Learning how to use Ektron CMS

Browsing through the Ektron manuals as well as watching all the videos on YouTube does help alot with the picking up of Ektron CMS.

Today I finally created a template page and registered it as a template in the EKTRON CMS. I am currently using it as a sandbox within which I test all the user controls that come along with the Ektron CMS.

It applied a templated to my page called test by first including it as an option in my Content Folder which holds my content object

I then assigned the template to my content object.

Thereafter I went to the command prompt and inserted the command IISRESET. This forced the Ektron CMS to clear off its cache and create a new one. Thus my changes are updated nicely.

Strangely, even though I haven’t programmed in C# for quite a few years already I could understand up to 80% of the syntax used. The main part that I found to be tedious at tackling was its convention. There is the aspx file, the aspx.cs file (if you are using C#)

within the aspx file itself there seem to be a few lines at the top registering some assemblies the source of which I have no idea where from.

As compared to typical open source technologies like PHP, this is mainly the downside of Proprietory technologies like ASP.net. PHP being open allows you to investigate through all the codes that were used in the implementation of a system. Try investigating the source of where a function came from in ASP.net and sooner or later you will hit a wall. The function was compiled and hidden within a DLL file of which location you have no idea where. Ouch!

Finally deploying my first Hello World Share point – Merry Christmas

It took me a 12 hours to setup a Windows 2003 VPC with sharepoint installed.

I was face with quite a few detours along the way.

One of the main issues I encoutered was the order in which I tried to install the pre-requisites.

Point to note : The  order in which you install the pre-requisites is VERY IMPORTANT.

This was the order I took that finally worked.

  1. Install Windows 2003 Server
  2. Install Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 2
  3. Install Application Server with IIS, ASP.net, Email Server
  4. Install ASP.NET framework Version 2.0
  5. Install ASP.NET framework Version 3.5
  6. Install Sharepoint

Please try out this order to avoid painfull time wasting detours

So with my sharepoint server finally up. I navigated to http://localhost:80/ using firefox

This translates into my computer at port 80.

I saw my sharepoint landing page.

Next, i thought to try my hands on deploying a ready made sharepoint webpart. To do this I went to amrein.com

This site has tonns of web parts available for download. Being an idiot for holiday seasons, I downloaded the Merry Christmas web part and followed the instructions there.

Eureka. It worked nicely! Haha.

Next thing I should do it perhaps to write my own. 😛