• DNN 5.6.2 Enterprise.
• Enterprise company environment.
• Multiple developers.
• All share 1 database for development (so it's important when a new developer sets up their computer for DNN that their installation does not make DB changes).
• Visual Studio 2010 (VS 2008 is also available)
• SQL Server Management Studio 2005
• Source Control: TFS (Team Foundation Server)
• We branch and version.

These posters recommend putting just the specific folders into source control:
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/F...
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Foru...

2. What are the pros/cons?

• It would be nice to have a fast check in, get latest, etc by only adding the specific folders for DesktopModules and Portals/Skins.
• Some of what I read suggests another benefit is different developers can be on different versions of DNN and that does not slow down the other developers by forcing them to upgrade before they can use the project again.
• However, since we share the 1 single database, I assume that forces us all be on the same version. Is this correct?

3. I assume that if the admin installs 5.6.2 on the server, then first developer installs 5.6.2 on their computer, then DNN will see that the DB is already installed, on the same version, and not change anything. However then what happens when later a second developer installs 5.6.3 on their computer, then DNN will see that the DB is already installed, but it's a different version, and change things, which could interfere with the first developer.

4. Anyone else use branching like this? Have an answer?
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/F...

Hi,

We have recently decided to do the same thing. 

• We created a solution with one Website which points to the DNN (6.1.1 ) website installation on our local machine. (example: e:\ Web-Root\DNN_Dev\) 
• Then we created different projects for different modules and put them in the DesktopModules folder. 
• We included these projects in our solution so in the end we had one website in our solution and several module projects. 
• Then we configured some of the module in the DNN website from our localhost, http://localhost/DNN_Dev/, so after these changes in our DNN website we had a few pages and some modules running.
• Then we put every thing in the solution in the TFS.
• We excluded some things from going into TFS; like we did not put the complete bin folder of the DNN website, we just put the DLL files in the bin folder which were not related to our modules.
• After doing all these steps, we downloaded this solution on another developer's machine at the same "e:\ Web-Root\DNN_Dev\" location.
• Then we configured the IIS to point to this solution folder with the same address, http://localhost/DNN_Dev 
• Now when we run the website on the second developer's machine, we see the same DNN website as we initially configured.

Now some other information: 

• We are using only one DNN database for all of our developers, there are 10 developers in out team right now.
• Each of the developer machine is connected to the same TFS solution, so all the developers have the same DNN website and the same modules. so every one see the same website interface, pages, modules etc.
• We are using VS 2010 for development purpose.
• We are using SQL Server 2008 
• The reason we want to have the complete DNN website in TFS is so that all the Images, Scripts, Skins etc are synced to every developer's machine. Also when we upgrade the DNN version in one machine and check in the code, all the developers' DNN websites should also be updated by getting the latest code.

Now we have tested with this configuration and every things seems to work except one problem. We configured a new module on the website on one developer's machine and when we tried to view it on another's , the module was not there. I assumed that DNN only keeps all these configurations in the DB and nothing is changes on the file system, so when ever we change any thing in the DB, it should be immediately reflected on the website, meaning, any website using that db should reflect the change.

When we tried to figure out the problem, we came across some articles which suggested that DNN maintains some cash for some core stuff like pages or modules etc. so we even tried to clear all the cashes from the second developer and first developer's machine, but nothing worked. The strangest thing was that the next day the module was visible and working on both developer's machines without any more changes.

Now I would like to know if any one knows what is happening here? If any one has some suggestion how we can do this or what should we do to sync the module and other configuration done in one machine to all other machines with out waiting for one day? Or any other suggestion or alternative

Regards

Mojeeb