This past weekend, while attending WAM2010, I noticed a couple of projects where Sitefinity was using an intimidating project name.  These project names are visible on Sitefinity’s login screen, as well as inside Sitefinity’s Admin. 

When the project name is too long, it can cause minor display problems:

Project Names are configured in the web.config file (this file sits in the root of your Sitefinity web site).

1.  Use Visual Studio (or another text editor) to open the ~/web.config file

2.  Search for the “<cms” section in this file

3.  Modify the projectName property of this section.  If missing, the projectName property can be added.

<cms defaultProvider="Sitefinity" pageExtension=".aspx" siteTemplate="" disabled="false" pageEditorUIMode="Overlay" projectName="SitefinityWatch">

4.  Now refresh Sitefinity’s Admin in your browser.

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS can be downloaded as an executable installer or a blank project ZIP file.  The executable version of Sitefinity comes with a web-based Project Manager as well as 8 design templates.  The ZIP file, on the other hand, includes only a bare-bones Sitefinity web site.

Because of the permissions required by the Project Manager, the executable version of Sitefinity can be tricky to get running on consumer-versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7).  To avoid these permission issues I often use the Blank Project ZIP file to start a new Sitefinity project.  The Sitefinity Blank Project can be opened in Visual Studio and development can begin immediately. 

The problem is that the Blank Project is missing the design templates that come with the executable installer version of Sitefinity.  Thankfully there is a work-around to this that allows Sitefinity design templates to be used with the Blank Project.

Watch the ...

I’m happy to announce that Sitefinity Community Edition is now available in the Windows Web App Gallery.  Sitefinity Community Edition is a free version of Telerik’s popular Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS and is perfect for personal & small web sites (see features).

All applications in the Web App Gallery can be installed using the Web Platform Installer.  This is a free tool that makes it easy to download & install popular applications available for the Microsoft Web Platform. 

Below is a video and instructions that demonstrate how to install Sitefinity CE using the Web Platform Installer.

Watch the original video at telerik.tv.

Download the Web Platform Installer and Sitefinity CE

1.  Visit Sitefinity Community Edition in the Web App Gallery

2.  Click the Install button – you will be prompted to install the Web Platform Installer

3.  After the Web Platform Installer is installed, Sitefinity CE details ...

If you’re evaluating Sitefinity or doing development with Sitefinity, you’ll probably be interested in installing Sitefinity on your local machine.  Because Sitefinity is intended to be a server product, installing on an non-server computer can be challenging.

This video & blog is designed to be a bullet proof guide to installing Sitefinity on Windows Vista and/or Windows 7.  If you’re running Windows XP, you’ll find the Sitefinity install to be less challenging because XP uses IIS6 and the OS security isn’t as limiting.

Note: You aren’t required to run the Sitefinity install.  Sitefinity is also distributed via a blank project zip file.  This empty Sitefinity project can be opened in Visual Studio and does not require IIS.

Installation Steps

1. Install Internet Information Services (IIS7)
2. Configure Default Web Site & Classic .NET AppPool
3. Install Microsoft SQL Server Express
4. Install Sitefinity “As Administrator”
5. Configure Sitefinity Application in IIS Manager
6. Open ...

This past weekend I decided to install Windows 7 Beta…which means I’ve been reinstalling everything on my machine.  This rebuilding process forced me to install Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS on a brand new computer.

I thought I knew the Sitefinity installation very well.  However, I missed a step and spent too much time blaming Windows 7 for the Virtual Directory creation error I was getting.  These led me to the Sitefinity forums and threads centered around this error.  In the end, the installation steps for Windows 7 were identical to Windows Vista.

This blog post contains nothing that hasn’t already covered elsewhere.  However, I’m writing this blog post for Google to index these error messages and provide help to anyone Googling these error messages.

Installation: Error Creating Virtual Directory

Error creating virtual directory telerik.  Exception details: Unknown error (0x80005000)
Error creating virtual directoriy telerik.  Exception details: Unknown error (0x80005000)

Error creating ...

I upgraded to IE8 and discovered I could no longer create web sites in Sitefinity's web-based Project Manager.  Each time I attempted to create a new web site, I received the following error:

The account, you have authenticated with, has no permissions to create virtual directories. Please make sure that windows authentication is enabled.

Previously, (prior to IE8), this error could be fixed by right-clicking the IE icon and clicking "Run as Administrator" (see blog post).  However, since my upgrade to IE8 this fix no longer worked.  Instead I received a username/password dialog window:

I tried logging in using my local username, but continued to receive the permissions error.

Workaround: Permission Error in Sitefinity's Project Manager

I'm not sure what is causing this problem.  I suspect IE8 has new security features that prevent the browser from auto-applying Windows Authentication to the Administrator account.  I tried ...

My local development machine is littered with 100+ Sitefinity web sites.  In order to test & explore new features I'm constantly creating yet another Sitefinity web site. 

In my case, I don't use the site templates or project manager.  Instead, I want something bare-bones and basic that I can play with and customize.

In this blog post I'll detail the installation procedure I use to make this happen.

My Approach to Creating a New Sitefinity Web Site

I use Blank Project for most of my Sitefinity installations.  Go to the Downloads section of Sitefinity and download the BlankProject.zip.

Blank Project is a zip file that contains a bare-bones Sitefinity web site.  There is no project manager and the themes are not included.  You'll start with an empty Sitefinity web site.

Unzip these files into a folder of your choosing:

Load Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer by right-clicking ...

In the past couple of weeks, the Sitefinity Team and myself have noticed frustration from people trying to install Sitefinity for the first time.  You only get one chance to make a first impression and, it seems, Sitefinity is sometimes tripping down the stairs.

The team is exploring ways to make Sitefinity installation easier.   While that is being done, I decided to explore this topic a bit.

First the Basics

At a basic level, Sitefinity is just an ASP.NET web site.  It requires IIS and the appropriate .NET framework.  In addition, Sitefinity requires a database to store its stuff. 

• Web Server (IIS)
• .NET Framework
• Database server

The Installation Guide contains the official system requirements.  To keep your initial setup as simple as possible, use SQL Express for the database.

Sadly, there is a ton of complexity to this and most of it is separate from Sitefinity. This setup involves ...

When you install a fresh copy of Sitefinity you're presented with a few database choices:

One of these options is SqlExpress. SQL Express is a free scaled-down version of Microsoft's SQL Server. For many small to medium web sites, SQL express will be sufficient for the web site's database needs. However, it's good to be aware of the limitations.

When you select SqlExpress during the Sitefinity installation a database file will be created in your web site's ~/App_Data folder:

This is really easy to setup and no additional setups are needed. Sitefinity attaches the database file during startup and your web site is now ready to go.

However, when Sitefinity is running, this database file is locked. This will limit your ability to interact with the database outside of Sitefinity. Exporting or browsing data, for example, will require you to shut-down the web server.

The good news is ...