Newbie Question About Skins

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2/8/2012 9:36:34 PM
techDog
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Newbie Question About Skins

Ok... so it has been a few years since I have worked on web apps, so this is probably something really simple and I'm going to feel like a dolt if anyone bothers to give me the answer...

I followed instructions for creating a custom mojoPortal solution, and it does compile and run (wheee!)... but it is not using skins!

When I attempt to select a skin from the Admin module, it saves the selection into the mp_sites table... but blows the following error:

"Parser Error Message: Could not load file or assembly 'mojoPortal.Features.UI' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Source Error:

Line 2: <%@ Register Namespace="mojoPortal.Web.Controls" Assembly="mojoPortal.Web.Controls" TagPrefix="mp" %>Line 3: <%@ Register Namespace="mojoPortal.Web.ContentUI" Assembly="mojoPortal.Web" TagPrefix="html" %>Line 4: <%@ Register Namespace="mojoPortal.Web.BlogUI" Assembly="mojoPortal.Features.UI" TagPrefix="blog" %> Line 5: <%@ Register Namespace="mojoPortal.Web.ForumUI" Assembly="mojoPortal.Features.UI" TagPrefix="forum" %>Line 6: <%@ Register Namespace="mojoPortal.Web.FeedUI" Assembly="mojoPortal.Features.UI" TagPrefix="feed" %>

Source File: /App_Themes/default1artisteer31-alphamotors/theme.skin    Line: 4"

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

 

 

2/9/2012 9:48:22 AM
Jamie E
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

It sounds like you are running in medium trust under .NET 3.5. If that's the case, because of limitations in .NET 3.5, you'll need to copy the theme.skin from your skin to the App_Themes/Default folder, as documented in Running in Medium Trust.

We're recommending that people really try to upgrade to .NET 4.0 soon. When .NET 4.5 is released later this year mojoPortal will no longer support .NET 3.5.

Jamie

2/9/2012 9:57:25 AM
Joe Audette
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

I followed instructions for creating a custom mojoPortal solution

Which instructions?

Which .sln file did you use? If you only used mojoportal-core.sln then none of the mojoPortal.Features are compiled, so you would need to remove some things from the theme.skin files that reference features, or start over using the mojoportal.sln which has all the features and rebuild the full solution before running it.

Hope that helps,

Joe

2/9/2012 3:35:45 PM
techDog
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Thank you for your replies. 

 

With regard to the trust issue, I am running Visual Studio 2010 sp1, with .NET 4.0 and my "{solutionName}\Web\App_Themes\default" folder already contains theme.css and theme.skin.

The instructions I followed were those found in the "README.VisualStudio.txt" document I pulled down with the source, as well as a set of articles posted on the net by Carole Bennett, "Creating a Custom MojoPortal Solution" (parts 1-4).

After pulling down the source code, I copied and renamed mojoportal.sln as my custom solution, and set mojoPortal.Web as the start up project.  Then I compiled the entire project and, on first run, the setup ran successfully.  When I browse mojoPortal.Web.Default.aspx, the site comes up without skins.  If I login and select any skin, the reported error is produced.

Prior to pulling down the source and creating a custom mojoPortal solution, I successfully configured the sample mojoPortal website... which uses WebMatrix;  and it performed as expected, with skins.

Could that prior configuration be problematic?

Thanks, in advance

2/9/2012 4:03:15 PM
Joe Audette
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Then I compiled the entire project

That doesn't sound right, there are multiple projects in the solution so you need to choose Rebuild Solution from the build menu in VS.

Hope that helps,

Joe

2/9/2012 4:32:22 PM
techDog
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Sorry, Joe, for the confusion.  I use the term "compile" and "build" interchangably... the bottom line is that, yes, I did build the entire solution (Ctrl-Shift-B).

I am using Windows XP sp3 with VS 2010 sp1... which should be fine.  But, because I REALLY want to see this working right, I'm thinking of doing the whole thing over on a Windows 7 Ultimate box.

2/9/2012 4:35:34 PM
Joe Audette
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Does the project mojoPortal.Features.UI exist in your solution?

If you removed it that would explain it.

2/9/2012 4:46:57 PM
techDog
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Yes, the solution has the following projects:

mojoPortal.Business

mojoPortal.Business.WebHelpers

mojoPortal.Data.MSSQL

mojoPortal.Data.SqlCe

mojoPortal.Features.Business

mojoPortal.Features.Data.MSSQL

mojoPortal.Features.Data.SqlCe

mojoPortal.Features.UI

mojoPortal.Net

mojoPortal.Web

mojoPortal.Web.Controls

mojoPortal.Web.Editor

mojoPortal.Web.Framework

WebStore.Business

WebStore.Data.MSSQL

WebStore.UI

 

 

 

2/9/2012 4:59:51 PM
Joe Audette
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

The post build event on the mojoPortal.Features.UI project should be copying the mojoPortal.Features.UI.dll, mojoPortal.Features.Business.dll, and mojoPortal.Features.Data.dll files to the Web/bin folder.

Is that happening, do the files exist there? If not you may want to look at the post build event in the project properties for mojoPortal.Features.UI.

The build profile may also be a factor, we have differnet build profiles for each of the supported data layers that appear in the dropdown in VS, ie Debug and Release are for SQL Server and Debug - SqlCe and Release - SqlCe are for SQL CE, but I'm not sure if those could have become hosed up when you removed the projects for the other databases.

Please also tell me how you obtained the source code, the supported way is with TortoiseHG, other ways such as the download  links on the source code tab at codeplex often produce weird results. Unfortunately I can't do anything to remove those download links on codeplex.

Hope that helps,

Joe

2/9/2012 6:46:44 PM
techDog
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Ok... I found the problem.  (keep in mind that I said, up-front, that it had been awhile since I delved into Web development.)

When I created my custom solution, I started with an initial SLN file outside of the solution folder... for example, "MySolutionName" folder contained the "MySolution.sln" file, and all other assets were in a sub-directory, "MyMojoSolution", which was under "MySolutionName".

So, when I copied the mojoPortal source, I put it into "MyMojoSolution".  Then I moved "mojoPortal.sln" into the parent directory, renamed it to "MySolution.sln", and opened it in a text editor to modify the paths accordingly.

Doh! 

All I had to do to fix it (obviously) was to delete my customized solution file, copy the original mojoPortal.sln file back into the proper directory, and rename it.  Everything looks and behaves as it should now.

Sorry for all of the confusion and wasting your time!  I will definitely buy you a beer... in fact, if I can get this customized and looking the way my wife wants it, I'll support the project!!

Regards

Bryan

2/10/2012 6:55:11 AM
Joe Audette
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Re: Newbie Question About Skins

Hi Bryan,

Glad its working for you. Many thanks for the beer! Much appreciated.

Cheers,

Joe

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