DNN / WebMatrix / Localhost / Multiple Sites - dotnetnuke

It seems that DNN is undergoing an upgrade and I cannot access the forums or many of the docs. Needing an answer soon, and Google providing too many varied types of hits (none of which are helpful or most of which post to the DNN site that is undergoing that upgrade), I had a few questions about setting up DNN.
First, I am coming from Orchard. There I was able to use Webmatrix - I downloaded the web version, opened as administrator, created modules, messed with themes, etc. Using the Orchard Docs, I was able to set up a multi-tenant site and run it on local host (IIS express through Webmatrix) - this included modifying the host/config files to view the multi-tenant sites. I could then publish to my own server running IIS 7. On the server I set up the landlord site then bound the tenants with no problem.
Being new to DNN (and things not being readily available at the moment on their site), I was hoping I could get some guidance on how to set up DNN similar to what I did with Orchard.
First question is obviously whether or not that is possible (i.e., no IIS, only IIS Express (Webmatrix) on my local machine).
Here would be my other questions:
If I can run it locally, can I just download the 7.1.0 new install package, and open Webmatrix (as Admin) on the folder I unzipped it in?
Assuming I just "Run" the website, I will then set up the "Landlord" instance of DNN on the following screens, correct? (i.e., where it asks for credentials and what DB setup I can use)
Can I then go ahead and create sub-tenant sites (alias/portal)? If so, do I go about manually updating my host/config files to run those tenants (depending on the port)?
Assume all of the above is correct, do I have to "reinstall" the 7.1.0 package on my webserver, or will a simple publish from Webmatrix do (with the proper credentials in Settings)? If so, I can handle pointing to the landlord on my server and then binding my subtenants in IIS.
Sorry for the n00b questions. Thanks!

On the Download page on dnnsoftware.com, there's a link to click which will start the install process within WebMatrix: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appsxml=www.microsoft.com%2fweb%2fwebpi%2f2.0%2fWebApplicationList.xml&appid=106
When you create a new portal, you can specify that it uses a URL which is a subdirectory of the current URL (i.e. a child portal alias), so that you don't have to use different ports. I'm not especially familiar with IIS Express, so I would expect that you could point multiple ports to the site, and map those as different portal aliases, but not sure exactly how you could do that, if you don't want to make use of child portal aliases.
To publish a site, you should just need to push the file system and database, and setup IIS.

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I have a website that is currently running under GAE... unfortunately, I, nor anyone on the team, does not have access the local environment that it was created from.... Is it possible to create a local environment or at least get a copy of the application files and database from an existing GAE installation?
What you need is the application source code, not the "local environment".
Ideally this source code would be on a version control system (ie GIT,SVN), Google cloud platform provides free GIT repositories for your projects so you might try looking there first. There's also a tool for both Java and python that allow you to download the source of a deployed version, provided you are authenticated as either the dev who uploaded it or a project owner. EDIT: as stated by Dan Cornilescu this feature can be disabled.
As for the database info there's plenty of tools available to "export" your GAE datastore info, just consider for your project that it might be easier to do the queries manually than actually implementing this tools.
Thanks for help... But unfortunately, this code is not in GIT. Furthermore,
being new to Google hosting, I wasn't clear on my setup... My web instance is actually running within Compute Engine not Application Engine. Be that as it may, with some additional search, I was first able to find out how to browse my filesystem by accessing the VM Instances menu option under the Compute Engine section of the Google Cloud Platform interface. On the VM Instances page, it will show your instance and an option to the left side of the instance to connect with a drop down box that will allow you to open a browser window that shows the instance's file system. In addition to this, I found this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssfE6ODpak that shows how to configure Filezila FTP client to access your server instance - very helpful. From there, I was able to download all of my site files from the var/www directory. Now, onto extracting my data... Thanks again!

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I encountered a weird scenario. I have created an MVC2 Application and deployed it to IIS7, to 2 web sites (Default Web Site and another manually created "Test Web Site" ... they are using different application pools targeting v2.0). I am using SQL 2008 R2 Filestream feature to store files.
The problem I have is that I have a feature where the user browsing the site can download a document. The document is created in the server and the server then streams that to the client. The problem is, Default Web Site asks for authentication when user tries to download.
This doesn't happen for Test Web Site and it downloads fine.
Now, I do not have a clue what setting I need to change? The only different things I recall is that I manually created Test Web Site compared to just reusing the Default Web Site and also that I allowed inbound connections to Test Web Site (it was on port 8080).
What are the configurations needed to change so that user can download files from Default Web Site without going through authentication?
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Turns out it was conflicting with the SQL Server Reports Manager.
Found this out from here: source

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(generator: https://github.com/DaftMonk/generator-angular-fullstack)
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No, it is not needed to create 2 different hosts for the server.
The server needs to point to app.js, usually located at server/app.js, as this is the entry point (instead of index.html) of your app. How this is done depends solely on the server you intend on using.
If you consider using IIS you can take a look at: Installing and Running node.js applications within IIS on Windows
As for the other deployment options, as laggingreflex said, "Heroku is the popular choice to host node.js projects". The angular-fullstack git site has more information on deploying to Heroku or Openshift.
As a side note:
Deploying to IIS requires a bit more attention than the information in the link specified. You need to set file access, create a web.config file as well as a few other stuff. At least, I had to...
You'll need a host that supports MongoDB assuming you kept the Database the same after generating your application. Heroku is a great option as it allows you to setup up plugins like mongolab or mongohq fairly easily. I would also recommend looking into Digital Ocean as they allow you to set up a droplet/server that has what you need for the application to run.
If you go with Digital Ocean and are a student check out https://education.github.com/pack. You'll actually receive $100 credit towards a new Digital Ocean account which will let you test things out.
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I started working on an existing website that uses DNN. I am having difficulty understanding and accessing DNN in their staging/test environment. In IIS there are a few different websites. How can I figure out how to get to the main Admin DNN screen by looking at the information in IIS and exploring to files. Once there I need to apply new licenses for DNN.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
In IIS, right click on the website and choose the Manage Bindings option, that will show you the various Host Names (URLS) that are configured.
Try those URLs, and then put ?CTL=login on the end of the URL to get DNN to load the login control. From there you can login with a HOST or ADMIN account, HOST/SuperUser account would be best, as you can then go to the Host/Portals (Site Management?) page and see how many different "sites" are configured within the DNN installation.

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we are working on a WPF application which we want to publish as a click once smart client application.
We are able to publish the application on local machine using Visual Studio 2012 and configured it in IIS.
Now we want to upload the published smart client installer to windows Azure Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8. We cannot upload the locally published components as the URL configuration in the manifest and deployment file is that of local server. We tried to edit the entries using text editor but once we do the editing the files become unused and it shows xml parsing error when we try to install from the location.
we tried to publish the application direct to the Virtual Machine but it shows an error as Front Page Extension is needed in IIS. We tried to find Front Page extension but couldn't find an version for IIS 8 in Windows Server 2012.
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The problem you are having has nothing to do with Azure per se.
In the first case (of editing the XML files), you can do that but it's best to use MageUI to do the edit, because you can then re-sign the manifests. If you just edit the files, it messes up the security on them, and they will not work (as you have found). If you want to edit them with a text editor, you can do that, but then you must re-sign them (using mage); you can create a script to change the installation URL.
Or you can use MageUI. You need to do it in this order:
Open the application manifest in the versioned folder and then save it, re-signing it with your signing certificate.
Open the deployment manifest (yourapp.application) in the top deployment folder. Change the Start Folder to be the right Installation URL. Go to the "Application Reference" tab and re-select the application manifest in the versioned folder. (I know, it hasn't changed, but trust me, you have to do this.) Save this manifest and sign it with your signing certificate.
Copy the deployment manifest from the top folder to the versioned folder. It's always good to keep a copy, so you can go backwards a version if you need to.
NOW you can copy the files to your VM and they will work fine.
In the second case, the Front Page Extensions are required if you are using HTTP to publish the application, yet they are no longer available past about Windows Server 2008(?). So don't use HTTP. Use FTP. Set the publish file location using FTP, like ftp://myserver.mycompany.com/myfolder and set the Installation URL to the HTTP equivalent of it. Then publish it. It will put the files on your VM (assuming FTP is enabled on both sides), and the HTTP link should work.
By the way, you can also host your deployment in Azure blob storage. It is dirt cheap, and you can use something like Cerebrata Cloud Storage Studio or even write your own code to publish it (which I did). This article explains how to put the files out there, what the MIME types need to be, etc. If you do this, then it will work even if you need to replace your VM or redeploy it or the VM becomes unavailable for some reason.
here is a reference to Avkash Chauhan's blog post explaining in detail How to deploy ClickOnce Application using Windows Azure Storage in very simple steps?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2011/05/09/how-to-deploy-clickonce-application-using-windows-azure-storage-in-very-simple-steps.aspx
He also gives an code example of a windows form (using Wpf) that he shows how to deploy on azure using one click deployment.
hope this helps

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