Starter kits updated to work with Win2K3, VS.NET 03?

Hi,


  I downloaded the communities starter kit (VB VS), from this website and intalled it.  When I first tried to use the application, it balked with a SQL Server error.  As I had found with database access in other ASP.NET apps, the problem was that Win2K3 uses NETWORK SERVICE, where other OS versions use ASPNET.  I added a new user to the DB to reflect this, and was able to get CSK to work.


  I was interested to see what the solution looked like in VS (I'm using VS.NET 03), and found the folder to open the project.  When VS openned it, it said it needed to convert it to the later version - which I allowed it to do.  Most of the aspx pages I looked at so far, have a .vb with the code, but nothing to show in the design grid view.  That kinda misses the point of VISUAL Studio, doesn't it.  Personally, I only get into the code where and when I have to.  No offense, to those that love code (and understand it much better than I).  I think the starter kits would be more useful as learning tools, if they provided more control layout examples.


The question is: Will these starter kits be updated to work with Win2K3, and VS.NET 03?


  At least the information given about the starter kits should be updated.  The idea of having these starter kits as a way to learn about putting together useful apps using ASP.NET is great; but they ought to work with common configurations.  With 05 versions of everything around the corner, is this too much to ask?


Thanks.

0 Brian27 3/18/2005 3:58:52 AM

There is no difference in the way the csk shows in Studio 2002 or Studio 2003. The Community starter kit has very few pages and the few pages that do exist have very little visual elements inside. The page content is rendered and added tot the pages dynamically by code. In the skin directories there are quiet a few user controls the are much more visible.


When a person visits a csk website. The page checks the requested url and than inserts all the propper user controls into the page. That's why the csk is so powerfull, almost no pages but completely dynamic generated through code.

0 StievieD 3/18/2005 6:42:19 AM

Thanks for the info.  If there's no difference in VS 02/03 handeling, do you know why VS 03 needs to convert the project?  Is it that standard - having any projects created in VS 02 needing to be converted to be useable in VS 03?  I haven't used earleir versions of VS.  Was there a change in the file structure of projects between 20 and 03?


BTW, I D/Led the Time Tracker starter kit, and installed it.  I noticed that the install was a little different than with CSK.  Notably, CSK had a screen that asked if I wanted to create a new DB or use an existing one.  As I had to add a user to the CSK DB to get it to work with Win2k3, I figured I'd save myself the bother and create a db ahead of time for the TTSK.  But, no opertunity to use it.  There was a screen that had a test connection on it; which failed for local (or loaclhost, I forgot).  I saw another option in the dropdown list for:


\MICROSOFTBCM


I tried that, and the connection tested Ok.  The TTSK installed Ok too.  Do you happen to know what the \MICROSOFTBCM user represents?  This is a one box development system and the DB the TTSK created is in the normalSQL Server sub folder.


Thanks again for the info.

0 Brian27 3/18/2005 5:51:45 PM

The solution (.sln) and project (.vbproj or .csproj) files are a littlebit different from VS 2002 and 2003. Once converted to 2003 you can't reverted back to 2002 again (there exists a tool to revert the process but it's not an official MS tool I think). The exact difference between the 2 versions I don't know. There is no difference in the code (.aspx, .vb or.cs) files.


I don't have any experince with the TTST, only with the CSK. I do know that all starter kits are developed by different people in order of MS, so they don't have the same setup method, they also differ in code strategy. They are only offered 'as is' examples by Microsoft, you can do whatever you want with them but there is no official support.


The starter kits were picked up by many developers. Some starter kits even started a new life as open source projects. The portal starter kit was the base for DotNetNuke (DNN) and Rainbow Portal, the community starter kit was used as a base for GotCommunityNet (GCN). These new projects started as bug fixes but they al began there only life and now have much more functionality than the original starter kits.


Hope this info helped.

0 StievieD 3/18/2005 6:12:13 PM

Hi,


 The info is helpful - thanks again.

0 Brian27 3/18/2005 7:08:16 PM