Shadow Modules in DotNetNuke using SQL

DNN Creative Magazine is still in the land of SQL!

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, we have been responding to enquires from readers on how they can update DotNetNuke websites more efficiently.

So another tip we would like to share with you, that will save you lots of time, is how to use Shadow or copied modules.

Shadow or Copied modules can be used to update the same content on several pages from one central area. In issue 32 we demonstrate how to setup a shadow page which contains modules that are displayed on several pages across our Dot Net Nuke portal. From this one central shadow page we can administer the content of several modules at once.

We also show you how to use SQL queries to easily maintain these copied modules, including re-ordering the modules in a content pane across all pages in a DotNetNuke portal, updating the container of a module copied across several pages and how to update the container of a module based on the name of the current container the module is using.

If you were to try and manually update copied modules across a large DNN portal, it would more than likely take weeks of work. With the powerful SQL techniques shown in this tutorial you can apply the updates in seconds.

Here is a short list of what the tutorial covers:

Video 1 - Introduction, Shadow Modules, Add Existing Module
Video 2 - Copy Module to All Pages and Reordering Modules
Video 3 - SQL Queries to Update the Module Order in Content Panes
Video 4 - How to Update the Container for All Shadow / Copied Modules in a Portal Using SQL
Video 5 - Using SQL to Update a Module Container to a New Container Based on the Name of the Old Container

Learn SQL Queries in DotNetNuke to reduce administration time

So, it’s been a busy month on DNN Creative as we’ve stepped into the realms of SQL Queries.

We've had several enquiries from the readers asking if we know of any ways to speed up the process of updating their DotNetNuke websites without having to change each page one after another.

From our experience of re-skinning and updating already established websites, we found that with simple SQL queries you can quickly and efficiently update multiple elements from modules, pages, and skins to alter the look and layout of your site within seconds – which for some large DNN site updates would take months of work through manually administering the site.

If you are new to using SQL Queries and would like to learn more about this powerful administration tool, checkout issue 32 of DNN Creative magazine. The first tutorial is an Introduction to SQL Queries with SQL Server Express, DotNetNuke and Vista.

This tutorial is especially helpful if you are using windows vista, as setting up SQL Server Express isn’t as straight forward as you would think. We show you how to install and configure SQL Server, and then start you off with simple queries so you can get well on the way to improving your site.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what this tutorial covers:

Video 1 - How to Attach a DotNetNuke Database to SQL Server Express using Windows Vista
Video 2 - How to Create a User Account and set up Permissions
Video 3 - How to Edit the Web.config Connection String
Video 4 - How to Create a SQL Query, How to Connect to a Live Database

11 DotNetNuke Video Tutorials - Powerful Efficient Techniques for DotNetNuke Administration using SQL

DNN Creative have released issue 32 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This very special issue of DNN Creative Magazine is dedicated to improving the efficiency of your administration time with DotNetNuke.

In this issue we focus on using SQL queries to automate some of the repetitive tasks that you have to carry out as an administrator on a DotNetNuke portal.

These are very powerful techniques which for large Dot Net Nuke websites can reduce a week of work into seconds.

If you are new to SQL you can follow each of these tutorials through step by step. We provide a quick start guide to using SQL queries with SQL Server Express. We also show you how to set up SQL Server Management Studio Express using Windows Vista so that you can execute a basic query on both a localhost and live DotNetNuke database.

Following this we demonstrate using SQL queries for working with DotNetNuke security roles and users, focusing on exporting registered users to Excel and removing users from a security role based on their email address.

To finish we demonstrate working with shadow / copied modules. This is an essential and powerful administration task that can enhance your DNN portals and reduce administration time. Shadow or Copied modules can be used to update the same content on several pages from one central area. We demonstrate how you can use SQL queries to easily maintain these copied modules.

The SQL techniques outlined in this tutorial are very powerful techniques for easily and quickly manipulating multiple copied modules across thousands of pages in a DotNetNuke portal and are particularly useful if you are re-skinning an already established site.