within NotePad or similar plain-text editor and locate the following application settings...

If you've upgraded from an earlier version of InstantForum.NET you'll need to add these application settings within the <appSettings> section of your web.config file.

Simply copy your consumer key & secret provided by Twitter for your application into the section as shown below...

Where {YourConsumerKey} is your Twitter consumer key for your application and {YourConsumerSecret} is your Twitter consumer secret fpr your application.

If these keys are not provided the Twitter button will not be displayed on the login page.

Testing Twitter Login

Once you've added your consumer key and secret to the web.config file open your InstantForum.NET 2010-2 or above installation within your web browser. Click the "Login" link in the top left. You should now see an option to login via Twitter as shown below...

We hope you enjoy this feature and look forward to bringing support other popular networks to Instantforum.NET.

As always should you ahve any questions or require support implementing these changes please don't hesitate to contact us, post your comments below or within our community forums at http://community.instantasp.co.uk/

Upgrading from InstantForum.NET 2010-1 to 2010-2

Ryan Healey — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:18:58 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantForum.NET 2010-1 installation to the InstantForum.NET 2010-2 release.

You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within 2.0.6.

2010-2 Improvements

Ability to Login Via Twitter

We've added the ability to allow your forum users to login using their Twitter.com account. You can read more about this withi n our blog or try the Twitter login for yourself within our own community at http://community.instantasp.co.uk/Logon.aspx

Right To Left Support

The 2010-2 update contains a new skins to provide support for Right To Left layouts...

2010-2 Fixes

Fixed issue with Login & Logout URLs within Admin CP if not supplied
Fixed a problem which prevented you from adding forum moderators
Fixed topic titles to ensure they appear as the title of your page if enabled.
Fixed issue with moderation drop downs not working correctly when reading an individual topic
Fixed issue with follower notification emails being sent incorrectly
Fixed issue with FindPost.aspx not taking you to the correct post if your default topic view is set to flat DESC
Fixed issues with bullets & numbered bullets not working correctly in WYSIWYG editor
Fixed editor options to ensure icons & links are hidden within the editor if disabled via a permission set
Fixed issue with pinned topics not being included in the total topic count when viewing a forum
Fixed issue with global PM count not updating correctly if you delete private messages from your folders
Fixed problem with role based security on user profile pages meaning My Topics & other panels would not populate
Fixed problem with role based security on Latest Topics & Popular Topics when viewing a forum
Fixed issue with message icon not displaying within message previews
Fixed problem with no topics displaying if you only had pinned topics within a forum
Fixed issue with bold tags & justify tags not working within message previews
Fixed issue with forum not showing under Manage Forums as an administrator if not link to your user roles
Fixed issue with Threaded Topic view if the post shown only contains HTML tags
Fixed "Error: Undefined" client side error if you clicked some links before some panels had fully loaded.
Fixed issue when editing topics in Chrome with original topic title being lost preventing user submitting updates
Fixed issue with rebuild forums not always including all forums

Reduced total query count on Forum.aspx. This has been reduced by 1 query
Web addresses & email addresses within posts will now automatically be hyperlinked for all browsers
Improved query when viewing topics within a forum to minimize JOINs improving query performance
Improved topic caching to ensure they expire correctly as new topics are added meaning you can now cache for much longer
Improvement to the "if_sp_InsertWhosOn" procedure to improve performance
All collections have been updated to .NET 2.0 or above Generic Lists in favour of heavier ArrayLists.

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

How to upgrade from 2010-1 to 2010-2

1. Download InstantForum.NET 2010-2

Download the 2010-2 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing InstantForum.NET 2010 customer the 2010-2 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx.

Download the 2010-1 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called "InstantForum2010DEV" or "InstantForum2010EUL" depending on your license.

2. Update your existing 2010-1 files

The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents of the "InstantForum2010" folder (excluding web.config file) again to your current InstantForum.NET installation. This will replace all existing 2010-1 files with the latest versions. If you choose to replace all files you may wish to 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 InstantForum.NET files you may wish to simply copy only the updated files into your installation.

All updated files are lsited below. There is also 1 new DLL with this upate listed below.

You should copy the latest versions of the files listed below from the 2010-2 download into your existing installation folder.

3. Update your existing 2010-1 database

Execute the \InstantForum2010\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2010-1_to_2010-2.sql against your existing InstantForum.NET 2010-1 database. This will update 2 stored procedures.

Updated InstantForum.NET 2010-1 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2010-2 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantForum.NET 2010-1 download listed below into your existing 2010 installation.

Updated Assemblies

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

DotNetOpenAuth.dll
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

New Assemblies

DotNetOpenAuth.ApplicationBlock.dll

Updated JavaScript Files

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

Updated Localization Files

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

Updated Skin Files

\Skins\Classic\messages.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\PostControl.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\LogonOAuth.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Admin\Controls\AdminViewModerator.ascx

You should also copy these updated files into any custom skins you've created.

That's It!

Once you've updated the files listed above and updated your database 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.

Upgrading from InstantForum.NET 2010 to 2010-1

Ryan Healey — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:34:43 GMT

instantThis article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantForum.NET 2010 installation to the InstantForum.NET 2010-1 release.

You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within 2010-1.

2010-1 Improvements

Added new plug-in framework

We'll be publishing plugs-in soon which will simply bolt on to InstantForm.NET to add extra features & functionality. We'll also be publishing documentation & sample code soon to help others develop plug-ins.

Significant improves to search performance

We've updated to way we perform role based security checks within the forum. This new way avoids the need to any additional WHERE statement within the query resulting in much quicker performance especially for larger communities.

New Photoship Images for buttons

You can find the master PhotoShop PSD files for the various button graphics used within InstantForum.NET as well as the true type font used for the text within the buttons. You can find the photoshop files at InstantForum2010\Images\ClassicSkinPSDs.zi. This will allow others to customize the buttons to other languages.

2010-1 Fixes

Fixed issue with forum subscription emails not being sent
Fixed issue with last login date not updating for OpenID accounts
Fixed issues when paging forum & topic subscriptions within profile pages
Fixed issue with reflection permissions problem in some medium trust hosting environments
Fixed issue with topic paging controls not updating correcting if you updated the records per page drop down
Fixed issue with XML encoding if your search term contained special XML entity characters (&, <, > etc)
Fixed issue with search not working for double byte character sets (Chinese, German etc)
Fixed issue some member photo image paths being incorrect if you updated from 4.1.4
Fixed issue with spaces being removed around commas if minify mark-up is enabled
Fixed issue with some UI strings being hardcoded within JavaScript files (not localization files)
Fixed several general typos within the forum

Updated the way our Resources.xml is parsed to reduce regular expression usage.
Updated our global string truncation method to offer improve performance
Added support for Right to Left layouts within the various JavaScript / JSON client-side rendered tables
Add total topic & user count to paging controls when viewing topics & member lists

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

How to upgrade from 2010 to 2010-1

1. Download InstantForum.NET 2010

Download the 2010-1 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing InstantForum.NET 2010 customer the 2010-1 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx. Download the 2010-1 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called InstantForum2010DEV or InstantForum2010EUL depending on your license.

2. Update your existing 2010-1 files

The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents of the "InstantForum2010" folder (excluding web.config file - see changes below) again to your current InstantForum.NET installation. This will replace all existing 2010 files. If you choose to replace all files you may wish to 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 InstantForum.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 2010 download.

You can find a list below of all updated files within the 2010-1 release below.

3. Update your existing 2010 database

Execute the \InstantForum2010\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2010_to_2010-1.sql against your existing InstantForum.NET 2010 database.

Updated InstantForum.NET 2010 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2010-1 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantForum.NET 2010-1 download listed below into your existing 2010 installation.

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

Updated JavaScript Files

InstantForum2010\js\forum.js

Updated Localization Files

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

That's It!

Once you've updated the files listed above and updated your database 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.

Cannot subset Regex with InstantForum.NET 2010 in Medium Trust

Ryan Healey — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:39:04 GMT

When running InstantForum.NET 2010 in medium trust hosting environments you may received the following error...

Cannot subset Regex. Only support if both patterns are identical.

To resolve this problem simply delete the "DotNetOpenAuth.dll" from within your forums \bin directory. Unfortunately the OpenID controls will not work in medium trust hosting environments. Once removed the forum should work as expected.

To use OpenID authentication you'll need to run InstantForum.NET in full trust. We are working to provide support for OpenID authentication within medium trust hosting environments.

Installing the InstantForum.NET Active Directory Module

Ryan Healey — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:20:57 GMT

This article is intended to assist with installation of our InstantForum.NET Active Directory Module

Installation Requirements

Before attempting an installation of the InstantForum.NET Active Directory module, you should have installed and configured the latest version of the InstantForum.NET 2010 release, and fully tested it to ensure proper functionality.

It is vital that you assertain that there are no installation/configuration issues before installing the Active Directory module, as this could exacerbate any existing issues. You should also have downloaded the most recent release version of the Active Directory Module, ready for installation.

Backing Up

We reccomend that you fully back-up, your working KB directory, and Database, this is especially important if you are adding the module to a production Knowledge Base which holds live or mission critical data. If you choose not to back-up your installation/data (not reccomended), at the very least you should back up your Web.Config file, so that your configured settings are easily available during the rest of the installation process.

Installation

1) Extract the contents of the Active Directory module Zip file to a folder on your hard drive.

2) Copy all files, except for the provided Web.Config into your installation root, approving any overwrites that the system requests as existing files are replaced.

3) At this stage, you should test your forum, by visiting the home URL, if all has gone well you should still see a home page, and be able to log in as standard, if at this point you do not get a homepage, or cannot login, you may want to try the following quick troubleshooting steps:

Re-Apply all permissions to the site-root, and all child files/directories.
Check that the update to the database was successful, or re-execute the script.
Re-Copy your backed up web.config to the site-root, incase you accidentally overwrote it.

5) Finally, before you can get to grips with the active directory module, you will need to configure your web.config file, there are two ways to do this.

a) Copy the provided web.config file into your site root, overwriting your web.config file, then re-populate your connection string and any other settings that you had customised in the new config file.

OR...

b) Copy the Active Directory Section from the provided web.config file, into your existing Web.Config, and customise the settings. This section is clearly marked in the new web.config file, you should find this section well commented, giving a short explanation of each setting. Further documentation explaining the Web.Config file, shall be available in the very near future within our KnowledgeBase, and shall be linked from this article.

Thats it, you're ready to get started using the Instant KB Active directory module, in whichever configuration you've set up!

We hope you found this article informative and helpfull, however we appreciate that sometimes instructions may be unclear, or customers may feel that further explanation is neccesary, if you have any questions as always please don't hesitate to contact us.

Upgrading from InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 to InstantForum.NET 2010

Ryan Healey — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:10:35 GMT

This article details the steps necessary o upgrade from InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 to the latest InstantForum.NET 2010. If your eligable you can download the InstantForum.NET 2010 release candidate from...

http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx

You'll need to click the small ZIP icon next to the release candidate listing to begin the download. Once you've downloaded the ZIP file for this example please extract the contents of the ZIP file to your computers desktop.

Once you'ev extracted the files to your desktop before you begin the database upgrade please ensure you create a backup your InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 database.

The database upgrade script may take a couple of minutes to complete depending on the amount of data you have within your existing database. If a power or network failure occurs whilst running the upgrade script against the database it may not be possible to restore your data. For this reason we would strongly suggest creating a backup of your database before attempting to run our upgrade script.

We would also suggest performing any upgrade locally or within a staging environment to familiarize yourself with the process. We would not suggest applying the upgrade directly into production without first testing the upgrade process locally.

The basic steps to upgrade are listed below...

1. Copy the InstantForum42 folder to your c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ folder

2. Ensure the InstantForum42 folder is marked as a web application within IIS

3. Make a backup of your existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 database

4. Run the 4.1.4 to 2010 upgrade script against your restored backup.

The script is located at located at c:\inetpub\wwwroot\InstantForum42\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\414_to_2010.sql

5. Update the "web.config" file within the 2010 install directory to point to your upgraded database. The default connection string is shown below...

<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="server=localhost;trusted_connection=true;database=InstantForum2010"/>
You may need to update this to something like...

<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="server=YOURSQLSERVERIP; uid=YOURSQLUSERNAME; pwd=YOURSQLPASSWORD; database=InstantForum2010"/>
6. Reapply any customizations you may have to the updated 2010 Classic Skin.

MasterTemplate.ascx no longer exists.

If you've previously customized the MasterTemplate.ascx you will now need to use the Skins\[YOURSKINNAME]\MasterPage.Master file to wrap your existing web site design around InstantForum.NET.

InstantForum.NNET 2010 will no longer work under .NET 1.1.

If your still running InstantForum.NET under a .NET 1.1 application pool you'll need to update this for InstantForum.NET 2010 to use a .NET 2.0 or above application pool.

Run InstantForum.NET 2010 under a Classic .NET Application Pool

If your installing 2010 on a Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 OS please ensure you configure the web site or web application within IIS for InstantForum.NET 2010 to use a Classic .NET Application Pool.

Copy Existing Avatars & Profile Pictures

Copy your existing "Uploads" folder from your existing 4.1.4 installation folder into the root of your InstantForum.NET 2010 folder.

This will ensure profile pictures, images embedded within posts & avatars are still displayed correctly.

Web.Config Changes

The web.config file has chagned quite substantially with 2010. For this reason we would suggest starting with the new InstantForum.NET 2010 web.config file.

That's It!

We hope you enjoy the 2010 update. Should you have any feedback please email me directly on ryan@instantasp.co.uk, leave a comment below or post your comments / questions within our community forums.

Add YouTube video embedding support for InstantForum.NET

Ryan Healey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:39 GMT

This article shows users of InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 or earlier how to allow community members to easily embed YouTube videos within forum posts.

With the built-in support for YouTube videos in the forthcoming InstantForum.NET 4.2 update we wanted to share some code we created with existing 4.1.4 users.

Lets say you wanted to share one of our videos within a post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS8hPKeRY4Y

If your using InstantForum.NET 4.1.4 or earlier uou can add an IFCode tag to embed this video directly within posts.

For example a nice way to embed this would be...

[YouTube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS8hPKeRY4Y[/YouTube]

When posted this would be translated via our IFCode feature and would display within posts as shown below...

For further information on how to use IFCode please see...

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum/managingifcode.html

To provide support for this you will need to add a new IFCode for 4.1.4. You should login as an administrator for your forum and navigate to the Admin CP. Within the navigation on the left locate the Add IFCode option. When adding a new IFCode use the following information...

Friendly Name

YouTube

Tag Example

[YouTube][/YouTube]

Actual code to insert

[YouTube][/YouTube]

Search Pattern

\[YouTube\](.*?)youtube.com/watch\?v=(.*?)\[\/YouTube\]

Replace Pattern

That's It!

Save our new IFCode and this will be accessible when adding new posts within InstantForum.NET 4.1.4. As indicated above this has been greatly improved with the forthcoming 4.2 update and we now have a dialog which allows you to add YouTube URLs directly from within the editor.

As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or contact us.

We would welcome suggestions for other video services you would like to see supported. For exmaple Ustream etc.

Using InstantKB.NET 2.0 within an IIS7 Integrated Application Pool

Ryan Healey — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:16:06 GMT

By default InstantKB.NET 2.0 is provided with a web.config file designed to work with all versions of IIS.

If your using InstantKB.NET within IIS6 (Vista / Windows 7) or IIS7 (Windows Server 2008) you can use InstantKB.NET 2.0 out-the-box however you wioll need to run InstantKB.NET 2.0 within a "Classic .NET Application Pool". If you attempt to run InstantKB.NET 2.0 within an integrated application pool you'll receive the error message below...

If you wish to use InstantKB.NET 2.0 within an "Integrated" application pool you should download the web.config file below and replace your current web.config file with this new web.config file. The attached web.config below ensures InstantKB.NET 2.0 will work within "Integrated" application pools.

Note: The web.config below will only work with InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 or above.

Should you have any questions please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or contact us.

Using the InstantKB.NET API to query & display articles

Ryan Healey — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:30:50 GMT

We seem to be getting more and more email's from customers looking to work with the InstantKB.NET API from within there own ASP.NET web sites To address these questions i've created this article which shows how to bind a collection of InstantKB.NET articles to a standard ASP.NET gridview. This example provides paging & basic sorting features.

Whilst this is quite a simple example it does demonstrates some important aspects to consider when using our API from your own web application. The InstantKB.NET API allows you to programatically control every aspect of your InstantKB.NET data through code. Our assemblies can be referenced from any .NET project (C# or VB.NET) to take advantqage of our methods.

The Scenario

One common scenario we see are customers looking to display articles on there own web sites. While you can already display articles via our RSS feeds this does incur some network overhead. Taking advantage of our API to query & display articles offers greater flexibility & much better performance.

Whilst this is only a simple use of our API it does demonstrate how you would reference our assemblies from within your Visual Studio.NET projects.

Once we have the basics working we'll add some simple search options to demonstrate how to can query the InstantKB.NET articles via our API to return results matching specific search criteria. For example on your web site you may wish to display all articles with a high priority or specific status.

We'll also take things a step further and demonstrate how to programatically add articles using our API through a simple web form.

Lets get started

If you wish to follow the steps within this article you will need a copy of Visual Studio.NET 2005 or 2008. To help with our scenario we'll create a basic ASP.NET Web Site to serve as a test bed to implement our code. The source code for this example can be found at the bottom of this page.

1. We'll quickly create a web site we can use to test our code.

Select a standard ASP.NET web site...

Once created you'll be presented with a blank web site as shown below...

To take advantage of our API you will need to reference our assemblies from your Visual Studio.NET solution. To add a reference to our assemblies simply right click on your project and go to "Add Reference" as shown below...

You will need to browse to the InstantKB.NET installation folder and locate the "InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.dll" file within the "\bin" directory...

Adding this single assembly as a reference to your project will bring all other dependencies into your solution as shown below...

Great. Now you've added references you'll just need to add a few settings to your root web site web.config file.

You will need to modify your web sites web.config file to include the InstantKB.NET database connection string and virtual path...

Application settings

In order for our assemblies to know which database to communicate with & which directly to search within for the Pages.config & URLRewrite.config file you will need to add the following application settings to your web.config file...

<appSettings>
    <add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString"
    value="Server=localhost;trusted_connection=true;database=InstantKB205;"/>
    <add key="InstantASP_VirtualPath" value="/InstantKB20"/>
</appSettings>
Forms Authentication

In order to take advantage of our built in role based security when querqueryingp; displaying articles you will need to add the following to your web.config file...

<authentication mode="Forms">
    <forms name="InstantASP" loginUrl="Logon.aspx"
    protection="All" slidingExpiration="true" path="/"/>
</authentication>
You will need to add the following HTTP Module...

Certain methods within our API require access to the configuration files provided with InstantKB.NET. For example if you wish to use our API to build up a dynamic URL to an article you will need to call methods within our API that depend on our Pages.config file. This file is a simple XML file that defines all the file names used within InstantKB.NET. This allows you to easily change the name of files to better suite your requirements.

Because of this however when using our API from outside of InstantKB.NET you will need to let our assemblies know where to find the various configuration Files such as Pages.config, URLRewrite.config. Todthis imply add a copy of InstantKB.NET to your web site and ensure the InstantASP_VirtualPath setting within your root web.config is present and using the correct virtual path to your InstantKB.NET folder.

If you don't want to install full copy of InstantKB.NET under your web site you can simply copy the Pages.config and URLRewrite.config files into the root of your InstantKB20 folder. Add the InstantKB20 folder (you can rename this) to your web site...

Ensure the following Application setting is present in your root web.config file...

<appSettings>
<add key="InstantASP_VirtualPath" value="/InstantKB20"/>
</appSettings>
The value for this setting much match the name of your InstantKB.NET folder.

Now you've added the asseassemblyerences and necessary web.config settings you can start using the methods within our API from your own web site. In this example we'll be showing how to bind articles to a grdiview and provide basic options to query the results.

Lets add a gridview to our ASP.NET web form. Double-check the defualt.aspx file and select the "Design" Mode as shown below...

Open your control toolbox on the left of the design surface and locate the GridView control...

Drag the GridView control into the designer. This should create a basic control as shown below...

6. Wire-up the GridView to show InstantKB.NET Articles

Now we have a GridView control to work with the next step is to add some code within the Page_Load event to bind our articles to the GridView. You can do this with some simply code such as...

Partial Class _Default    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page#Region "Private VAraiables"Private m_User As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.UserPrivate m_SearchEventArgs As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs#End Region#Region "Public Properties"Public Property SearchEventArgs() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs    Get        If m_SearchEventArgs Is Nothing Then            m_SearchEventArgs = New InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs            m_SearchEventArgs.UserID = CurrentUser.UserID         End If        Return m_SearchEventArgs    End Get    Set(ByVal value As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs)        m_SearchEventArgs = value    End SetEnd PropertyPublic ReadOnly Property CurrentUser() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User    Get        If m_User Is Nothing Then            m_User = GetUser()        End If        Return m_User    End GetEnd Property#End Region#Region "Page Events"Protected Overrides Sub OnLoad(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)    If Not Page.IsPostBack Then        ' bind data        BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)    End If    MyBase.OnLoad(e)End Sub#End Region#Region "Private Methods"Private Sub BindData(ByVal intPageIndex As Int32, ByVal intPageSize As Int32, _ByVal SearchEventArgs As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs)    ' setup gridview with current page index    GridView1.PageIndex = intPageIndex    GridView1.PageSize = intPageSize    ' build SQL statements based on search event args object    Dim strPopulateSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLPopulate(SearchEventArgs)    Dim strCountSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLCount(SearchEventArgs)    Dim strFulltextSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLFullTextMaxRank(SearchEventArgs)    ' return articles matching the search options & only within the page range    Dim ArticleCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.ArticleCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Articles.SelectArticlesPaged( _    intPageIndex, intPageSize, strPopulateSQL, strCountSQL, True, strFulltextSQL)    If Not ArticleCollection Is Nothing Then        GridView1.Visible = True        GridView1.DataSource = ArticleCollection        GridView1.DataBind()    Else        GridView1.Visible = False    End IfEnd Sub' -------------------------------------' helpers' -------------------------------------' get InstantKB.NET user objectPrivate Function GetUser() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User    Dim User As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User = Nothing    If System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated Then        User = InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.User.SelectUser( _        System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name)    Else        User = New InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.AnonymousUser    End If    Return UserEnd FunctionPrivate Function GetCulture() As String    If CurrentUser.Culture <> "" Then        Return CurrentUser.Culture    End If    Return InstantASP.Common.Application.Settings.Instance().CultureEnd Function  #End RegionEnd Class

You'll notice we simply call our BindData method to obtain a collection of articles and bind these to our GridView. The SearchEventsArgs property allows you to filter results based on specific search criteria. You'll notice we populate the UserID property of the SearchEventArgs object when we initialize this object within the property. This UserID is required for role based security to work correctly and ensure only articles belonging to your member groups are displayed.

We have two basic private helper methods to return the current authenticated user & the current culture for the application.

After implementing this code, if you build your solution (CTRL+F5) you should see something like...

This indicates the InstantKB.NET article collection was returned and bound to your GridView control.

8. Adding additional search capabilities

Lets extend this example and add some basic search functionality. This will demonstrate how the InstantASP.InstantKB.Componanent.SearchEventArgs object can be used to filter and display different results based on search input.

We'll add a basic keyword search & three drop down lists. The first drop down list will contain a list of tabs and allow us to filter results by tab. The second drop down list will contain a list of status' from within InstantKB.NET and allow us to search by status & the third will contain a list of priorities and will allow us to filter articles by priority.

To get start open your Default.aspx file again within Design View. Expand your control toolbox and drag a textbox, button & three drop down lists onto your page designer as shown below...

Now we have our controls we'll need to modify the code-behind for our Default.aspx page. Within the solution explorer locate the "Default.aspx.vb" file. Open this and modify as shown below...

Partial Class _Default    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page#Region "Private VAraiables"Private m_User As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.UserPrivate m_SearchEventArgs As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs#End Region#Region "Public Properties"Public Property SearchEventArgs() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs    Get        If m_SearchEventArgs Is Nothing Then            m_SearchEventArgs = New InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs            m_SearchEventArgs.UserID = CurrentUser.UserID         End If        Return m_SearchEventArgs    End Get    Set(ByVal value As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs)        m_SearchEventArgs = value    End SetEnd PropertyPublic ReadOnly Property CurrentUser() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User    Get        If m_User Is Nothing Then            m_User = GetUser()        End If        Return m_User    End GetEnd Property#End Region#Region "Page Events"Protected Overrides Sub OnLoad(ByVal e As System.EventArgs)    If Not Page.IsPostBack Then        ' populate tab drop down list        PopulateTabsDropDown()        ' populate status drop down list        PopulateStatusDropDown()        ' populate priority drop down list        PopulatePriorityDropDown()        ' bind data        BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)    End If    MyBase.OnLoad(e)End Sub#End Region#Region "Private Methods"Private Sub BindData(ByVal intPageIndex As Int32, ByVal intPageSize As Int32, _ByVal SearchEventArgs As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.SearchEventArgs)    GridView1.PageIndex = intPageIndex    GridView1.PageSize = intPageSize    ' build SQL statements based on search event args object    Dim strPopulateSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLPopulate(SearchEventArgs)    Dim strCountSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLCount(SearchEventArgs)    Dim strFulltextSQL As String = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Search.SQLFullTextMaxRank(SearchEventArgs)    ' return articles matching the search options & only within the page range    Dim ArticleCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.ArticleCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Articles.SelectArticlesPaged( _    intPageIndex, intPageSize, strPopulateSQL, strCountSQL, True, strFulltextSQL)    If Not ArticleCollection Is Nothing Then        GridView1.Visible = True        GridView1.DataSource = ArticleCollection        GridView1.DataBind()    Else        GridView1.Visible = False    End IfEnd SubPrivate Sub PopulateTabsDropDown()    ' get tab collection - pass userid for role based security    Dim TabCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.TabCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Tabs.SelectTabs(CurrentUser.UserID)    ' ensure we have a tab collection    If Not TabCollection Is Nothing Then        ' add empty item        DropDownList1.Items.Add("-")        ' get current culture        Dim strCulture As String = GetCulture()        ' enumerate through tabs        For intCount As Int32 = 0 To TabCollection.Count - 1            ' get tab            Dim Tab As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.Tab = TabCollection(intCount)            ' get tab text            Dim strTabTExt As String = Tab.TabText(strCulture)            ' add list item            DropDownList1.Items.Add(New ListItem(strTabTExt, Tab.TabID.ToString()))        Next    End IfEnd SubPrivate Sub PopulateStatusDropDown()    ' get status collection    Dim StatusCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.StatusCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Status.SelectStatuses()    ' get tab collection - pass userid for role based security    Dim TabCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.TabCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Tabs.SelectTabs(CurrentUser.UserID)    ' ensure we have a tab collection    If Not TabCollection Is Nothing Then        ' add empty item        DropDownList2.Items.Add("-")        ' get current culture        Dim strCulture As String = GetCulture()        ' enumerate through tabs        For intCount As Int32 = 0 To TabCollection.Count - 1            ' get tab            Dim Tab As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.Tab = TabCollection(intCount)            ' get tab text            Dim strTabTExt As String = Tab.TabText(strCulture)            ' get status collection for tab            Dim TabStatusCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.StatusCollection = _            StatusCollection.FilterByTabID(Tab.TabID)            If Not TabStatusCollection Is Nothing Then                For intCount2 As Int32 = 0 To TabStatusCollection.Count - 1                    ' get status                    Dim Status As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.Status = _                    TabStatusCollection.Item(intCount2)                    ' add list item                    DropDownList2.Items.Add(New ListItem( _                    strTabTExt + " - " + Status.Name, Status.StatusID.ToString()))                Next            End If        Next    End IfEnd SubPrivate Sub PopulatePriorityDropDown()    ' get prioirty collection    Dim PriorityCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.PriorityCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Priorities.SelectPriorities()    ' get tab collection - pass userid for role based security    Dim TabCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.TabCollection = _    InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Tabs.SelectTabs(CurrentUser.UserID)    ' ensure we have a tab collection    If Not TabCollection Is Nothing Then        ' add empty item        DropDownList3.Items.Add("-")        ' get current culture        Dim strCulture As String = GetCulture()        ' enumerate through tabs        For intCount As Int32 = 0 To TabCollection.Count - 1            ' get tab            Dim Tab As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.Tab = TabCollection(intCount)            ' get tab text            Dim strTabTExt As String = Tab.TabText(strCulture)            ' get status collection for tab            Dim TabPriorityCollection As InstantASP.InstantKB.Collections.PriorityCollection = _            PriorityCollection.FilterByTabID(Tab.TabID)            If Not TabPriorityCollection Is Nothing Then                For intCount2 As Int32 = 0 To TabPriorityCollection.Count - 1                    ' get priority                    Dim Priority As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.Priority = _                    TabPriorityCollection.Item(intCount2)                    ' add list item                    DropDownList3.Items.Add(New ListItem( _                    strTabTExt + " - " + Priority.Name, Priority.PriorityID.ToString()))                Next            End If        Next    End IfEnd Sub' -------------------------------------' helpers' -------------------------------------' get InstantKB.NET user objectPrivate Function GetUser() As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User    Dim User As InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.User = Nothing    If System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated Then        User = InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.User.SelectUser( _        System.Web.HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name)    Else        User = New InstantASP.InstantKB.Components.AnonymousUser    End If    Return UserEnd FunctionPrivate Function GetCulture() As String    If CurrentUser.Culture <> "" Then        Return CurrentUser.Culture    End If    Return InstantASP.Common.Application.Settings.Instance().CultureEnd FunctionPrivate Sub BuildSearchEventArgsFromControls()    SearchEventArgs.Keywords = TextBox1.Text    If IsNumeric(DropDownList1.SelectedValue) Then        SearchEventArgs.TabID = CType(DropDownList1.SelectedValue, Int32)    End If    If IsNumeric(DropDownList2.SelectedValue) Then        SearchEventArgs.StatusID = CType(DropDownList2.SelectedValue, Int32)    End If    If IsNumeric(DropDownList3.SelectedValue) Then        SearchEventArgs.PriorityID = CType(DropDownList3.SelectedValue, Int32)    End IfEnd Sub#End Region#Region "Control Events"Protected Sub DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, _ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles DropDownList1.SelectedIndexChanged    ' setup search options    BuildSearchEventArgsFromControls()    ' rebind data    BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)End SubProtected Sub DropDownList2_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, _ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles DropDownList2.SelectedIndexChanged    ' setup search options    BuildSearchEventArgsFromControls()    ' rebind data    BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)End SubProtected Sub DropDownList3_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, _ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles DropDownList3.SelectedIndexChanged    ' setup search options    BuildSearchEventArgsFromControls()    ' rebind data    BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)End SubProtected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click    ' setup search options    BuildSearchEventArgsFromControls()    ' rebind data    BindData(GridView1.PageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)End SubProtected Sub GridView1_PageIndexChanging(ByVal sender As Object, _ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewPageEventArgs) Handles GridView1.PageIndexChanging    BindData(e.NewPageIndex, GridView1.PageSize, SearchEventArgs)End Sub#End RegionEnd Class

After implementing the above code if you run the project (CTRL+F5) you'll notice we have basic search options pre-populated with the tabs, status' & priorities from within your InstantKB.NET database allowing you to select articles matching specific search critiria...

The code for this is very similar to our first example however we've added additional code to populate the various drop down lists & setup the SearchEventArgs object before passing this object to the pages BingData method. The SearchEventArgs objects contains many properties you can use to filter results by different critiria.

I hope this article has been helpful. You can download the source code shown here below. As always should you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us or leave your commetns below.

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 to 2.0.6

Ryan Healey — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:56:31 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 installation to the InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 release. You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within 2.0.6.

2.0.6 Improvements

Export PDF

Improved PDF export option. Now supports formatting (underline, bold, italics, bulleted lists), images, links & PDF properties...

To take advantage of the new PDF export option you will need to run InstantKB.NET in full trust. You can do this by modifying the following line within the web.config...

If your not able to run InstantKB.NET in full trust (for example your on a shared server) please add the line below to the web.config and this will ensure InstantKB.NET falls back onto the medium trust PDF parser. This does not produce as good results as the full trust parser however it will ensure you can at least export a basic PDF without any exceptions.

Add the following application setting to your "web.config" file if your running InstantKB.NET in medium trust to ensure the PDF export feature works...

New Skin

We've updated the default "Classic" skin to bring this more inline with the forthcoming InstantForum.NET 4.2 update.

If you still prefer the older skin you can still use this by selecting the "ClassicOld" skin as your default skin within the application settings.

Improved Search UI

Made some nice improvements to search...

2.0.6 Important Changes

The Visual Studio.NET solution has been updated to 2008 by default

The Visual Studio.NET solution has been updated to Visual Studio.NET 2008 by default and you won't be able to open the 2.0.6 solution file in Visual Studio.NET 2005. InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 will of course still work with either the .NET 2.0 or 3.5 frameworks so this should not affect production installations.

Our forthcoming InstantForum.NET 4.2 update requires at minimum the .NET 3.5 SP1 framework. This is because we use some of the AJAX features that where introduced with .NET 3.5 SP1 update (things like JSON serialization & the history control). These are not supported in ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. Extensions

We want to start using these features within InstantKB.NET and as such as of InstantKB.NET 2.1 we will be moving to .NET 3.5.

2.0.6 Fixes

Fixed rendering issue with WYSIWYG editor in IE8 on add / edit article pages
Staff & Admin CP Notepads now both use AJAX
Fixed issue with German / Umlaut characters when adding categories to the tree-view
Consolidated R.a.d Controls into our own skinning system (no need for a separate folder)
Reports will now work in a medium trust ASP.NET hosting environments
Accessibility & SEO improvements to the various dynamic menus used throughout InstantKB.NET
Fixed issue with some login & search redirects if you have the "Search Engine Friendly URLs" option enabled
Fixed issue sorting secondary categories if they are added to a datagrid view
Fixed a number of pages which were not strict W3C XHTML

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

How to upgrade from 2.0.5 to 2.0.6

1. Download InstantKB.NET 2.0.6

Download the 2.0.6 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing 2.x customer the 2.0.6 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx. Download the 2.0.6 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called InstantKB205DEV or InstantKB205EUL depending on your license.

2. Update your existing 2.0.5 files

The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents of the "InstantKB20" folder (excluding web.config file - see changes below) again to your current InstantKB.NET installation. This will replace all existing 2.0.5 files. If you choose to replace all files you may wish to 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. You can find a list below of all updated files within the 2.0.6 release. There are no new files with this update. You'll need to ensure you update the existing files with the latest versions from the 2.0.6 download.

3. Update your existing 2.0.5 database

No database changes are required to move from 2.0.5 to 2.0.6.

Updated InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2.0.6 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 download listed below into your existing 2.0.5 installation.

Web.config

You will need to add the following HTTP handlers to your web.config...

<httpHandlers>


<add verb="*" path="Telerik.RadUploadProgressHandler.ashx" type="Telerik.Web.UI.Upload.RadUploadProgressHandler, Telerik.Web.UI"/>
<add verb="*" path="Telerik.Web.UI.DialogHandler.aspx" type="Telerik.Web.UI.DialogHandler, Telerik.Web.UI, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4"></add>
<add verb="*" path="Telerik.Web.UI.SpellCheckHandler.axd" type="Telerik.Web.UI.SpellCheckHandler, Telerik.Web.UI, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4"></add>
<add verb="*" path="ChartImage.axd" type="Telerik.Web.UI.ChartHttpHandler, Telerik.Web.UI, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" validate="false"/>
<add path="Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd" verb="*" type="Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource, Telerik.Web.UI" validate="false"/>
<add verb="*" validate="false" path="Telerik.Web.UI.SpellCheckHandler.axd" type="Telerik.Web.UI.SpellCheckHandler, Telerik.Web.UI"/>


</httpHandlers>

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

New Assemblies

You will need to add the new Telerik.Web.UI.dll to your existing 2.0.5 installation.

Old Assemblies

You can safely delete the following assemblies once upgraded to 2.0.6...

RadCalendar.Net2.dll
RadChart.Net2.dll
RadEditor.Net2.dll
RadInput.Net2.dll
RadSpell.NET2.dll

Root Web File Changes

The following files within the root of your InstantKB.NET installation will need updating...

\ExportPDF.aspx

Root Web Folder Changes

The "JavaScript" folder within the root of the InstantKB.NET web site has been renamed to "js".

Root Web Updated Folder

You should delete your existing "RadControls" folder within the root of your InstantKB.NET 2.0.x installation and replace this with the RadControls folder within the root of the InstantKB20 folder provided within InstantKB.NET 2.0.6.

The updated RadControls folder within the web site root with 2.0.6 should now only contain a single child folder called "Editor". This folders contains the various configuration & toolbar files for the editor used within InstantKB.NET. The skins for the editor have now been moved into each skin folder (see below).

New Skin Folder

IMPORTANT: You will need to copy the "RadControls" folder from any of the InstantKB.NET 2.0.6 skins (\Skins\Classic\RadControls) into your previous InstantKB.NET 2.0.x skin(s). This is shown below...

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\Classic\Admin\admindefault.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\admineditfieldtemplate.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\admineditworkflowstep.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\admininsertfieldtemplate.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\adminmanagefieldtemplates.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminappversion.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\admingettingstarted.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\admininsertupdatemember.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminleftpane.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminleftpaneonlinestaff.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminnotepad.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminsettingsdatabasetables.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewfieldtemplates.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewreport.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewviews.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewworkflownextsteps.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewworkflownotifications.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewworkflowpermissions.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewworkflows.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Admin\Controls\adminviewworkflowstepwizard.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\addarticlecomments.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\footeroptions.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\mainnavigation.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\usercpeditsettings.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\usercpeditsignature.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\usercpnotepad.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\viewarticles.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\viewglossary.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\viewsearchoptions.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Controls\viewtab.ascx
\Skin\Classic\exportpdf.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdatearticleattachments.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdatearticlerelatedlinks.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdatearticletags.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdatecomment.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdateglossaryterm.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffinsertupdatetroubleshooterstep.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffleftpane.ascx
\Skin\Classic\Staff\Controls\staffnotepad.ascx

CSS Files

\Skin\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.Admin.css
\Skin\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.css
\Skin\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.css
\Skin\Classic\Styles\RadEditorCssClasses.xml

New Skin Image Filers

\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarFooterBG.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarFooterLeft.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarFooterRight.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarHeaderBG.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarHeaderLeft.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBarHeaderRight.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\PanelBar_SubHeaderBG.gif

JavaScript Files

The following JavaScript files will require updating...

\js\InstantASP_Common.js
\js\InstantASPTreeView.js
\js\IInstantKB.js

You can delete \js\InstantASPTransitions.js as of InstantKB.NET 2.0.6.

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\Strings.js

Database Changes

No changes required.

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.

Integrated Authentication with the InstantKB.NET Active Directory Module

Ryan Healey — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:49:25 GMT

One of the queries we most often receive from customers/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 this.

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.

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:

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.

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 post your comment below or contact us.

InstantForum.NET Language Packs

Ryan Healey — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:13:11 GMT

We've attached below the various community developed language packs available for InstantForum.NET.

Currently language packs are available for German (de-DE), French Canadian (fr-CA), Romanian (ro-RO and Swedish (se-SE).

Please remember these additional language packs are community developed and as such we can't guarantee the quality or accuracy of these language packs.

For instructions on how to apply language packs to InstantForum.NET please see...

http://docs.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum/creatingalanguagepack.html

If you have a language pack for InstantForum.NET or indeed any updates to our existing language packs and would like to make your work available here please email me directly on ryan@instantasp.co.uk or post a comment below.

Conditionally displaying localized forums using a custom query-string parameter within InstantForum.NET

Ryan Healey — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:42:54 GMT

This article shows how to use a single InstantForum.NET installation to provide multi-lingual versions of your forums.

For this example to work you need to ensure your forum names are structured and have a consistent naming convention based on the language they will target and the name of the culture querystring passed into the forum. This example will look for the string passed into the Culture querystring within your forum titles and only display those that contain matching text.

For example if you have an existing web site and which to provide a link to both an English and French Canadian version of your forums you could use two links as shown below...

http://forum.domain.com/?Culture=en-US
http://forum.domain.com/?Culture=fr-CA

Depending on which link you clicked the forum would attempt to filter forums based on the culture and also default to the language pack for that culture if available within the Globalization folder.

1. Persist the culture querystring into a client side cookie

Open InstantASP.InstantForum.UI\MasterPages\MasterPage.vb. Modify the AddParsedSubObjects method as shown below.

Protected Overrides Sub AddParsedSubObject(ByVal obj As Object)

    ' check for culture querystring
    If System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString("Culture") <> "" Then
         InstantASP.Common.HttpUtility.Cookies.SetCookie("forumCulture", _
         System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString("Culture"))
    End If

    If TypeOf obj Is InstantASP.InstantForum.UI.Controls.Content Then
         Me.ArrListContents.Add(obj)
    Else
         Me.DefaultControl.Controls.Add(DirectCast(obj, System.Web.UI.Control))
    End If

End Sub

This will save the value of the "Culture" querystring to a client side cookie. We will be using this cookie to determine which language pack to default to and also which forums we should remove from the collection to display only forums for that culture.

2. Set the default Language Pack

If a language pack exists that matches your Culture querystring parameter you can modify the forum to use this language pack by default.

Open InstantASP.InstantForum\HttpContext\ForumContext.vb. Locate the "GetCurrentCulture" property and modify as shown below...

Private ReadOnly Property GetCurrentCulture() As String
    Get

    Dim CultureCookie As System.Web.HttpCookie = _
    InstantASP.Common.HttpUtility.Cookies.GetCookie("forumCulture")

    If Not CultureCookie Is Nothing Then
         If System.IO.Directory.Exists(InstallPath + _
         InstantASP.InstantForum.Globals.Paths.GlobalizationDirectory + _
         "\" + CultureCookie.Value) Then
              Return CultureCookie.Value
         End If
    End If

    If System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.IsAuthenticated Then
         If GetCurrentUser.Culture <> "" Then
              Return GetCurrentUser.Culture
         Else
              Return CurrentSharedSettings.Culture
         End If
    Else
         Return CurrentSharedSettings.Culture
    End If
    End Get
End Property
You can use the value within the culture cookie to build a new forum collection containing only the forums for the current culture. This allows you to hide your French Canadian forums for your English visitors and visa-versa.

You will need to open \InstantASP.InstantForum.UI\Controls\ViewForumGroups.vb and modify the BindData method as shown below...

Private Sub BindData()

    ' we don't have a forum, display index
     If Forum Is Nothing Then
         .. removed code here to make this sample more readable
    End If

    Dim CultureCookie As System.Web.HttpCookie = _
    InstantASP.Common.HttpUtility.Cookies.GetCookie("forumCulture")

    Dim FilterdForumCollection As InstantASP.InstantForum.Collections.ForumCollection = Nothing

    If Not CultureCookie Is Nothing Then

         FilterdForumCollection = New InstantASP.InstantForum.Collections.ForumCollection

         For i As Int32 = 0 To ForumCollection.Count - 1
              Dim Forum As InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Forum = ForumCollection.Item(i)
              ' add forum groups that contain our culture within the forum name
              ' to the new filterdforumcollection, this only filters forum groups
              If Forum.Name.ToLower.IndexOf(CultureCookie.Value.ToLower()) > -1 Then
                   FilterdForumCollection.Add(Forum)
              End If
         Next

    End If

    ' do we have a collection?
    If ForumCollection.Count > 0 Then

         ' bind group forum collection to repeater
         If Not FilterdForumCollection Is Nothing Then
              ctlForumGroups.DataSource = FilterdForumCollection
         Else
              ctlForumGroups.DataSource = ForumCollection
         End If

         ' bind data to repeater
         ctlForumGroups.DataBind()

    Else ' hide the control

         ' disable controls
         Me.Visible = False

    End If

End Sub
This will fiilter forum groups and only display those groups which contain the string contained within the Culture querystring / cookie within the group name. For example if you link to your forums with the culture http://forum.comain.com/?Culture=fr-CA only forum groups which contain "fr-CA" will be displayed. Other forum groups will be hidden.

That's It

Don't forget once you've made the changes above you will need to rebuild the InstantForum.NET solution. Whilst there are improvements that can be made to this sample it shows the basic steps to control the default culture of your forums automatically using a querystring parameter. I hope this was helpful and would welcome any comments or suggestions below.

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 2.0.4 to 2.0.5

Ryan Healey — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:58:39 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to update an existing InstantKB.NET 2.0.4 installation to the InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 release. You can also find information in this article on the additions, updates & fixes included within 2.0.5.

2.0.5 Additions & Updates

New Additional Skin

This skin has been designed to demonstrate some of the ways you can visually customize InstantKB.NET. This new skin can be used as a basis for further customizations This also provides a simple alternative way to navigate & search your knowledge.

You can view the new skin within our online demo at http://demos.instantasp.co.uk/InstantKB20/

Search multiple tabs and / or categories

We received lots of requests for this feature. You can now use the AJAX enabled tree-view control to select (using checkboxes) specific tabs and / or categories to search. You can now easily show all results from any specific tabs and / or categories of interest.

As with all other results within InstantKB.NET the live RSS feed can be used to subscribe to results for specific tabs or categories.You can now create a single RSS feed to easily subscribe to all tabs & categories to stay informed of new content.

Search by Type

We've also added a new drop down list below the keywords field within 2.0.5 as shown above to allow you to search for content by type. This again allows you to also subscribe to RSS feeds for any content types.

Improved Quick Edit Options

With InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 the front-end quick edit options have been enhanced for staff members to provide further options...

Sort User Comments

You can now sort comments within InstantKB.NET by date ascending or descending or votes. The order you choose to sort by will be persisted within a cookie. This allow users to customize how user comments should appear....

Improved User Comment Rating

We've revised the rating system for user submitted comments. It was not clear in the previous system how many up votes a comment had received. The new system will hopefully also encourages further user participation as it's much more obvious you can rate comments and should allow visitors to find helpful information quickly by being able to see at a glance helpful comments.

Global Tag Delete

Administrators will now see a small (x) hyperlink next to each tag within the tag cloud. This allows you to now easily delete tags globally within InstantKB.NET. This will delete the tag from all content within InstantKB.NET.

2.0.5 Fixes

Fixed issue with duplicate uploads appearing if you choose to save attachments to the file system.
Fixed issue when deleting uploads within custom fileupload fields.
Fixed issue which allowed administrators to change the content type of the default tabs.
Fixed issue with "Login Landing Page" defined within the application settings not being used.
Fixed textbox overlay issue wjem editing long category names within the tree=view control
InstantKB.NET will now default to the Classic skin if a skin folder is deleted without the database being updated.
Fixed issue with staff notepad permissions not applying correctly.
Fixed issue with secondary categories not always being selected correctly.
Fixed issue with first comment not appearing immediately after posting.
Fixed issue with comment rating cache not clearing correctly. Comment ratings should now be updated immediately.
Optimized core CSS files to reduce unnessercary CSS attributes
Fixed issue which prevented Staff CP from loading if no staff permission set exists.
Fixed JavaScript error which occasionally occurred when rating articles using the AJAX based rating control.
Fixed issue with plus (+) character being removed from tags.
Fixed issue with search generating exception if your search term contains only ignored search terms..
Fixed issue with tag tooltips rendering invalid XHTML.
Fixed issue with user comments not showing correct rating.
Fixed issue with member list not sorting by last login date by default.
Fixed invalid XHTML attributes within user control panel.
Fixed issue with article breadcrumb link not working correctly.
Backloaded code to support the InstantKB.NET Active Directory Module.

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

How to upgrade from 2.0.4 to 2.0.5

1. Download InstantKB.NET 2.0.5

Download the 2.0.5 update from your My.InstantASP area.

If your an existing 2.x customer the 2.0.5 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx. Download the 2.0.5 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called InstantKB205DEV or InstantKB205EUL depending on your license.

2. Update your existing 2.0.4 files

The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents of the "InstantKB20" folder (excluding web.config file) again to your current InstantKB.NET installation. This will replace all existing 2.0.4 files. If you choose to replace all files you may wish to skip the web.config and Skin\Classic\MasterPage.master file to preserve your database connection string and any visual customization's. If you own a single server license or are behind a firewall and received a file based license you should ensure you have a backup of your "\Bin\InstantASP_Licenses.config" file to restore this once the update is complete.

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. You can find a list below of all updated files within the 2.0.5 release. There are no new files with this update. You'll need to ensure you update the existing files with the latest versions from the 2.0.5 download.

3. Update your existing 2.0.4 database

Once you've updated your files you'll need to run a script against your InstantKB.NET SQL Server database to upgrade the database to version 2.0.5. There are To update your database you'll need to first connect to your database within SQL Server Management Studio or Enterprise Manager.

Once connected you'll need to open the "InstantKB20\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2.0.4_to_2.0.5.sql" file and execute this SQL file against your InstantKB.NET 2.0.4 database. You can also find the upgrade script attached to at the bottom of this article.

Updated InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2.0.5 update. If you wish to only apply the updated files you should copy the files from the InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 download listed below into your existing 2.0.4 installation.

Assemblies

All 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

You will need to update the following skin files. You will need to copy these files from the 2.0.5 release into all existing 2.0.4 skins...

\Skins\Classic\Admin\Controls\AdminInsertUpdateTab.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Admin\Controls\AdminInsertUpdateStaffPermissionset.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\Header.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\ViewSearchOptions.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\ViewArticleComments.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\TreeView.ascx

CSS Files

The following CSS files have been updated with 2.0.5.

\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.Admin.css
\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.css
\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.css

JavaScript Files

The following JavaScript files will require updating...

\JavaScript\InstantASP_Common.js
\JavaScript \InstantASPTreeView.js
\JavaScript \InstantASPTransitions.js
\JavaScript\IInstantKB.js

Language Pack Files

To accomodate for the new strings within 2.0.5 you will need to replace your Respirces.xml file.

\Globalization\en-US\Resources.xml
\Globalization\en-US\Strings.js

Database Changes

Stored Procedures

The following stored procedures have been updated with the 2.0.5 update.

ikb_sp_InsertAttachment
ikb_sp_InsertArticleCommentRating
ikb_sp_InsertArticleRating
ikb_sp_SelectArticleComments

The following stored procedures have been added with InstantKB.NET 2.0.5...

iasp_sp_DeleteTag

New Table Columns

InstantKB_Attachments.DisplayFileName - nvarchar(255)

You can find a script to update your existing InstanKB.NET 2.0.4 stored procedures attached below. You can also find this script within the InstantKB.NET 2.0.5 download at "\InstantKB20\DatabaseSCripts\UpgradeScripts\2.0.4_to_2.0.5.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.

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 1.3 to 2.0

Ryan Healey — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:50:43 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://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Documentation/Installing-InstantKB.NET

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 now requires the .NET framework 2.0 or above.
InstantKB.NET 2.0 now requires the Microsoft AJAX Extensions.

2. Upgrade your existing InstantKB.NET 1.3 database

---------------------------------------------------------
Important: Before running the upgrade script 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

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 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...

<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="server=localhost;trusted_connection=true;database=InstantKB20;"/>
You should update this connection string to point towards your updated InstantKB.NET 1.3 database. For more information on connection string please see "InstantKB.NET connection string & key application settings".

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...

That's It!

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.

For further information on to help you get started with InstantKB.NET 2.0 please see "Getting started with InstantKB.NET 2.0" or "Testing your InstantKB.NET 2.0 installation". If you have any questions with regard to upgrading please hesitate to leave a comment below, post within our community forums, open a support ticket or contact us.

Upgrading from InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 to 4.1.3

Ryan Healey — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:21:17 GMT

This document details the steps to take when updating from an existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 installation to the updated InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 release.

We would not suggest you upgrade directly into production. You should test your upgrade procedure locally first and either upload your local changes to production or upgrade production once you're comfortable upgrading locally and following these steps. Inevitably some downtime may occur whilst uploading the various updated files to a production environment.

To begin upgrading to InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 please follow the steps below:

1. Install a fresh copy of InstantForum.NET 4.1.3

Install a fresh instance of InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 on the same computer as your existing 4.1.2 installation. You can choose to install the 4.1.3 release manually or by using the automated InstallShield wizard. You don't need to install a local working copy if you're looking to simply upload the updated files into production. If this is the case simply download the zipped version (not the MSI installation wizard) from your My.InstantASP account and apply the updates below.

2. Apply New InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 Files

A new JavaScript file has been introduced with InstantForum.NET 4.1.3. You will need to copy the file listed below from the fresh InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 installation into the corresponding location within your existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 installation.

[INSTALLDIR]\JavaScript\InstantASPCommon.js

3. Update existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 Files

IMPORTANT: In order to quickly upgrade we would suggest you overwrite all your existing 4.1.2 skin directories with the latest version of each skin from the InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 installation. This is to accommodate the many cascading style sheet changes introduced with InstantForum.NET 4.1.3. If you have made any changes to existing skins we would suggest you read the "Update Custom Skins" section below.

Because of the style sheet changes you will need to copy each of the skin directories from the latest InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 installation and overwrite the skin directories within your existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 install. You should copy the directories below. When prompted choose to overwrite all existing 4.1.2 files. Please ensure you make a backup if necessary before overwriting any existing files or folders.

[INSTALLDIR]\Skins\Classic\
[INSTALLDIR]\Skins\LiquidViolet\

You should drag and drop the skin directories from the fresh InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 installation and replace your existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 skin directories. This is shown below...

Once you've replaced each skin directory and added the new InstantASPCommon.js file, you will need to replace the Globals.js JavaScript file within your existing InstantForum.NET 4.1.2 installation with the latest version of from the fresh 4.1.3 release. Globals.js is located within the JavaScript directory as shown below...

[INSTALLDIR]\JavaScript\Globals.js

Update Custom Skins

In order to update a custom skin we would suggest taking one of our default skins and re-applying any CSS changes and/or image changes. If you have made any changes to existing skin user controls we would suggest you ensure a back-up is available, apply the 4.1.3 update and then restore any changes using your back-up as a guide.

A number of CSS class names have changed within the 4.1.3 release and it should be easier to start over with a fresh default skin as a base and use a backup of your existing skin as a reference to reapply your changes. We've provided below a list of CSS class names that have changed and the corresponding new name for each. Using the information below you could copy modified CSS code within your customized skin style sheet into the new 4.1.3 style sheets.

BottomHeaderCell CSS class name has changed to CommonNavigation_InnerTableFooterCSS and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsHeader CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_Header and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsGroupHeader CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_SubHeader and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBackGroundTable CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_OuterTable and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBackGroundTableLight CSS class name has changed to CommonNavigation_OuterTableCSS and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBody1 CSS class name has changed to TableCell_Light and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBody1RoundedTableHeader CSS class name has changed to TableCell_Light_RoundedTableHeader and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBody2 CSS class name has changed to TableCell_Dark and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
ForumsBody2RoundedTableHeader CSS class name has changed to TableCell_Dark_RoundedTableHeader and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
GroupFooter CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_Footer and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
HeaderButton CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_HeaderButton and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
HeaderTxt CSS class name has changed to PanelBar_HeaderTxt and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
PagingText CSS class name has changed to PagingControl_Text and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
PagingTextDisabled CSS class name has changed to PagingControl_TextDisabled and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
SummaryTableBackGroundTable CSS class name has changed to SummaryTable_BackGround and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.
SummaryTableHeader CSS class name has changed to SummaryTable_Header and now lives within InstantASP.Common.UI.css.

Assemblies

Once you've successfully completed the steps above please ensure you copy the latest version of the assemblies listed below from the fresh InstantForum.NET 4.1.3 installation into your existing 4.1.2 bin directory.

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

Database Changes

No changes are required for this release

That's it! You should now have a fully functional 4.1.3 update.

If you do have any problems during the upgrade process please don't hesitate to contact technical support or post your questions within our community forums.

Resolved Defects

We have not compiled a list of resolved defects for this release. A number of very minor items have been resolved within this release however this release is primarily a maintenance release to ensure full application compatibility with the .NET v2.0.50727 RTM framework release.