11 DotNetNuke Video Tutorials - Professional DotNetNuke Administration using SQL (Part 2)

DNN Creative have released issue 33 of the DotNetNuke Magazine.

This month we are dedicating another full issue of DNN Creative Magazine to improving the efficiency of your administration time with DotNetNuke using SQL queries.

The SQL methods we show you in this issue are very powerful techniques which will reduce weeks of work into seconds. The tutorials are especially useful if you are re-skinning a large DNN installation.

To start with we show you how to update the Page Settings of a page using SQL queries.

We demonstrate how to use SQL queries to delete a group of modules from a page, move modules between content panes and insert a copy of a module to a page. Manually moving, deleting and inserting modules when re-skinning your DotNetNuke installation can take up to 10 minutes per page, for a 500 page website this would take 5000 minutes. Using SQL queries will allow you to apply changes across your entire site within seconds.

We then take a look at the DotNetNuke SQL Module. This module comes free with Dot Net Nuke and is only available to the host user on your DotNetNuke installation. Although we thoroughly recommend you use SQL Server Express to build and check your queries, this module is very useful if you already have a good understanding of SQL queries.

Finally, we show you how to work with Skins and Containers in DNN using SQL queries. In the previous tutorials we demonstrated how to change a container on a single page, in this tutorial we show you how to change the container for a copied module that is displayed on several or all pages, how to change the container of a module to a new container based on the name of the old container, and how to change the skin of a page to a new skin based on the name of the old skin.

Using the techniques outlined in this issue will literally save you weeks of work.

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