Hi Ultima Forums,  

My name is Mark (aka NonStopMark) and I have just registered with this forum.

 
I have just set-up my ULTIMA host starter package.

I have spent the last 2 years learning enough about HTML, JavaScript and NetObjects Fusion to put my own Websites together and get on the first (or second) rung of the ladder with a Web presence.

 
This is my Website :
http://www.mawhitfield.com

I have also developed a Golf Website for the Golf Course where I am a member :

 
http://www.worsleypark.info

All this is well and good but I have spent 16 years in IT programming HP NonStop Mainframes (formerly Tandem Computers) and have little development knowledge on Windows platforms. Tandem Computers are marketed as Fault Tolerant, NonStop hence my UserName. I set-up my ultima package to get me into the third millenium with a vengeance and then some. Here is my IT Experience to date :

My IT Experience
http://www.mawhitfield.com/html/resume.html

I live in Egerton in the NorthWest of England (UK) and intend to spend the next few weeks (months) going through the various books to learn more about ASP.NET and Dynamic Web Development. I will be trying to deploy the personal website offered by microsoft in their starter package this weekend.

Any help from members of the forum in helping me achieve my aim will be greatly appreciated.

My Details :
http://www.mawhitfield.com

http://www.worsleypark.info

http://www.mawhitfield.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/worsleypark/

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

---

My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

Hi Mark,

Welcome aboard. I'm sure you will get plenty of support on the forums. Which starter kit were you going to work with?

Cheers,

Mark 

---

System Administrator

Hi Mark...

Tomorrow, I am looking to build and deploy the Microsoft Personal Web Site Starter kit (see link)... 

http://www.asp.net/downloads/starterkits/PersonalSite.aspx?tabid=62 

I am using MS Web Site Developer Express and SQL 2005 Express to achieve this. Have you had any users try this already or something very similar? Apparently it has 2 databases though only 3 or 4 tables. I suspect questions about this Starter Kit will start to come in thick and fast as your starter hosting package is very competitively priced and this Starter Kit approach seems a good place to start according to the www.asp.net site (which is where I got your recommendation from). 

Do I need to do any conversion to deploy an SQL 2005 Express database to your server? It will be deployed using the inbuilt copy function of the MS Visual Web Developer Express software..

Thanks in advance... 

Regards 

MARK.

http://www.mawhitfield.com
http://www.worsleypark.info
http://www.mawhitfield.co.uk
http://www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

 

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My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

Hi Mark,

I'm glad to see you're getting your hands dirty and jumping in with ASP.NET!

SQL 2005 Express is a great database engine for local development but isn't ideal for a real live hosting environment. This is why we offer the full-blown SQL Server 2005 with all of our plans so you can benefit from the greater performance and manageability.

We have a knowledge base article that talks you through the main steps of taking a local SQL Express database and importing it in to our SQL Server where you can then access it simply by changing your connection string in web.config. You can find the article at https://www.ultimasupport.net/Customer/KBArticle.aspx?articleid=23 and details on setting up the correct connection string at https://www.ultimasupport.net/Customer/KBArticle.aspx?articleid=8&KBSearchID=456.

Also, you may not have spotted this yet in your control panel, but we have a number of ready-to-install application to make your life a little easier. Once you've logged in, click "Application Installer" from the menu on the left hand side and you'll find a wide range of application that you can install to your website. You'll also find the Personal Web Site starter kit in here which can be installed (complete with a new fresh database) in a matter of a few clicks.

I hope this is enough to get you going but if you have any questions you know where we are!

Kind regards,

Andy Doyle
UltimaHosts UK
www.ultimahosts.co.uk

 

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the response... very informative...

I have looked at the articles and will make use of them when I come to deploy...

I hadn't spotted the Application Installer. My intention is to first try and build both the Personal and Club Websites locally and then extend them both with the supplied EXTEND starter kit articles on the ASP.NET website. I am looking to learn more about C# so I will be using the C# versions of the starter kits (not sure if the Application Installer uses the VB or C# versions?).

I will, however, make use of the Application Installer for both of these sites if my efforts fail miserably. Tell me, if I want to add columns etc. to a pre-installed database (made available using the Application Installer as you mention) is it just a case of using the SQL Management tool on my PC to logon to the remote database for mods. or is it more complicated than that? I ask just in case I decide to extend the pre-installed versions offered by ULTIMA.

 Thanks in advance for all your help here

 Regards

MARK.

 

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My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

Hi,

Yes you can just use SQL Management Studio Express to edit the database, either locally before uploading it again, or by editing the remote one.

Whenever I'm working on a live website, I always do my development locally and then upload the site at a convenient time but I do the testing against the live database so that there's no messing about of uploading and resyncing changes between an offline and online DB. The only thing you have to be careful with is not to change anything in the live DB during development that would affect the live site! Whenever I need to do something like this I create a new stored procedure with the new code and give it an incremental version number so that the dev site can call the new procedure while letting the live site still use the existing version of the procedure.

Hope this helps,

Andy

Hi Andy,

All of your advice has enabled me to successfully deploy the Personal (Extended) Starter kit to ULTIMA.

The links for how to back-up a database and restore it worked perfectly.

I could do with just a little more info to fully complete my site. It revolves around the fact that the personal site has 2 databases, namely:

a) The Personal Database (I have called this MyPersonal on your Host)

b) The ASPNETDB.MDF Database

The first database is working for the photo album aspect of the site but login is not working. I think this is because I need to set-up a 2nd database called ASPNETDBStuff and restore the ASPNETDB.MBF backup file to this database. Am I right? If so, what would I amend my web.config file to? It currently stands as follows;

.
.
  <connectionStrings>
    <clear />
    <add name="Personal" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal; user ID=MyPersonal; password=***;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

    <add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal; user ID=MyPersonal; password=***;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
.
.

Thanks for any advice here. This last piece will render a completely working Personal Website (that I need to flesh out with my details).

 

Cheers

 

MARK. 

 

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My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

Hi Mark,

All you need to do is restore your membership DB to an empty one on the server (lets call it MyPersonal_membership) and then change your connection string to this:

 

  <clear />
    <add name="Personal" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal; user ID=MyPersonal; password=***;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />   

<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal_membership; user ID=MyPersonal; password=***;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

 

You can use the same user for both. Just make sure you add the user to the database in dot net panel. Good luck.

Cheers,

Mark 

---

System Administrator

Hi,

Having successfully installed the Personal StarterWebsite (http://www.mawhitfield.net/), I thought I would cheat and use the Application Installer to install the Club website. This doesn't appear to have worked for me (timeouts etc).

I currently have some redundant (no working databases);

a) Worsley
b) WorsleyPark
c) MyClub

Can you investigate this for me. I tried to install under my http://worsleypark.mawhitfield.net domain.

No success alas..

 

Thanks in advance

 

Regards

 

MARK.

 

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My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/

Hi Ultima,

Got this working. No problems in the end after trying it again at the weekend. No intervention required :-) I wonder if you can give me some advice on the following now that I have both websites up and running.

a) Is it in any way possible to (using the EXPRESS edition of both SQL 2005 and Visual Web Developer) to administer the SQL tables on your server for the above websites? I cannot see a way of doing it? What is the best way of administering the remote files? I am thinking of membership/user management (activation). Any help here would be useful. I cannot see any way of doing it from dot panel either.....

b) Why is it the Club Starter Kit does not have a Web.config entry for the ASPNETDB file when the Personal Starter kit requires it? Eg, Personal =

 <connectionStrings>
  <clear />
  <add name="Personal" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal; user ID=MyPersonal; password=abc***;"
   providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  <add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=69.16.210.14; initial catalog=MyPersonal_Membership; user ID=MyPersonal; password=abc***;"
   providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
 </connectionStrings>

AND CLUB =

 <connectionStrings>
  <add name="ClubSiteDB" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=true;AttachDBFileName=|DataDirectory|Club.mdf;User Instance=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
 </connectionStrings>

 for the Club Website...? The Club website obviously has user login etc. and roles....

 It seems my main problem for the moment is one of user managment when on your server.

Thanks in advance for all your help here...

Regards

 

MARK.

 

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My Details :
www.mawhitfield.com
www.worsleypark.info
www.mawhitfield.co.uk
www.flickr.com/people/worsleypark/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/worsleypark/