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Getting started with InstantKB.NET 2.0 - Episode #1

Ryan Healey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:46:32 GMT

I'm delighted to present the first video within our forthcoming InstantKB.NET video tutorial series. In this first video James introduces some of the basic features within InstantKB.NET and also demonstrates the steps neccessary to secure & configure a fresh InstantKB.NET installation.

WMV Download

We also use this first video to create the custom tab, staff members, groups & departments we'll be using as a basis for future videos. This first video is intended to offer a basic introduction and we'll be using further videos to explain certain features in more detail. We'll be using a help-desk scenario in this first series to demonstrate some of the functionality within InstantKB.NET.

We intend to post more videos on a regular basic to further highlight specific features, address common problems & demonstrate best practices & common uses for both InstantKB.NET and InstantForum.NET..

We hope you enjoy this first video and as always we would welcome your feedback or suggestions for future videos. You can post a comment below, within our InstantKB.NET 2.0 discussion forum or contact us directly..

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 1.3 to 2.0

Ryan Healey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:42:43 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...

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.

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 InstantKB.NET 2.0.2 to 2.0.3

Ryan Healey — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:07:39 GMT

This document details the steps necessary to upgrade an existing InstantKB.NET 2.0.2 installation to the InstantKB.NET 2.0.3 release. We've listed below all the web files that you will need to replace to upgrade your existing installation to InstantKB.NET 2.0.3. A complete list of fixes & additions included within the InstantKB.NET 2.0.3 update is provided below...

2.0.3 Fixes

Fixed issue with certain attachment types showing as binary data within browsers as opposed to downloading the file.
Fixed issue with tab icons & tab option images within the Admin CP not loading correctly under https (SSL) connections.
Fixed issue with custom field template default values not working.
Fixed issue with field templates associated with staff permission sets not being applied.
Fixed issue with "Propagate groups to all child articles" option not copying permissions to articles within the root category.
Fixed validation issue when updating a members password or email address through the Admin & Staff CP.
Fixed issue with online staff panel within Admin CP & Staff CP sometimes throwing a "Object Reference" error.
Fixed exception when adding or editing content if you partially created a selectbox custom field for the field template.
Fixed broken image links within RoundedTable control.
Fixed issue with invalid "CauseValidation" several Admin CP buttons.
Fixed issue with "[Last Modified By]" & "[Assigned To]" workflow notification options not working correctly.
Fixed issue sorting columns when viewing tag page.
Fixed issue with "[RecipientUsername]" quick tag and not the username appearing within workflow step notification email's.
Fixed issue with InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Articles.SelectArticles not returning small record sets.
Fixed issue with paging controls showing incorrect values if a search for a member returned no results.
Fixed issue with attachments not appearing within list if you delete an attachment then upload a new attachment.
Fixed rendering issue in FireFox on ViewArticle.ascx if little or no article text was provided.

Added ability to define maximum size for images, flash or videos uploaded within the WYSIWYG editor. By default this limit will be the size specified within the web.configs httpruntime maxrequestlength attribute...

<httpRuntime maxRequestLength="30720" />
You can optionally override this setting by providing a web.config application settings (shown below) to set the maximum size allowed size for image, flash & video uploads within the WYSIWYG editor...

<add key="InstantASP_HttpMaxRequestLength" value="20480" />
The value is the maximum size in kilobytes you wish to allow for image, flash and video uploads within the WYSIWYG editor. For example to limit or increase the allowed size of image, flash or video uploads to 20mb you would set this value to 20480. There are 20,480 kilobytes in 20mb.
Added validation to "Application URL" setting within Admin CP to ensure this setting is always provided in the correct format.
Added callback validation control to Skins\Classic\Admin\AdminEditMemberDetails.ascx.
Added animation effect to SimpleMenu control to better indicate a meny has popped up.
Made API changes to allow sorting of results returned by the InstantASP.InstantKB.Business.Articles.SelectArticles method.

2.0.3 Database Changes

InstantKB.NET 2.0.3 features two small database changes to provide support for our Active Directory module in the coming months. These changes are listed below...

LdapUsername nvarchar(255) column added to InstantASP_Users tab;e
iasp_sp_InsertUpdateUser stored procedure updated to accommodate LDAPUsername column.

These changes don't effect API useage of our InstantASP.Common.Business.User.InsertUpdateUser method as this method simply acceots a InstantASP.Common.Components.User object.

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How to upgrade from InstantKB.NET 2.0.2 to 2.0.3

1. Download InstantKB.NET 2.0.3

Download the 2.0.3 update from your My.InstantASP area. If your an existing 2.x customer the 2.0.3 download will be available automatically on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx. Download the 2.0.3 update and extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop. This will create a new folder on your desktop called InstantKB203DEV or InstantKB203EUL.

2. Update your existing 2.0.2 files

Update your existing 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 2.0.2 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.

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 2.0.3 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 2.0.3 download.

3. Update your existing 2.0.2 database

Once you've updated your files you'll need to run a script against your InstantKB.NET SQL Server database to upgrade this to 2.0.3. There are two small database changes in 2.0.3. 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\2.0.2_to_2.0.3.sql" file and execute this SQL file against your current InstantKB.NET database. You can also find the upgrade script attached to at the bottom of this article.

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Updated InstantKB.NET 2.0.3 Files

The following files have been updated with the 2.0.3 update. You will need to ensure all the files listed below are replaced in order to upgrade successfully. Once the files are updated please ensure you also update the database as shown in step 3 above.

Updated Assemblies / DLL files

You will need to update the following assemblies within your bin directory with the 2.0.3 versions...

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

Updated Skin Files

You will need to replace the following skin files with the update 2.0.3 versions. If you've created a custom skin you will also need to replace the files within your custom skin with the updated versions.

\RadControls\Input\Skins\Classic\Styles.css
\Skins\Classic\Admin\AdminEditMemberDetails.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Controls\ViewArticle.ascx
\Skins\Classic\Styles\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.css

Updated JavaScript Files

You will need to update the following JavaScript files with the latest 2.0.3 versions...

\JavaScript\InstantASPCommon.js
\JavaScript\InstantASPTransitions.js
JavaScript\InstantASPTreeView.js

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.

InstantKB.NET Installation Requirements

Ryan Healey — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:09:30 GMT

In order to install InstantKB.NET you'll need to ensure you have the components listed below.

Web Server

- Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP Professions, Visa Home Premium or higher

- .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5

- Microsoft AJAX Web Extensions 1.0

- Internet Information Services (IIS) 5, 6 or 7

Database Server

- Microsoft^® SQL Server 2005 or 2000. Express editions are also supported.

In order to modify source code within InstantKB.NET we would recommend Visual Studio.NET. Both Microsoft^®Visual Studio.NET 2005 and 2008 are supported. Visual Studio is not required to customize the look & feel, create new skins or modify the HTML contained within the MasterPage.Master file. All source code & code-behind is VB.NET.

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 2.0.1 to 2.0.2

Ryan Healey — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:44:07 GMT

This document details the steps necessary to upgrade an existing InstantKB.NET 2.0.1 installation to the InstantKB.NET 2.0.2 release. If your currently running 2.0.1 we would suggest you upgrade. This release contains a number of important updates.

A number of files have been updated with this release. We've listed below all the web files that you may need to replace to upgrade to 2.0.2. There are also two new image files which you'll need to copy into your existing 2.0.1 installation. No database changes are required for 2.0.2. A complete list of fixes included within this update is provided below...

2.0.2 Fixes

Fixed several rendering issues within IE8 BETA, FireFox 3, Safari 3 & Opera 9.5. InstantKB.NET 2.0.2 npw offers a consistent experience between IE 6. 7 & 8 BETA, FireFox 2 & 3, Safari 3.x and Opera 8 & 9.
Fixed issue with explicit [dbo] reference for ikb_sp_InsertUpdateArticle stored procedure.
Fixed issue with title text not appearing in Staff CP within the options panel on the left.
Fixed issue with keywords truncating when clicking the "GO" button in the search drop down menu
Fixed issue displaying numeric only tags.
Fixed issue with custom tooltip text provided for a default tab not being used within tabstrip control.
Fixed potential XSS exploit within InstantASP.Common.UI.WebControls.PanalBar control.
Fixed issue with search not allowing apostrophe character within search terms.
Fixed issue with search menu truncating the last character of your search query if you clicked the "Go" button.
Fixed issue with footer search not working on article pages due to validation controls used for comments.
Fixed issue with (:) character in article titles & tags causing problems with SEO URL rewritting.
Fixed issue with InstantASP.Common.UI.WebControls.SimpleMenu control not hiding correctly within FireFox.

How to upgrade from 2.0.1 to 2.0.2

Download the 2.0.2 update from your My.InstantASP area. If your an existing 2.x customer the 2.0.2 download will be available on your My Licenses page at http://my.instantasp.co.uk/MyLicenses.aspx. Extract the contents of the zip file to your desktop.
The quickest way to update is to simply copy the entire contents (excluding web.config file) of the "InstantKB20" folder again to your public InstantKB.NET install. If you do this don't copy the web.config file as this will overwrite your database connection string.
If you've customized InstantKB.NET or modified the MasterPage file you may just wish to copy the updated files into your existing 2.0.1 installation. We've provided a complete list of updated and new files below within the 2.0.2 update. You'll need to ensure you update this files within your existing 2.0.1 installation to update to 2.0.2.

Updated Assemblies

Although no changes have occurred within either InstantASP.Common.Data.dll or InstantASP.InstantKB.Data.dll we would still suggest you use the latest versions of these assemblies provided within 2.0.2. You will need to update the following assemblies...

\Bin\InstantASP.Common.dll
\Bin\InstantASP.Common.Configuration.dll
\Bin\InstantASP.Common.UI.dll
\Bin\InstantASP.InstantKB.dll
\Bin\InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.dll

Updated Skin Files

Due to the work we've done in this update to improve cross browser compatibility a number of skin files have changed. Two new image files listed further below have also been added to the InstantKB.NET classic skin. You will need to upate the following files...

\Skins\Classic\Images\Table_Header.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\Table_HeaderLight.gif
\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.css
\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.Common.UI.Admin.css
\Skins\Classic\Styles\InstantASP.InstantKB.UI.css

Updated JavaScript Files

\JavaScript\InstantASPCommon.js

New 2.0.2 Files

New Skin Files

\Skins\Classic\Images\Table_Footer.gif
\Skins\Classic\Images\Common\LinkBar\Background.gif

Once you've updated the files listed above you should visit your existing InstantKB.NET installation. If everything was successful you should be able to continue using your knowledgebase as before. If your a FireFox 3, IE8 or Safari user you'll notice immediate improvements. As always if you have any questions or run into any problems during the upgrade don't hesitate to leave your comments below or contact us.

Testing your InstantKB.NET installation

Ryan Healey — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:14:55 GMT

At this stage you should now test your InstantKB.NET installation. The quickest way to do this is to simply open your favorite web browser and navigate to the URL where you installed InstantKB.NET. In this example we have installed InstantKB.NET to our default web site so we would navigate to "http://localhost/InstantKB20/" to test the installation.

If everything was successful you should see the default layout as shown below...

If you don't receive the default InstantKB.NET screen please review the related links below for a list of general exceptions you may encounter whilst installing InstantKB.NET. If you do experience any problems and the issue is not covered within the related links below please don't hesitate to contact us.

Once you see the default InstantKB.NET screen as shown above te installation is complete.

To access the admin & staff control panels you should login using the details below...

Email Address: admin@admin.com
Password: admin

IMPORTANT: You should update the default administrator login details after installing InstantKB.NET. This is to ensure others can't login as the administrator within your installation. To update the default administrator account details click the "Admin CP" link within the top right navigation. From within the Admin CP click the "Members" link and then click "Manage Members".

Click the "Edit Profile" link as shown below...

From the edit profile page use the various buttons shown below to update the administrators email address, username & password. It's important you remember these details to ensure you can login again. Any change to your email address will automatically log you out of InstantKB.NET. For this reason we would suggest your update your username and password first.

You should now update the SMTP server settings within InstantKB.NET to ensure the application can send email's. Email's are sent for example during registration or during workflow. You cam update the SMTP server information from the "Admin CP » Settings » Email & RSS" page.

Add Google AdSense to topics within InstantForum.NET

Ryan Healey — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:36:25 GMT

This article details the steps necessary to automatically add Google AdSense ads within InstantForum.NET topics. Although you can easily display Google AdSense through the wrapper functionality without any code changes adding your AdSense advertisements in-line within posts will increase your AdSense visibility and hopefully click-throughs.

You could easily extend this example to append the Google AdSense code to each post or use the topic keywords to determine the ads displayed. We've kept things simple in this example and are showing ads based on our AdSense ClientID. We do intend to improve support in this area with future versions to provide several methods for serving your ads with no code changes.

Using the code in this example will allow you to add AdSense Ads automatically as the second post within any topic within InstantForum.NET. This is shown below...

This code can be applied to either the End User License or Developer License. You'll only need to modify a single code-behind file.

Open up InstantASP.InstantForum.UI\Pages\Post.vb within Visual Studio.NET
Locate the "InsertPost" method around line 660. We'll need to add a call to our new methods here.
Below the InsertPost method add the following code. You can also find this code in the attached file below.

InsertAdSensePost - This method actually adds the post to the InstantForum.NET database.

Private Function InsertAdSensePost(ByVal intTopicID As Int32) As Int32

    ' get adsense post
    Dim AdSensePost As InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic = GetGoogleAdSensePost(intTopicID)

    ' add the post as a reply to our topic
    Dim Topic As InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic = _
   InstantASP.InstantForum.Business.Posts.InsertPost( _
   CType(ForumID.Value, Int32), _
   AdSensePost.TopicID, _
   AdSensePost.ParentID, _
   AdSensePost.UserID, _
   ctlPostControl.MessageIcon, ctlPostControl.Subject, _
   "", AdSensePost.Message, "", False, CurrentContext)

    If Not Topic Is Nothing Then
        Return Topic.PostID
    Else
        Return 0
    End If

End Function
GetGoogleAdSensePost - This method simply returns a InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic object representing the Google AdSense post we wish to add/ You should modify the ClientID and AdSense client side code below to suite your requirements.

Private Function GetGoogleAdSensePost(ByVal intTopicID As Int32) As InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic

    ' IMPORTANT: Your AdSense Client ID
    Dim strAdSenseClientID As String = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

    ' ----------
    ' The actual Adsense Code that will be added to our post
    ' You can modify this to suite your requirements
    ' ----------
    Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
    sb.Append("<script type=""text/javascript""> ")
    sb.Append("google_ad_client = """ + strAdSenseClientID + """; ")
    sb.Append("google_alternate_color = ""D9DAD5""; ")
    sb.Append("google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; ")
    sb.Append("google_ad_format = ""234x60_as""; ")
    sb.Append("google_ad_type = ""text""; ")
    sb.Append("google_ad_channel =""""; ")
    sb.Append("google_color_border = ""676B56""; ")
    sb.Append("google_color_bg = ""D9DAD5""; ")
    sb.Append("google_color_link = ""800000""; ")
    sb.Append("google_color_url = ""800000""; ")
    sb.Append("goggle_color_text = ""333333""; ")
    sb.Append("</script>")
    sb.Append("<script type=""text/javascript"" src=""http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js""></script></div>")

    ' create an instance of our anonymous user, you'll use this user for the adsense post
    Dim User As New InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.AnonymousUser

    Dim AdSensePost As New InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic
    AdSensePost.TopicID = intTopicID
    AdSensePost.ParentID = intTopicID
    AdSensePost.UserID = User.UserID
    AdSensePost.Username = User.Username
    AdSensePost.Message = sb.ToString()

    ' return our topic object
    Return AdSensePost

End Function
Once you've added the two methods above simply add a call to InsertAdSensePost from our existing InsertPost method...

Private Function InsertPost() As Int32

    ' add post to database, we indicate this is not a poll below
    ' if successfull a topic object is returned with new post
    Dim Topic As InstantASP.InstantForum.Components.Topic = _
    InstantASP.InstantForum.Business.Posts.InsertPost(CType(ForumID.Value, Int32), _
    CType(TopicID.Value, Int32), CType(ParentID.Value, Int32), _
    MyBase.CurrentContext.CurrentUser.UserID, _
    ctlPostControl.MessageIcon, ctlPostControl.Subject, _
    ctlPostControl.Description, ctlPostControl.Message, _
    ctlPostControl.AttachmentGUID, False, CurrentContext)

    ' was post insert ok
    If Not Topic Is Nothing Then

        ' do we have a post
        If Topic.PostID > 0 Then

            ' call our method to add a adsense post
            InsertAdSensePost(Topic.PostID)

- we've removed the rest of the code for readability.
REbuild your solution within Visual Sutdio.NET and visit your forum installation. Add a new test topic and you should see your Google AdSense ad displayed below the first post in your topic.

Making these changes to Post.vb will ensure a Google AdSense ad always appears as the second post within any topic within InstantForum.NET. I hope this helps generate a little extra income from your community.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave some comments below or contact us.

Consume a InstantKB.NET or InstantForum.NET RSS Feed

Ryan Healey — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:17:51 GMT

We've received a number of email's recently asking how to display a InstantKB.NET or InstantForum.NET RSS feed within an existing web site or web application. Based on this feedback i decided to spend a little time preparing a basic example which will hopefully assist others.

In this example we will display the InstantKB.NET latest articles RSS feed from our own knowldgebase at...

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/LatestRss/

You can easily adapt the example to work with any RSS feed exposed by InstantKB.NET or InstantForum.NET by simply modifying the RSS feed URL used within the example code. the complete code example is provided within a ZIP file at the bottom of this article.

We'll use a standard ASP.NET datalist to display the contents of our feed. We've done this to keep things simple however you could easily modify the example to work with any databound control. The datalist markup can is shown below...

<asp:DataList id="dlRSS" RepeatLayout="Flow" RepeatDirection="Vertical" Width="100%"
Runat="Server">
    <ItemTemplate>
          <div style="float: left; width: 100%; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 22px;">
               <div style="float: left;">
                    <asp:HyPerLink id="hypTitle" runat="server" />
               </div>
               <div style="float:right;">
                    <asp:Label id="lblDate" Runat="Server" />
               </div>
          </div>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>

To populate this list with results from our InstantKB.NET latest articles feed we use the following code...

PAge_Load Event

Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

     Call BindRssFeed()

End Sub
BindRssFeed Method

The BindRSsFeed method binds our datasource (the RSS feed) to the datalist. We call the GetRssDataMethod to return a datatable of the RSS feed items. We them use a PagedDataSource object to limit the number of items displayed. In this example we only display the last 5 items.

Private Sub BindRssFeed()

     ' url to our RSs feed
     Dim strRSSURL As String = "http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/LatestRss/"

     ' get data table containing RSS data
     Dim dt As System.Data.DataTable = GetRSSDataTable(strRSSURL)

     ' used the pageddatasource object to restrict the number of itesm displayed
     Dim pgds As New PagedDataSource
     pgds.DataSource = dt.Rows
     pgds.PageSize = 5 ' how many items to display
     pgds.AllowPaging = True

     ' set data source
     dlRSS.DataSource = pgds

     ' bind data
     dlRSS.DataBind()

End Sub
GetRssDataTable Method

This is the method that actually calls the RSS feed and returns the feed as a datatable. You could improve this example by caching the datatable. We've opted to keep this example simple and as such have not included any code to handle if a RSS feed is unavailable.

Function GetRSSDataTable(ByVal strURL As String) As DataTable

     ' get the XML data
     Dim reader As System.Xml.XmlTextReader = New System.Xml.XmlTextReader(strURL)

     'return a new DataSet
     Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet()
     ds.ReadXml(reader)

     ' return elements table
     Return ds.Tables(2)

End Function
ItemDataBound Event (for our datalist)

Here we simply populate the controls within the datalist with the datareturned from the feed. In this example we only display the feed title and created date however other fields could be displayed such as the "description" field which actually contains the feed item content.

Protected Sub dlRSS_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object,_
ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataListItemEventArgs) Handles dlRSS.ItemDataBound

     If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Or _
    e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem Then

         ' get data row
         Dim drView As System.Data.DataRow = _
         DirectCast(e.Item.DataItem, System.Data.DataRow)

         ' setup article hyperlink
         Dim hypTitle As System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink = _
         DirectCast(e.Item.FindControl("hypTitle"), System.Web.UI.WebControls.HyperLink)

         ' populate feed item title
         If Not drView.Item("Title") Is System.DBNull.Value And _
         Not drView.Item("Title") Is Nothing Then _
         hypTitle.Text = drView.Item("Title").ToString()

         ' populate feed item URL
         If Not drView.Item("Link") Is System.DBNull.Value And _
         Not drView.Item("Link") Is Nothing _
         Then hypTitle.NavigateUrl = drView.Item("Link").ToString()

         ' setup modified date label
         Dim lblDate As System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label = _
         DirectCast(e.Item.FindControl("lblDate"), System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label)

         ' populate feed item date
         If Not drView.Item("pubDate") Is System.DBNull.Value And _
         Not drView.Item("pubDate") Is Nothing Then
              lblDate.Text = CType(drView.Item("pubDate"), System.DateTime).ToString("d")
         End If

     End If

End Sub

This code should provide a good starting point for consuming RSS feeds within your own ASP.NET web sites & web applications from either InstantForum.NET or InstantKB.NET You can find a complete working example of this code attached below.

Once running successfully you will see a list similar to the screen grab below...

I hope this basic example helps. Please feel free to leave any comments below or contact us.

Setting up full text search within InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:18:01 GMT

This article details the steps required to enable SQL Server full text search support within InstantKB.NET & SQL Server 2005. Towards the bottom of this article you'll also find information on how to enable InstantKB.NET to search attachments and also how to install 3rd party iFilters to search PDF documents.

Enabling Full -Text Search

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

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

sp_fulltext_database 'enable'
Creating your Catalog

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

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

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

Defining the Full-Text Indexes / Columns To Index

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

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

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

************************************************

InstantASP_Tags.TagKeyword
InstantASP_Tags.TagKeywordEncoded
InstantKB_ArticleComments.Comments
InstantKB_Articles.ArticleTitle
InstantKB_Articles.ArticleText

************************************************

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

Enabling Full-Text Search Within InstantKB.NET

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

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

Searching Attachments

To search attachments within InstantKB.NET you must ensure the following...

Full-Text must be enabled - Full-Text Search must already be enabled & working as shown above.
Attachments must be stored within the database - This is the default setting so you may not need to make any changes here however you should double check attachments are being stored in the database. You can check this from the "Admin CP » Settings » Knowledgebase" page as shown below. This is required to ensure InstantKB.NET saves article attachments to the InstantKB_Attachments database table. You'll need to define a full-text index on this table as described below these steps.
Check the "Search Attachments" checkbox - from the "Admin CP » Settings » Knowledgebase" page as shown below...

These changes will ensure InstantKB.NET attempts to also search the contents of your attachments during any keyword search. The next step is to actually now include the Attachment database field within the full-text catalog we previously created. This is detailed in the next section.

Defining the full-text index for attachments

If you enable searching of attachments within the "Admin CP » Settings » Knowledgebase" Settings you'll need to ensure attachments are saved to the database and that you include the following columns within the full text catalog...

************************************************

InstantKB_Attachments.AttachmentBlob

************************************************

You'll need to also select a language breaker as it's a binary field. You should choose the language the majority of your attachments will be written in.

The SQL Server 2005 full-text search supports searching the following file types out-the-box...

ASP, ASPX, CSS, HTM, HTML, HHT, HTW, HTX, ODC, STM, EML
DOC, DOT, POT, PPS, PPT, XLB, XLC, XLS, XLT, RTF
TXT, ASM, BAT, C, CPP, CXX, CMD, DEF, DIC, H, HPP, XML

Searching Office 2007 attachments

To index Office 2007 documents please follow the steps in the following knowledgebase article...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945539

Using 3rd party iFilters to extend the file types included within search

You can search additional file types such as PDF files or CHM files through the use of 3rd party SQL Server iFilters. Installing an iFilter is straight-forward and no additional configuration is required within InstantKB.NET once the iFilter has been installed.

Providing the "InstantKB_Attachments.AttachmentBlob" column is included within your fulltext catalog as detailed above the content types covered by the iFilter will automatically be included within InstantKB.NET search results as the catalog updates.

Installing the Adobe PDF iFilter for SQL Server 2005

To assist with the installation of iFilters we'll walk through a quick example below of how to install the Adobe PDF iFilter to ensure the contents of PDF files are also searched from within InstantKB.NET.

For a complete list of 3rd party IFilters please see the related links section below.

You will need to install the Adobe PDF iFilter on your SQL Server 2005 machine. You can download the free Adobe PDF iFilter from the link below. Installation is wizard based and no configuration is required...

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611
Once the installation is complete use the following query within SQL Server 2005 Management Studio to determine if the installation was successful.

select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types where document_type = '.pdf'
If everything was successful within the results panel you should see...

This indicates the installation was successful. As your catalog updates you should see results returned for your new content type.
On the computer, stop and restart the "msftesql" service, or stop and restart the "msftesql$instancename" service. To do this, use one of the following methods. You can also do this from the surface area configuration utility as details in the "Restarting Full-Text Search Service" section below.

Stop and restart the msftesql service.
a. At a command prompt, type net stop msftesql, and then press ENTER.
b. At a command prompt, type net start msftesql and then press ENTER.

Stop and restart the msftesql$instancename service.
At a command prompt, type net stop msftesql$instancename, and then press ENTER.
b. At a command prompt, type net start msftesql$instancename and then press ENTER.

Note The instancename placeholder represents the instance on which you want to enable the IFilter.

Restarting Full-Text Search Service

Click Start > Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
In the pop-up SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration dialog box, please click to select Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.
Select MSSQLSERVER > Service, and click the Stop button and then Start.
Select Full-Text Search > Service, and click the Stop button and then Start.

Maintaining Your Full-Text Catalog

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

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

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

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

That's It!

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

Installing InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:29:53 GMT

IMPORTANT: Please ensure you read our installationrequirements before attempting to install InstantKB.NET.

To help simplify the installation process we've divided this document into six smaller sections.

STEP 1. Downloading InstantKB.NET

Information on how to download InstantKB.NET.

Learn More...

STEP 2. Installing & Uploading InstantKB.NET Files

Covers key files, permissions & uploading InstantKB.NET to a public web server.

Learn More...

STEP 3. Configuring InstantKB.NET & IIS

Contains information on how to configure InstantKB.NET within Internet Information Services.

Learn More...

STEP 4. Creating the InstantKB.NET SQL Server database

Information on how to create & configure the SQL Server database required by InstantKB.NET

Learn More...

STEP 5. InstantKB.NET connection string & key application settings

How to modify the InstantKB.NET database connection string & other important settings.

Learn More...

How to quickly test your installation & key features within InstantKB.NET.

Learn More...

Enabling search engine friendly URLs within InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:24:56 GMT

By default InstantKB.NET provides basic URL rewritting to remove the need for querystring parameters within URL's, providing cleaner, more compact addresses to content within your knowledgebase.

For example the basic URL rewritting will allow you to access articles using a URL similar to...

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/KnowledgebaseArticle11733.aspx

InstantKB.NET will convert this URL at runtime to...

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/KnowledgebaseArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11733

Althrough the basic URL rewritting is helpful InstantKB.NET also supports a more advanced method of URL reiwritting supporting virtual paths and allowing content titles and keywords within your URLs.

Once you enable &configure search engine friendly URLs within InstantKB.NET links to pages, articles and content within your knowledgebase will no longer require a .aspx extension. For example you could access the same article shown above using the following URL...

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Documentation/Enabling-search-engine-friendly-URLs-within-InstantKB.NET

With search engine friendly URLs enabled accessing other content also becomes much more natural. For example...

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Search.aspx becomes http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/search/

Or

http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Tags.aspx?Tag=InstantKB.NET becomes http://kb.instantasp.co.uk/Tags/InstantKB.NET

The Search Engine Friendly URL feature when enabled provide a much cleaner, more guessable URLs to content within your knowledgebase. It also has the advantage of improving search engine placement for your content.

ontent is often ranked higher is keywords appear both on the page and within the URL.

Enabling Search Engine Friendly URLs

There are two key steps to enabling search engine friendly URLs. The first is to add the wildcard application mapping to IIS. Then you'll need to enable two setting options within IstantKB.NET.

1. Configuring IIS

The first step is to setup a new wildcard application mapping within Internet Information Services (IIS). This will require direct access to your web server & IIS configuration. As content no longer requires the .aspx extension with search engine friendly URLs enabled you need to modify IIS to ensure all requests go through the aspnet_isapi.dll. This allows InstantKB.NET to still perform URL rewritting when accessing content without a .aspx file extension.

- IIS 5 (Windows XP)

1. Open Internet Information Services.
2. Right click the web site InstantKB.NET is installed within and click properties.
3. Within the properties dialog click the "Home Directory" tab. Then click the "Configuration" button.

You will see the following dialog once you click the configuration button...

4. Click the "Add" button to create a new custom application mapping. You should add a new wildcard application mapping as shown below..

For the executable path you should select the C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll. Provide all other information as shown in the above screen grab. Please ensure "Check that file exists is not checked.

- IIS6 (Windows Server 2003)

It's a little easier with IIS6 to add wildcard application mappings.

1. Open Internet Information Services.
2. Right click the web site InstantKB.NET is installed within and click properties.
3. Within the properties dialog click the "Home Directory" tab. Then click the "Configuration" button.

You will see the following dialog once you click the configuration button...

4. Click the "insert" button. You will see the dialog displayed below...

Within this dialog simply select C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll for the executable.

Ensure "Verify that file exists" is not checked.

- IIS6 (Windows Vista)

The process differes again for users running Vista & IIS6.

1. Open Internet Information Services
2. Locate and select the InstantKB.NET web application within IIS.
3. Within the main content pane select the "Handler Mappings" option.
4. Within the actions pane on the right select "Add Script Map".

Complete the information within the add new script map dialog as shown below...

6. Click the "Request Restrictions" button and ensure the dialogs appear as below...

2. Configuring InstantKB.NET

Once you've added a wildcard application mapping to IIS you will need to enable two options within InstantKB.NET to take advantage of this feature. Todo this you will need to login and the administrator and visit your Admin CP.

From within the "Admin CP" click the "Settings" link and click "Knowledgebase". Within the knowledgebase settings you will need to enable the following options...

- Use Search Engine Friendly URL's
- Use content titles within URLs

You should set both these options to "yes" as shown in this screengrab.

Testing the feature is enabled and working correctly

Once you've made the changes to both IIS and InstantKB.NET the quickest way to test everything is working correctly is to simply visit your knowledgebase within a browser. You'll notice the URLs now include article titles and look similar to directory structures as opposed to .aspx files. All your previous links will of course continue to work with this option enabled.

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

Installing & Uploading InstantKB.NET Files

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:24:16 GMT

Once you've downloaded InstantKB.NET and extracted the ZIP file to your desktop This will create a single folder on your desktop containing all the InstantKB.NET folders & files. Depending on which license you own the number of files will vary. In this example we'll use our full source code developer license.

To help you quickly understand the folders and files provided with InstantKB.NET we've detailed the core components below.

InstantKB.NET Developer License

The Developer License is provided with complete access to all the source code for InstantKB.NET. This includes access to our InstantASP.Common set of projects and also the business and data access projects for InstantKB.NET.

InstantASP.Common
Contains all the source code to our InstantASP.Common core framework.
InstantASP.InstantKB
Contains all the source code files specific to InstantKB.NET.
InstantKB20
Contains the main web application. The InstantKB20 folder will need to be copied to your web site.
InstantKBDeveloper.sln
The Visual Studio.NET 2005 solution file.

Show folders & files...

InstantKB.NET End User License Files

The End User License provides only the code-behind source code and web project. This is ideal if you looking to visually customize InstantKB.NET or modify basic functionality. The source code to our core InstantASP.Common framework is not provided.

InstantASP.InstantKB
With the end user license only the InstantASP.InstantKB.UI code-behind project is included within this folder.
InstantKB20
Contains the main web application. The InstantKB20 folder will need to be copied to your web site.
InstantKBEndUser.sln
The Visual Studio.NET 2005 solution file.

Show folders & files...
Copying InstantKB.NET into your web site directory

To install InstantKB.NET simply copy the "InstantKB20" folder into your web sites directory. For example if your working in a local development environment you would typically copy the "InstantKB20" folder into your c:\inetpub\wwwroot folder.

If you wish to work with InstantKB.NET inside of Visual Studio.NET you should copy all the folders and files provided with InstantKB.NET into your default web site directory as shown below...

IMPORTANT: If your uploading InstantKB.NET via FTP to install on a shared hosting account or prproduction server you'll only need to upload the "InstantKB20" folder. Do not upload the "InstantASP.Common" or "InstantASP.InstantKB" folders as these folders contain the source code for InstantKB.NET which is compiled into the various assemblies within the "InstantKB20\Bin" folder.

Continue to "STEP 3. Configuring InstantKB.NET & IIS",,,

Configuring InstantKB.NET & IIS

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:22:59 GMT

Configuring IIS to work with InstantKB.NET is straight-forward. Once you've copied the "InstantKB20" folder into your web site directory you'll need to open IIS and locate the InstantKB.NET folder. As InstantKB.NET contains it's own bin directory and web.config file you'll need to make the InstantKB.NET folder a web application within IIS.

Instructions on how to do this for each major version of IIS are provided below.

Bring up your start menu. Type in "IIS" (without the quotes). Launch Internet Information Services Manager.
Locate the "InstantKB20" folder and right-click to show the context menu.
Click "Convert to Application" as shown below...

Once you've click "Convert to Application" simply close IIS and click continue below to continue with your installation.

IMPORTANT: If your using InstantKB.NET on IIS 6 within Vista or IIS7 within Windows Server 2008 you'll need to ensure InstantKB.NET is placed into a "Classic ASP.NET" application pool. We don't currently offer a web.config file compatible with integrated application pools. We will be making this available over the coming weeks.

Configuring IIS on Windows Server 2003

Click Start, click Run and type "inetmgr" without the quotes, click OK. This will launch the IIS management console.
Locate the "IntsantKB20" folder and right click to show the context menu. Click "Properties" as shown below...
Clicking properties will present the dialog window shown below. Click the "Create" button as shown.

Once you've clicked "Create" and converted the InstantKB.NET folder to a IIS web application simply click "Apply" to save any changes and exit IIS. These are the only changes required to IIS on Windows Server 2003.

Configuring IIS on Windows XP

Click Start, click Run and type "inetmgr" without the quotes, click OK. This will launch the IIS management console.
Locate the "IntsantKB20" folder and right click to show the context menu. Click "Properties" as shown below...
Clicking properties will present the dialog window shown below. Click the "Create" button as shown.

Once you've clicked "Create", click "OK" to save your changes and exit IIS.

Continue to "STEP 4. Creating the InstantKB.NET SQL Server database"...

Creating the InstantKB.NET SQL Server database

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:22:27 GMT

InstantKB.NET supports both SQL Server 2000 & 2005. We will also be ensuring support for SQL Server 2008 later this year. In this example we'll use SQL Server 2005 & the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio to create the InstantKB.NET database, tables & stored procedures.

The process is very similar for SQL Server 2000 however you'll need to use the SQL Server 2000 Query Analyzer to execute our installation script against your database.

To create the various database tables & stored procedures required by InstantKB.NET you'll need to execute a SQL script provided within the download against your database. This SQL script can be found within"InstantKB20\DatabaseScripts\InstantKB20Inhstall.sql".

You can use an existing database or create a new database to host the InstantKB.NET tables and stored procedures. Ideally you would create a separate database to host the InstantKB.NET tables and stored procedures. We appreciate however this can this is not possible for some users and we've designed our tables & stored procedures to use a unique naming convention allowing you to use an existing database without any naming conflicts.

In the example we will be connecting to a local SQL Server 2005 instance using Windows Authentication. If you wish to add the InstantKB.NET tables and stored procedures to a remote database you should enter the connection details for your database. If your not sure how to connect to your SQL Server instance please consult the Authentication Modes section of your SQL Server documentation. If your using shared or dedicated hosting your hosting company should have sent you your SQL Server connection & login details via email.

Connect to your SQL Server instance. You may need to provide your server address and if your using SQL Server authentication you'll need to provide your SQL Server username & password to connect...
In this example we are going to create a new database called InstantKB20 to host the InstantKB.NET tables and stored procedures. To create a new database simply right click your "Databases" node and choose "New Database" as shown below..
Provide a name for your new database. In this example we'll call our database "InstantKB20" as shown below...
Once you've provided a name for your database click "OK". You'll see the new database appear within your database list as shown below...
Now you'll need to open the InstantKB20Install.sql file to execute against the new InstantKB20 database, Open the file as shown below and navigate to the InstantKB20 folder and open the "DatabaseScripts\InstantKB20Install.sql" file.
Once you've opened InstantKB20Install.sql you'll see the script load as shown below.
At this stage before executing the script against your database it's important to ensure you have selected the correct database from the database selection drop down list as shown below. The database you select within this list will determine which database the InstantKB.NET tables and stored procedures are created within.
Once your sure you have selected the correct database simply click the "Execute" button as shown below. This may take a few minutes depending on your server and connection.
Once the script has completed execution you'll see the results pane as shown below. You'll notice a number of warning messages with regard to "sysdepends". These can safely be ignored and won't effect your installation.

You've now populated the InstantKB20 database with all the tables, stored procedures and default data required by InstantKB.NET.

Continue to "STEP 5. InstantKB.NET connection string & key application settings"...

Upgrading from InstantKB.NET 2.0 to 2.0.1

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:19:21 GMT

If your currently running InstantKB.NET 2.0.0 we would suggest you update to the latest InstantKB.NET 2.0.1 release. This update resolves a number of small problems found within the 2.0.0 release. For a complete list of changes please see the list below.

You can find information on how to upgrade from 2.0.0 to the 2.0.1 update at the bottom of this document.

2.0.1 Fixes

Fixed issue with secondary categories cache not updating correctly when editing content.
Fixed issue with custom troubleshooter tabs.
Fixed issues with print article page when logged in as administrator.
Fixed a number of issues if you created custom tab and provide both a "Tab Type" and "Redirect URL.
Redirect links on manage tabs page now work correctly for redirect tabs.
Added additional checks to staff CP to ensure an exception is not raised if your staff member does not have access to any tabs.
Fixed issue if you removed all member groups from a tab and then tried to edit the tab.
Tab options within the left pane of the Admin CP will always display all tabs now regardless of defined member groups.
Confirmation message is now displayed when editing a member within either the staff or admin cp.
Fixed issue which prevented you from modify various tab settings (member & staff permissions, views, statuses, attachmenttypes etc) from within the Admin CP if the tab was not associated with the Administrator member group.
Fixed RegEx validation for custom fields. (thanks MT)
Fixed "Object reference not set to instance of an object" exception when deleting certain custom fields.
Fixed attachment icon on manage attachment types to display a default attachment icon if you don't select an icon.
Fixed incorrect report data if you selected the "Include sub categories" yet selected a category with no child categories.
Fixed issue with report chart not updating correctly between post backs.

2.0.1 Changes

Administrators can no longer view all content regardless of member group relationships within the front-end knowledgebase. This was causing confusion when updating content as it was still appearing. All content (categories, articles, RSS) regardless of member group relationships are still displayed to administrators within the Admin & Staff CP. Security trimmed results are still applied to staff members who don't belong to the administrator group within the staff CP.
When clicking search within the Staff CP when managing content it will now default to the Advanced Search view.
If staff members have the option enabled to edit members within the staff CP they will no longer be able to edit or delete administrator profiles.

How to upgrade from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1

1. Download the latest 2.0.1 update from within your My.InstantASP area. Extract the zip file contents to your desktop.

2. Copy the entire contents of the "InstantKB20" folder (excluding the web.config) over the top of your existing 2.0.0 files. If you've modified the MasterPage.master or any CSS files please ensure you back these up before replacing. Once you are running on 2.0.1 you would simply copy your MasterPage.Master and CSS files back into the skin directory.

3. Run the attached script against your existing 2.0.0 database. You can also find the attached scripts within the 2.0.1 download within the [INSTALLDIR]\DatabaseScripts\UpgradeScripts\2.0_to_2.0.1.sql. You will need to execute this script against your 2.0. database using SQL Server 2005 Management Studio or Query Analyzer within SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager.

4. Navigate to your existing 2.0.0 installation within your browser. The version information within the footer should now read "Powered by InstantKB.NET 2.0.1". This indicates the update was successful.

If you run into any problems or have any questions regarding this update please don't hesitate to open a support ticket, post within our InstantKB.NET 2.0 forum or content us.

Downloading InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:17:00 GMT

Existing customers can download InstantKB.NET 2.0 from within your My.InstantASP account. Once logged into your My.InstantASP account click the "My Licenses" link on the left. You should see the InstantKB.NET 2.0 download available within your My Licenses list. You will need to click the small ZIP icon to the right of the license to begin the download.

If you've forgot your My.InstantASP password you can request this be again. If you have any problems accessing your My.InstantASP account or product download please don't hesitate to contact us.

Once the download is complete you'll need to extract the ZIP file to your desktop or similar location. You can use WinZip or WinRar to unzip the InstantKB.NET download. We would suggest you extract the contents on the ZIP file to your desktop. This will create a single folder on your desktop containing all the InstantKB.NET files.

Continue to "STEP 2. Installing & Uploading InstantKB.NET Files"...

InstantKB.NET connection string & key application settings

Ryan Healey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:15:25 GMT

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

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

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

This is very important!

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

<add key="InstantASP_ConnectionString" value="SERVER=localhost;UID=username;PWD=password;DATABASE=InstantKB20;"/>

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

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

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

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

Continue to "STEP 6. Testing your InstantKb.NET installation"...

Login failed for user ASPNET or NETWORKSERVICE

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:24:25 GMT

Symptoms

When attempting accessing InstantKB.NET i receive the following message:

Cannot open database requested in login 'InstantKB'. Login failed for user 'MACHINENAME\ASPNET' or 'MACHINENAME\NETWORKSERVICE'.

Cause

This is because by default the database connection string uses a trusted connection. When a client is accessing SQL Server via a trusted connection the database your accessing must have the default trusted connection account within the user list with db_owner rights to the target database.

Resolution

To enabled trusted connections for your InstantKB database open SQL Server enterprise manager. Expand your database within enterprise manager and right-click the users node. Select the New database user option and a dialog will appear.

If your running Windows 2003 from the Login name drop down list select the NETWORKSERVICE account then tick the do_owner name option within the Permit in Database Role area.

If your running Windows 2000 or XP from the Login name drop down list select the ASPNET account then tick the do_owner name option within the Permit in Database Role area.

Apply your settings

If the Windows accounts is not listed within the Login Name drop down list please contact your system administrator and ask them to add the account to the Security / Logins area within enterprise manager.

Using a trusted connection is only recommended for development purposes. This should be changed to use a dedicated SQL Server user account with all the correct permissions once you move into a live environment.

Debugging Email Problems within InstantKB.NET

Ryan Healey — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:09:28 GMT

This article is intended to provide guidance for debugging any email problems within InstantKB.NET. For example if you notice emails are not sending. It's assumed you've already modified the settings within InstantKB.NET to point towards your SMTP Server. You can modify email settings within InstantKB.NET from the Admin CP > Settings > Email & RSS page as hown in the screen grab below...

Enable Debug Information

The steps below will enable you to see the actual .NET exception message raised by the System.Net classes if InstantKB.NET has any problems communicating with your SMTP server.

1. Open the InstantKB.NET web.config

2. Change the InstantASP_AutoFlushMailQueue setting to True as shown below...

3. Change the InstantASP_EnableSMTPDebug setting to True as shown below...

These changes will ensure InstantKB.Net displays the actual error message if your experiencing email problems.

To now test the sending of email's you can update your username or perform another action within the application that generates email. To quickly test email's after this change please visit the Admin CP and click the Members link. Click "Manage Members" and click the "Edit Profile" link. Scroll down a little and click the Update Username button.

Add your username into the textbox and click send. This will attempt to send an email from the application and will show now with the changes above the true error message. Once you see the actual exception message we would suggest you forward the exception to support@instantasp.co.uk and we'll respond with what could be causing any problems.

Can i customise InstantKB.NET to fit into my design?

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:12:57 GMT

Yes. You are completely free to modify InstantKB.NET to fit within any existing design. InstantKB.NET has been developed with customisation in-mind. A central ASP.NET 2.0 masterpage is provided allowing you to quickly wrap any existing design around your knowledgebase. Our fluid CSS based layout ensures moving elements around or changing styles can be acheived by modifying a few simple CSS files.

We are happy to guide customers in the right direction whilst customizing InstantKB.NET.

How do i upgrade InstantKB.NET v1.1 to v1.2

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:06:58 GMT

This document details the steps neccessary to upgrade an existing InstantKB.NET v1.1 installation to a v1.2 installation. Upgrading to version 1.2 will not erase any existing data within your database however please follow these instructions carefully as we cannot be held reasonable for any loss.

If you have performed custom modifications to your knowledge base and you wish to upgrade please contact support@instantasp.co.uk and detail your changes. These upgrades are not easy and we would require as much information as possible to assist.

Upgrade Instructions:

Execute and install the latest v1.2 installation on a development / testing server using the MSI installation package. On-screen instructions are provided during the installation process.
During installation it will prompt you to specify a virtual directory / application name. Please leave this as "instantkb12"
Navigate to the fresh installation directory after the Wizard has finished this is normally c:\inetpub\wwwroot\instantkb12
This step is very important. Next copy the following files and folders to replace your existing 1.1 files.

The entire admin directory
All ASPX files from the root directory and the Global.asax file
The Controls directory- Please remember to ensure you do not replace any existing files you may have modified. Please copy any modified files first then paste your code back into the new 1.2 user-controls.
The entire images directory
The entire scripts directory

Copy the InstantKB.DLL and InstantKBCodeBehind.DLL assembly files within the instantkb12/bin directory. Remove the old InstantKB_Logic.DLL and InstantKB_Controls.DLL files from your existing InstantKB.NET installation. Paste the two new InstantKB.dll and InstantKBCodeBehind.DLL assemblies into your existing /bin directory.
Now open your InstantKB.NET v1.1 SQL Server database and execute the upgrade SQL file provided by default at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\instantkb12\database\upgrade\InstantKB1.1to1.2upgrade.sql
Three new application settings have been introduced within the web.config file which you will need to update. These keys are:
- InstantKB_AppPhysicalPath
- InstantKB_ShowAskAQuestion
- InstantKB_ShowLogin
- More Information about these new application settings can be found here.
Test your installation.

Should you experience any problems please don't hesitate to contact support@instantasp.co.uk we will do our very best to help but please remember upgrades are not supported if you have made heavy modifications to the v1.1 codebase.

Upgrade InstantKB.NET v1.2 to v1.3

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:04:21 GMT

This document details the steps neccessary to upgrade an existing InstantKB.NET v1.2 installation to InstantKB.NET v1.3.

Upgrading to version 1.3 will not erase any existing data within your database however please follow these instructions carefully as we cannot be held reasonable for any loss. If you have performed custom modifications to your knowledge base and you wish to upgrade please contact support@instantasp.co.uk and detail your changes. These upgrades are not easy and we would require as much information as possible to assist.

We would certainly suggest you print this document and read in full before performing any software upgrade.

Upgrade Instructions:

Execute and install the latest v1.3 MSI package on a development / testing server using the MSI installation package.

During the installation process you will have the opportunity the create the new InstantKB.NET v1.3 database locally. If your upgrading from v1.2 we would suggest you select remote installation of the database scripts at this point. You will need to run the upgrade script manually using enterprise manager or similar tool to upgrade the existing InstantKB.NET v1.2 database schema to the v1.3 schema.
Once the MSI wizard has complete the installation directory will automatically popup within an instance of Windows Explorer displaying all the new v1.3 files.
This step is very important please read very carefully. As always if your not comfortable upgrading your existing installation please ensure you back up your current files first or work with this off-line and only upload to a live environment once ready.

With the release of v1.3 the application settings have now moved to a new XML based document called InstantKB.Config. You will be required to enter any existing database connection string into the new InstantKB.config configuration file so it's suggested you note your current v1.2 connection string before overwriting your existing v1.2 web.config.

To begin updating your existing v1.2 installation you will need to copy all the latest InstantKB.NET v1.3 files over the top of your existing v1.2 install. You must replace your existing web.config file with the new web.config file provided with the v1.3 setup. You should select ALL files and folders from the latest v1.3 installation excluding the single folder below and copy all files and folders over the top of your existing v1.2 files.

DO NOT REPLACE YOUR EXISTING ATTACHMENTS DIRECTORY
Now you have replaced the existing files it's time to update your existing InstantKB.NET v1.2 database to the new database schema.

To-do this you should connect to your existing database and run the database upgrade script against your SQL Server database using Enterprise Manager or similar query tool.

The database upgrade script is located at:
[installpath]\Database_Scripts\UgradeScripts\1.2_to_1.3update.sql
Once you have replaced all your existing files with the v1.3 files and updated your existing database you should add your existing database connection string to the InstantKB.Config file within Notepad or similar ACSII text editor. The only setting you need to amend is InstantKB_ConnectionString which sets the connection string to use to connect to your SQL Server database. If you have a connection string you used previously for v1.2 you will simply need to replace the v1.3 connection string with your existing connection string.
If your using Windows 2000 or XP you must ensure the [MACHINENAME\ASPNET] account has write and modify access to the files and folders listed below. If your running Windows 2003 Server you must ensure the [MACHINENAME\NETWORKSERVICE] account has write and modify access to the files and folders listed below.
- Attachments (Folder)
- Logging (Folder)
- InstantKB.config (File)
You should now attempt to access your upgraded knowledge base installation from a web browser. Providing you have replaced all the existing v1.2 files with the new v1.3 files, setup the new InstantKB.Config file and run the database upgrade script the upgrade should be successful.
If you receive a message detailing you don't have a valid license for your domain please submit a request from within My.InstantASP for your license to be added to your account.

Should you experience any problems please don't hesitate to submit a support ticket or contact us we will do our very best to assist. Please remember we can only offer limited support if you have made heavy modifications to the original v1.2 code-base however we will do our very best to assist with any questions.

Wjats the difference between the End User License & Developer License?

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:47:59 GMT

Developers License

The Developers License is provided with full application source code. This includes the full Visual Studio.NET web application solution and all related class file projects. The separate class file projects contain the data access and server control source code. For example the WYSIWYG editor code is provided with the developers license allowing you to make changes to the control.

End User License

The End User License is provided with just the ASP.NET Web Application project and all associated code-behind. The data access, business logic and some control logic is provided as a pre-compiled assembly.

This license will still allow you to make changes to the forums including making modifications to HTML, fonts, style sheet classes, JavaScript files and various .ASCX user controls. You can also take advantage of the built-in API that is pre-compiled with the End User License. To take advantage of the InstantForum.NET API please add a reference to your web application project to the InstantForum.DLL file.

Other Information

You can read more about our licensing at the link below...

http://www.instantasp.co.uk/Purchase/Licensing.aspx

Can i download an evaluation version?

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:44:10 GMT

We will consider all evaluation requests. Simply email sales@instantasp.co.uk to arrange an evaluation. Unfortunately we cannot provide evaluation licenses to free email addresses such as hotmail or gmail. We will require your company email address.

You will need a My.InstantASP account in order to access the evaluation downloads.

If you wish to view the full product demonstrations please create your My.InstantASP account.

Do you offer discounts on your software?

Ryan Healey — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:38:44 GMT

We offer discounts to a variety of government, qualified academic, non-profit and charity entities. Discounts are only provided for product licenses and not support subscriptions or additional services. Additional services typically consist of product installation, telephone support and/or installation transfer.

The requirements for the different groups are detailed below.

Government Entity

Government entities are entitled to a 20% discount for any of our products. To claim your discount please send a Purchase Order on your organizations letter headed paper.

Academic Institutions

Academic institutions are entitled to a 30% discount for any of our products. To claim your discount you must provide a document clearly showing you are a member of teaching staff, administration or a student of a recognized Academic Institution.

Charity Organizations

Charity organizations are entitled to a 40% discount for any of our products. We may waive the license fee at our discretion. Please contact us and tell us more about your charity.

Non-Profit Organizations

Non-Profit organizations are entitled to a 40% discount for any of our products. To claim your discount please send a Purchase Order on your organizations letter headed paper.

To claim your discount please follow the instructions above. We will review your request and contact you as quickly as possible with instructions on how to take advantage of our special pricing. Please note we cannot provide discounts for additional support subscriptions or services purchased with your products. Discounts only apply to the product license.