Products

Solutions

Resources

Partners

Community

Blog

About

QA

Ideas Test

New Community Website

Ordinarily, you'd be at the right spot, but we've recently launched a brand new community website... For the community, by the community.

Yay... Take Me to the Community!

Welcome to the DNN Community Forums, your preferred source of online community support for all things related to DNN.
In order to participate you must be a registered DNNizen

HomeHomeOur CommunityOur CommunityGeneral Discuss...General Discuss...SolPart Menu Problem - Unusable by AdminsSolPart Menu Problem - Unusable by Admins
Previous
 
Next
New Post
4/25/2006 12:35 PM
 
First, let me say that I'm obviously not anti-DNN or about to "switch sides" because of this problem. However, my problem is a severe issue that may cause my client to move away from DNN, which can be a big problem for them...

I have a client (US Air Force) that manages an enterprise single-sign on solution that encapsulates a wide range of services all made available thru two tools: an authentication server and a proxy server (I guess it would be referred to as a proxy server). To integrate DNN with this, I've created an HTTP module that covers the authentication part perfectly. The problem I'm having is that the SolPart menu isn't working correctly in conjunction with the proxy server. The proxy is setup to forward all requests to my web server. DNN handles all of that just fine. But, apparently, the SolPart menu is using the host address, which is coming from the proxy server and not the user, to render URLs. This causes a problem because an internal IP address is sent back to the user, who doesn't have access to it.

Hopefully, this will show the issue a little better...

User → my.af.mil/dnn → 123.123.123.123/dnn

All normal links are rendered with virtual-relative URLS (i.e.e /dnn/...), which come back with no problem. It's only the SolPart menu that's a problem.

I hate this menu and don't use it for the site navigation, so the problem didn't come up when we started the migration to this network. After getting things setup, tho, we eventually noticed that there was a problem when using modules' action menus. We noticed the URL that was being accessed and realized the problem.

I went to the Solution Partners site, but there isn't any feedback/support medium. Is it possible to use a custom action menu in place of the SolPart menu? We don't have the source for the SolPart menu, so it's kind of hard to figure out where the problem truly lies.

Michael Flanakin | Microsoft Consulting Services
www.michaelflanakin.com
 
New Post
4/25/2006 2:18 PM
 
I've tried switching the default navigation provide, but that seems to have no effect - even when I add the Menu and Nav skin controls to the skin, there doesn't seem to be any change. This kind of makes me wonder whether the navigation provider even works correctly, but perhaps it is used somewhere else. I'm not sure.

Michael Flanakin | Microsoft Consulting Services
www.michaelflanakin.com
 
New Post
4/25/2006 4:14 PM
 
Michael: Sorry that I don't really have anything productive to add to your post. But I do have a question. I also work for a USAF contracting organization. I have been using DNN extensively for non-USAF work but have often thought that DNN might be a good platform for some USAF work in the future. Have you had any push back from USAF network/IT people about using an open-source tool like DNN on sites? Just curious.

Forerunner Communications, LLC
DotNetNuke Integration Specialists

 
New Post
4/26/2006 8:54 AM
 
Yes and no. I am typically the technical lead on all the projects I work on and, with that, I bring a lot of past experience with tools and streamlined processes. A good amount of these tools tend to be open source, for obvious reasons. The military doesn't like open source, as I'm sure you've come to find out, but there are several ways around it. For instance, to use DNN, I refer to it in two lights: (1) it's a COTS product; and, (2) it's an in-house solution. These are contradictory, but I only give these answers to specific people.

I refer to DNN as a COTS product to those requiring documentation and as an in-house solution for those asking about it being approved for use on AF networks. The first response (regarding docs) allows us to not have to reverse engineer DNN just to document how it works as we would an internal project - we have very strict processes in the organization I've done my AF work for. The second response (in-house solution) can be given because we use the source version of DNN. Since we compile it in-house, that tends to blur the fact that it's open source. With this approach, we haven't had any problems with implementing DNN based on the fact that it's open source.

Most of the people that have approached us about it being open source don't really know what it means to be open source, so it's usually fairly simple to talk around them to the point that they just give up and let you go about your business. At least, that's been my experience. It changes a lot from base to base. There's another base that is very much pro open source. So much, that they implement non-approved software, knowing that they technically shouldn't. The fact is, they save money because they have experts on those products, so it's easier. They sure will suffer when those people leave, tho

Anyway, as far as open source and the military goes, you just have to learn how to play the game and talk to the right people. And, well, the fact that I have a good reputation within this organization and am fairly well known doesn't hurt any, either That'll only last until senior management and military members cycles out, tho.

Michael Flanakin | Microsoft Consulting Services
www.michaelflanakin.com
 
New Post
5/1/2006 9:37 AM
 

As I noted in the email, I did a search for any reference to your variables and do not find any reference to them. 

I went to the Solution Partners site, but there isn't any feedback/support medium. Is it possible to use a custom action menu in place of the SolPart menu? We don't have the source for the SolPart menu, so it's kind of hard to figure out where the problem truly lies.

The source code for the menu is available on our site (and always has been available).

www.solpart.com  Resources -> Downloads -> ASP.NET Controls -> ASP.NET Menu

Solution Partner's ASP.NET Menu SDK v1.6.1.0

You had not responded in your email whether or not switching to the Vertical menu skin (i.e. the DNNTree) fixed your problem, thus isolating this to a solpart issue...  If you could try that it would help in narrowing down where your problem lies.


 
Previous
 
Next
HomeHomeOur CommunityOur CommunityGeneral Discuss...General Discuss...SolPart Menu Problem - Unusable by AdminsSolPart Menu Problem - Unusable by Admins


These Forums are dedicated to discussion of DNN Platform and Evoq Solutions.

For the benefit of the community and to protect the integrity of the ecosystem, please observe the following posting guidelines:

  1. No Advertising. This includes promotion of commercial and non-commercial products or services which are not directly related to DNN.
  2. No vendor trolling / poaching. If someone posts about a vendor issue, allow the vendor or other customers to respond. Any post that looks like trolling / poaching will be removed.
  3. Discussion or promotion of DNN Platform product releases under a different brand name are strictly prohibited.
  4. No Flaming or Trolling.
  5. No Profanity, Racism, or Prejudice.
  6. Site Moderators have the final word on approving / removing a thread or post or comment.
  7. English language posting only, please.
What is Liquid Content?
Find Out
What is Liquid Content?
Find Out
What is Liquid Content?
Find Out