For the past week, I've been reading the documentation that comes with DNN 5 with regards to Module Development. To say that I've learned a few things would be an understatement. But I'm also very confused, and my confusion isn't going away. Here's my problem:
DNN 5 seems to be a repackaging of DNN 4. Some of the folders in DNN 5 are represented the same in DNN 4, but it's organization is a little different (or, at least, it appears different to me.)
All of the documentation that comes with DNN 5 is still written for DNN 4. The installation document, for example, talks about DNN 4 and DNN 3.
In my case, I initially installed the install zip file and got that configured and up and running. Because I want to learn how to write "installable" modules, and possibly HTTP Modules, etc., I installed the source zip. The solution file for the source zip does open in VS 2008 and I can see the sample DNN site correctly. Editing the web.config and restarting the server does show my changes as expected.
Now to my problem... I could not find sources for the Desktop modules! So back to the documentation I went.
I read that the source to these modules is still in the DNN 3.x sources. So, I downloaded the latest 3.x source and unzipped this onto my machine. I attempted to open the Solution file in the Desktop Modules folder, but because it's written for VC2003, my VS2008 had to convert it. I told VC to back everything up and convert. Opening the "post" conversion solution file works, but there are absolutely NO sub projects. VS tells me on each and every project that it can't find some reference to some other part of the system.
So... Here's my conundrum: How do I learn to build installable modules, following along with the various "red" covered reference books (and the "free" documentation) if the solutions can't find anything? Especially if I'm using VS2008!
Any thoughts / clues on how I should proceed?
Robert