DNN and Visual Studio - the 1 line guide.

You should NEVER try to execute, compile or run a live DNN installation from inside VISUAL STUDIO - it will not work.

The more verbose conversation ...

DNN is built around 2 separate and very different components.

The first component is a set of compiled libraries that form the core resources - these are represented by dotnetnuke.dll and a couple of supporting dll libraries.
If you ever download the dnn source package these are what you will find the code for. This is source code is built and compiled in visual studio as a (WAP) Web Application Project.

The second component is a Web Site Project (WSP) which contains a lot of front end site layout components and which consumes the core libraries.
When you download the dnn install package - this is the main component of the download - PLUS a copy of the compiled libraries from the first component.
The thing to understand about WSP systems is that they are NEVER pre-compiled as a rule - instead - the asp.net runtime engine compile's the elements dynamically a runtime.

If you try to OPEN a WSP project in visual studio - and then hit RUN - what will happen is that by default visual studio will try to start compiling the WSP pages - and will eventually error out - as there are a number of elements that are just not designed to work that way. (Yes there are ways to work with WSP sites in VS - you turn of the compile before execute options)

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

But, regardless the real question should be - what exactly are you trying to achieve.

Or more to the point - what do you exactly mean by DEVELOP in DOTNETNUKE.

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

At a guess 99% of all DNN web sites are run by people that have never done a line of coding or even know what visual studio is.
And of the remaining 1% less that maybe 1% of those would ever have a need to actually delve into the dnn source code to recompile it.

The reason for this - is that DNN is based largely on the concept of modules - and for most people the wealth of existing modules is more than they ever need to consider using.

And even for those that have some very specific site needs - just about any possible new feature or function can be implemented by building an extension module or component that plugs into the core system.

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

So to "develop" or make changes to a DNN website for most people means logging in and making changing the content - by adding or editing existing tabs, and by adding or editing the different modules placed on those tabs - and by extension editing the content published by those modules.

All this is done using a web browser while connected to a running web site.

About the only time you would ever require visual studio is if you had a custom module which you specially needed to alter some functionality of - in which case you would do some by editing the MODULE source code - and compiling it if required depending on if the module is WAP or WSP based. At not time though would you need to actually touch DNN itself as a rule.

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

SO to wrap this all up - what you need to do - is get a copy of the WEB SITE running and then start to experiment.

log into the live website
go into admin and add an additional alias something like devdnn.me (this will let you access the test side u create)

Copy the MS SQL database
Copy all the files from the root hosting point down

create a new MS SQL database - and import the tables etc
create a new root hosting folder and copy all the files in
make sure the folder has full read/write permissions allocated to asp.net

edit the web.config in the test folder to point to the new database table

using IIS - configure a new website and point to the new root folder
set the bindings to devdnn.me

-----

if you followed the steps - you should now be able to browse to devdnn.me and see a full copy of your live site running.

Westa