Three days and I am still not able to make the Starter Kit work. A lot of the mistakes were on purpose, or because I decided to do something differently from the book.

For instance, I decided to call the module KhmerSupport.HitCounter and I setup my solution as such. WRONG!!! It has to be setup as HitCounter and then through a long procedure, to change the references to include the Company name. I understand why this is necessary, but I still think, starting with the full name and then being a little bit more careful when changing the sqldataprovider would involve less work.

It would help if the instructions were a little bit more step by step, with bullet lists and checklists... I went to the process so many times, I could probably do it blindfolded. One small item of confusion: when the book instructs to create a folder Providers and therein a folder Data Providers (with a space) - I decided to use DataProviders (without the space). The rest of the chapter gave me right: the files have to go in Providers\DataProviders.

A few issues with the creation of the SqlDataProvider project. The book instructs to right-click the solution in the solution explorer - then click Add->New Project. After the instructions how to open the project, the book says: "Make sure that therewon't be a directory created for the solution." The problem with that is that when you create a new project by right-clicking the solution, there is no option to create a folder for the solution or not. VS will create a folder for the project anyway (this seems to differ from a folder for the solution).

When you try to create a new project through File->New->Project, you do get the option to create that folder for the solution together with the choice to create a new solution or add to the solution. I opted to add to the solution, and extended the path to Providers\DataProviders. Whatever way, VS created a folder in DataProviders for the new project. As a result, ..\..\..\..\bin did not refer to the /bin folder but to the /DesktopModules/bin folder. There is still a possibility there that I haven't tried yet, but the book was not clear on that.

I get as far as bringing all modules together. The build output path for the sqldataprovider indicating ..\..\..\..\..\bin\. The SqlDataProvider compiles correctly in the /bin folder. Then comes the part where you are instructed to rename YourCompany in one of the ascx files to the company name (in my case KhmerSupport in ViewHitCounter.ascx). There is actually only one occurrence of YourCompany and that is in the inherits option in the control line

Then the errors start coming. I read in a forum posting that making a reference to ths sqldataprovider dll solved someone's problem. I could do that (though there is nothing about that in the book) because I had built the dll separately. That took care of most of the errors.

But I am not there yet. The error messages I get now are:
Name 'EditURL' is not declared
Name 'IsEditable' is not declared
Name 'lstContent' is not declared.

These messages come from the .vb files

The ascx file has warnings. The control line generates a warning that 'EditURL' is not declared. The Register line generates a warning that "~/controls/ModuleAuditControl.ascx" does not exist (it is however there in reality). Furthermore, the CssClass "Normal" seems to be not defined.

That is how far I get. I've gon through the procedure dozens of times now, but this is the point where it gets stuck, every time

There is still one major point in which my set-up differs from what is described in the book, and tomorrow I will attack that. I have tweaked my hosts file so that by removing a few comment marks (or putting them back) in the host file, I can quickly change the main URL from development server to production server.  The book seems to use localhost. I do not see how that would make a difference but I'm running out of ideas.

Suggestions are welcome.

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The one-eyed in the land of the blind.

Anyone coming to Cambodia for the Christmas holidays? Bring me a hard copy of DotNetNuke 5.4 Cookbook, I will pay for it in cash. Credit cards are still a luxury over here...

Meanwhile I will have to do with what I have and go look for some publicly available training materials. The Starter Kit will hopefully be documented a little bit wider than through one (outdated) book. Reflecting back on how happy I felt when a friend brought me Professional DotNetNuke 5, I now feel a little bit let down. I was so sure all I could ever need would be in there...

The Starter Kit I use is the one for DNN 5.6 - that should not be outdated, should it?

One clue: after I have created my first project, emptied the root name space and created a reference to DotNetNuke.dll and Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data.dll, all refernce errors should be gone, right? I am left with one warning:
Warning 1 'Public Shared Function GetPropertyInfo(objType As System.Type) As System.Collections.ArrayList' is obsolete: 'Obsolete in DotNetNuke 5.0.  Replaced by GetProperties(Of TObject)() '. C:\inetpub\dnn\DesktopModules\KhmerSupport.HitCounter\ViewHitCounter.ascx.vb 88 50 KhmerSupport.HitCounter

The funny thing is that the WROX.Suggestion module worked fine after implementing a few corrections in the SqlDataProvider file, so I am not yet at my wit's end. I can still compare both configurations and see where they differ.

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The one-eyed in the land of the blind.

I have found the answer. It often is there somewhere on the net already, the problem is, it is so devided over so many locations.

The answer for the WROX procedure is to add one step, not mentioned in the book. After all the manual search and replaces described in the book, the user should do one more search and replace in VS, a search & replace in all files. That will result in 16 more replacements.

After that, the warning is gone. Continue as instructed (well, that's what I'll try to do).

I will detail the whole procedure more extensively after I have written that d*mned hit counter. After this experience, the hit counter must be child's play. Good for a class assignment.

The book looks very much as a work in progress, updated every so often to apply to a new version. Some instructions end up to be mentioned twice... I hope that my observations will be useful for future versions.

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The one-eyed in the land of the blind.