I am upgrading (recompiling) previous custom modules in VS2K5 referencing the latest DotNetNuke.dll. There are nearly 20 modules that I'm doing this too and most of them reference only DotNetNuke.dll and no issues, or only minor issues, have come up. Some modules reference other assemblies such as DotNetNuke.WebControls.dll and DotNetNuke.WebUtility.dll.
Upgrading all of these modules has gone smothly except for those modules that referenced DotNetNuke.Modules.Html.dll and DotNetNuke.Modules.Links.dll; because there is no way to reference the new assemblies because they no longer exist.
I guess I don't fully understand the difference between WSP modules and WAP projects; but i'm pretty sure that you can still pre-compile assemblies for distribution even in the free visual web developer.
I'm familiar with Michael's totorials and have been developing heavily with DotNetNuke for over a year now. I suppose that I could just load up the Text/HTML project and compile a .dll myself, but I'm hesitant to do so because I first want to understand why these modules are no longer distributed with compiled assemblies.
You can compile assembiles even with files written in notepad, the compilation tools distributed with the .NET SDK are the same ones that visual studio uses; I don't see the connection between modules distributed with precompiled asseblies or modules distributed with code to be compile at runtime - and which development tools are used to create them.
Perhaps you can direct me to a resource that discusses the difference between WSP modules and WAP projects specifically so that I can become a little more informed on what I'm dealing with and how it will effect the way I decide to move forward with my upgrade of these custom modules from DNN3 to DNN4.
Thanks very much for your help,
Matt Christenson