Hey everyone -

Really appreciate the forums of a good community, and there are a lot of unsung heroes who sacrafice their free time for the help of others, and want to start off this post by thanking everyone here.

Second, and my main question, is that I have been a web developer with ASP.net for quite a while, and have a good understanding of the knowledge and framework.   I am currently working through the Wrox DotNetNuke 5 Module Programming book from Mitchel Sellers, and am having some trouble understanding chapter 9.

Some of the things I'm confused about is the installation, packaging, manifest process.   If someone has a post, or a read through on how this all works I would appreciate, but here are my general thoughts, questions, concerns.

1.  If I have a source module that I created with the Visual Studio templates, and I have done the initial development for this module, am I required to create a manifest for those files to be setup as modules?   

2.  I noticed it was possible ot use DotNetNuke to create a manifest, however, it only showed how to create this manifest after the module was initially installed.  Downloading the books source code, the manifest file is empty with an indicator that it should be created by DotNetNuke, however I'm unsure how to create a manifest from a package which has not yet been installed.   Are there tools to create manifest files, and are they common for developers?

3.  I have 1 project for my module, and 1 project for the "Source" version of DotNetNuke.   What is the recommended practice for developing, debugging, making changes as i go.  I'm hoping, but haven't quite figured out the best way yet, to do this without installing and uninstalling the module each time I make a change.   It isn't clearly outlined in the book for the best approach to this.

Generally speaking, I'm looking for the best/recommended way to get a module (created from the Visual Studio templates) setup inside the DotNetNuke framework.   Second, I'm looking for a recommendation on the best practices for module developers and how they debug, troubleshoot, and develop as they go along inside Visual Studio.

Thanks so much for your time, I'm trying to become aquinted with this framework and intend to contribute my time answering similar questions going forward as well once I have a better understanding of the processes used.

Thanks,
Kyle