Setup And Getting Started Forum

Common issues getting the project running
RE: Common issues getting the project running

 
Here is the readme.txt from the download. Let me know what is missing from here that would be helpful.


MVC CMS Content Management System
1. Requirements
2. Setup
3. Getting Started
4. License
 

1.  Requirements - The source can either be had at mvccms.codeplex.com or at www.mvccms.com/developers/downloads ~ must register to view this page
 A. You will need either IIS 6 or IIS 7 with at least MVC RC1 from Microsft Installed. You can also run the application using Visual Web Developer using the built in webserver in it for evaluation purposes.
2.  Setup
 A. There are three versions of the database in the full download. One is the mdf/ldf pair which can be attached to a SQL 2008 server. The other is a backup which can be restored to a SQL 2008 server. You may be able to restore these to a 2005 server but not necessarily. The last is a sql script which has all the database objects and the basic data scripted. The basic data is a home category with a category id of 1 which is required. Also the application is set up around five asp membership roles, admin, editor, contributor, user, and guest. The home category also needs a content page associated with it marked as ispublished version to get the cms editor to work. Also the site depends on having a user named anonymous that is used to work with anonymous comments.
 B. There are two connection strings in the web.config. You will need to set the userid password and database name to what you have configured.
 C. The site will need the network network service account (iis7) or the asp.net user account to have access to at least the web.config and the windowslivewriter folder. The site is setup to allow file and picture upload without ftp with windows live writer so it will need access.
 D. The site needs write permissions to the web.config file because you will see when logged in as editor and you are on the category configuration pages each time a category as is added, or removed you will need to click the reset application link to rebuild the routes in the site. This is what allows you to have full control over the url's built in the site. Also if you want to edit the stylesheet the account will need write permission to site.css also.

3. Getting Started -
 A. If you are running the project in Visual Studio the project is setup to use localhost:4342 and the database is preconfigured with a portal with that url assigned to it. If for some reason you need to use a different url BEFORE YOU LOAD THE PROJECT use the DBBackup\SetFirstPortalURL.sql file to set this initial portal to the localhost or domain name you wish to use. If you do not set this corectly before starting the site you will need to restart the webserver because this value is cached. Also if your version of SQL server does not support full text you will need to uncheck the setting for the portal from UseFullText.
 B.  At this point you can navigate to the homepage and then log in as admin, editor, contributor, or contributor2 all with password of 7777777. Admin has rights to users and roles. The editor role has access to the cms manager and is able to manage the site categories. Contributors are allowed access to pages assigned to them. If you like you can also create a super user that has all roles.
 C.  To change the look and stle of the site the main two files you will work with are /shared/site.master and content/site.css. site.master can be rearranged as desired but to avoid changing server code you must leave all the tags marked runat=server, although you may change their position.
 D.  You can also connect to the site with Windows Live Writer as editor or contributor and modify any page the account has rights to. Directions for doing this are at http://www.mvccms.com/cms/wysiwyg-editor and you may try this out on the sandbox site already setup at mvccms.net.
 E. There are tool tips on the cms managment page that give you some basic instructions. The urls are built from the category names and the page names. The application will alert you if you try to create a category or page with a name that has already been registered in the paths view as this would spoil the routes. Also take care before naming a page or especially a category because although you may change the name after creating the url slug route generated will not change after it is created. The name of pages and categories are used both to make the url slug route and to name the page for the browser title bar and to appear in search results.
 F. Enjoy! If you have any questions, would like customization or if the application helps you out you could always contribute, just send an email to info@mvccms.com.
1 years 6 days ago by jon

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