You may have noticed that when you edit text in DotNetNuke, what you see in the editor window may not look like what you see when you save your changes. This is because the fckEditor applies a different stylesheet in the editor window instead of any of the actual site css files. To change this, all you need to do is edit the web.config file for the site and set the proper value for the StaticCSSFile variable in the FckHtmlEditorProvider section.

So search your web.config for StaticCSSFile. And update it to point to your desired css file (e.g.  StaticCSSFile="~/Portals/0/Skins/MySkin/skin.css"). Save your changes and you should now see the proper styles when you edit content.

I initially tried making changes to the EditorAreaCSS variable in the fckconfig.js file as this is the standard place to make fckeditor changes but that proved to be a dead end. Not sure why the DNN folks implemented this in the web.config instead.

DotNetNuke has a nice way to require unique passwords for all users. You can't simply go into the web.config, search for RequireUniqueEmail="False" and set it to RequireUniqueEmail="True". The problem is if there are already users with duplicate email addresses, bad things happen (It's been awhile since I've tried it and I don't remember specifically what happens but I know it wasn't handled well).

So, you need a way to remove the duplicate email addresses before you make the web.config change. This SQL will take care of it.

This is something I've learned and forgotten at least 4 times. Writing these types of things here helps me remember and seem to help quite a few other people as well. So...

Usually in DotNetNuke, if you want to associate a resource file with your control, you just create a resource file with the same name as the ascx file plus the .resx extension and place it in your App_LocalResources directory. DotNetNuke and/or ASP.NET auto-magically associates the file with your code and it just works.

However, every time that I create a control that dynamically loads other controls, I spend 30 minutes looking at names and file placement and... trying to figure out why the resource file doesn't seem to be loading. Eventually, it comes to me, for dynamically loaded files, you must explicitly set the LocalResource file.

To do this add the following line to your PageLoad function in your dynamically loaded control:

 LocalResourceFile = DotNetNuke.Services.Localization.Localization.GetResourceFile(this, "controlfilename.ascx");

To learn more about DNN Module Localization, check out the DotNetNuke Module Localization Guide.

DotNetNuke makes it easy to determine if the currently logged in user is an administrator (aka admin) or any other role for that matter. All you need to do is call the following: PortalSecurity.IsInRole("Administrators") or PortalSecurity.IsInRole("MyRoleName"). This function should return the boolean value very quickly as everything it needs is already in memory. You can call this from either the code behind or the ascx file (e.g. Visible='<%#PortalSecurity.IsInRole("Administrators")%>').

This can be very useful for determining whether or not to show a control or content meant only for the right groups eyes.

Efficion partnered with IT Architechs in creating a new website for the Small Patent Law Group, a law firm that's serves as an intellectual property boutique. The site was built using DotNetNuke to make it easy for SPLG's staff to make updates to the site. In addition, SPLG will be able to use secured sections to share private information with their clients.

Is your DotNetNuke site running ridiculously slowly and consuming massive amounts of your processor? It might be stuck in a bit of a catch 22... The scheduler is trying to clear the ScheduleHistory table, but it can't because the ScheduleHistory table is too full.

This page will describe options for playing and/or allowing downloading of audio from a website. Ultimately, I think the best answer is a specific combination of the options below: -use flash for streaming, provide a link for downloading, if a feed, provide a link to the rss feed (aka Podcast).

For several months now, Efficion has been turning down most new projects as our existing clients have been keeping us plenty busy. In hopes of better serving existing and new customers as well as spending more time with our families, we've been looking for the right person for awhile now and Eric seems to be the perfect fit.

Eric has spent the last 12 years working in IT and Management roles in the St. Louis area.  His skills range from troubleshooting and website development to graphics and accounting with some culinary arts and photography on the side.

This site, built on top of DotNetNuke, provides a great deal of information for users interested in making their home safer. Efficion created a custom design incorporating the existing logo and based on the owner's ideas and desires to create a custom look that truly reflected the mood and imagery the owner desired. We incorporated a range of modules, along with custom enhancements to existing modules to present information cleanly, clearly, and efficiently while still making it easy for the owner to make site updates on his own.

When it comes to the toolbars for Rich Text Editors for clients to use to update there own sites, it is my firm belief that less is more. By default, the toolbars seem to be cluttered with endless options that rarely get used and in the end just make it harder to find the options users do need.

The FCKEditor Provider for DotNetNuke is great overall and exposes almost everything you need to set it up just they way you want it, including setting up different custom toolbars for different types of users (determined by role). But I haven't found much clear and concise documentation for adding your own custom toolbars. Here is how I do it...

Efficion is in charge of designing and creating all new sites for The Pyramid Companies, a developer of lofts and housing here in St. Louis. We've been putting out a new site every month for their various developments along with a variety of enhancements to their existing sites. All solutions are built using PHP, HTML, and CSS.

Some of the new sites we've created:
PyramidStl.com | Leather Trades Lofts | Sullivan Place |
Charleston Square | Covenant Place

*** Updated: Added method for DNN versions 3.3 and 4.3 and greater ***
DNN 3.0 - 3.2
In DNN 3.0-3.2 and 4.0-4.1, the membership / profile stuff made heavy use of Microsoft's Membership provider module which stores most of the information in a hash table. While this is fine for getting a single user, it's a complete nightmare if you want to show a grid or list of many users or to do something with the data in SQL.

There's a good write up on how to get at this info through SQL at DNN Stuff.

DNN 3.3+ and 4.3+
The core team did a complete and much needed overhaul of the User Profile system for DNN 3.3 and 4.3. The grid on the User Accounts page is now a lot more flexible but it still won't help you if you want non-admin users to view user data or if you want to utilize profile data in SQL... Click on the Read More link to learn how to get at DNN 3.3+ profile data in SQL. This data could then be displayed using the Advanced Data Grid