Umbraco Hosting

Almost every other day I get asked where should I host my Umbraco Site? Or I've just joined XXX hosting company and Umbraco doesn't work.

There are loads of guides and tutorials on the net about how to get Umbraco working on your host, normally these guides have common traits such as make sure you have the correct permissions set and check the hosting runs their websites in Full Trust.

If you want to skip all that hassle then I highly recommend softsyshosting I currently host over 10 Umbraco sites with them and their support system has always been awesome (along with their prices).

In New Zealand (where I am from) I highly recommend Net24 (for speed and reliability), I also run a few Umbraco sites here and again there service and systems are pretty good (as long as you don't need weekend support). Net24 runs Plesk so you'll need to search Google for "Plesk and Umbraco installation" and you shouldn't have any issues.

skiltz.nzPost

Attached is example of what is to come when nzpost releases their API for calculating freight costs.

This is a c# .NET solution so you will need to have visual studio 2008 to run it.

Download from http://agentx.info/skiltz.nzpost.zip

Any questions let me know.

c# Example

     skiltz.nzpost.Package Package = new skiltz.nzpost.Package();
                Package.height = 3;
                Package.length = 3;
                Package.thickness = 3;
                Package.weight = 3;
                Package.Qty = 1;

                //Crete new request to NZPOST RateFinder url
                skiltz.nzpost.Request Request = new skiltz.nzpost.Request("Wellington", "Auckland");

                //Add our shipment package to the request. 
                //Can add as many as you like.
                Request.PackageCollection.Add(Package);

                //Get the response from NZPost
                skiltz.nzpost.Response Response = new skiltz.nzpost.Response();
                Response = Request.GetRate();

                //TO:DO Error Handling.

                //we could loop through each package and spit out whatever we want
                foreach (skiltz.nzpost.Product p in Response.PackageCollection)
                {
                    decimal cost = default(decimal);
                    cost = p.Cost;
                }

                gv1.DataSource = Response.PackageCollection;
                gv1.DataBind();

Result:





vb.net Example

        'Create new package for shipment
        Dim Package As New skiltz.nzpost.Package()
        Package.height = txtHeight.Text
        Package.length = txtLength.Text
        Package.thickness = txtThickness.Text
        Package.weight = txtWeight.Text
        Package.Qty = 1 



        'Crete new request to NZPOST RateFinder url
        Dim Request As New skiltz.nzpost.Request(txtSrc.Text, txtDestination.Text)



        'Add our shipment package to the request. 
        'Can add as many as you like.
        Request.PackageCollection.Add(Package)



        'Get the response from NZPost
        Dim Response As New skiltz.nzpost.Response()
        Response = Request.GetRate()



        'TO:DO Error Handling.



        'we could loop through each package and spit out whatever we want
        For Each p As skiltz.nzpost.Product In Response.PackageCollection
            Dim cost As Decimal
            cost = p.Cost
        Next

skiltz.DateTimePicker

This projects wraps Martin Milesich's (http://milesich.com/timepicker/) date time picker an extention to jquery ui components into an Umbraco Datatype.

Both of these controls are licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses.

Installing this package will Install the following items:

- Files insalled/umbraco_client/skiltz.DateTimePicker directory
- .dll file installed to your bin directory called skiltz.DateTimePicker.
- Two datatypes called skiltz.DatePicker and skiltz.DateTimePicker

The datatype has 6 properties which can be set.

showTime | true/false
constrainInput | true/false allow user to input text into textbox
stepMinutes | int 1 to 60
stepHours | int 1 to 24
time24h | true/false
dateFormat | dd/mm/yy (javascript format)

Furthur information about these properties should be looked up at Martin's blog as mentioed above.

-Known bugs:
Having two of these datatypes on one page with showTime property set to true caused the time dialog box not to show. This is because the script tags are being rendered to the Master page multiple times.

Any questions feel free to ask.

Download from: http://our.umbraco.org/projects/skiltzdatetimepicker

Import data into nopCommerce

skiltz.nopImport
Current Version - Alpha 0.1 *****NOT for Production Systems******

What does skiltz.nopImport do?
skiltz.nopImport will import data from a data source into the nopCommerce database.

What assumptions are made?- Each product has 1 product variant and zero attributes.
- Only products with SKU's that don't exist in nopCommerce will be imported.
- That you have a ProductTypeID that = 1
- That you have a TemplateID that = 4
- That your product images are stored in the database(nop Default) not on the file system.
- That you can remotely connect to your nopCommerce database.
- That your product images are on the file system.
- .net 3.5 framework is installed on PC

What data sources can I Import from?
Currently you can import from Excel or Microsoft Sql Server.

Where can I get help?
Please post all bugs on the nopCommerce forums or email mskilton@gmail.com

Install guide.

Where can I download the installation from?
It can be downloaded from http://skiltzonnet.blogspot.com


Double click on the install file and follow the prompts.


To open the program go to "Program Files"/skiltz/skiltz.nopimport

Steps to complete a import.
Step 1:
Right Mouse Click on NopSqlConnection and click "Update Connection String"
• Type in your server name i.e /home/sqlexpress
• Choose if using Windows Authentication or username and password
• Type in your database name
• Click test connection
• If successful then click ok

Step 2:
Right Mouse Click on Database (under External Data Sources) and click "Add Connection"
• Click "change" on right and choose your data source type (Excel or Sql Server)
• Type in your server name i.e /home/sqlexpress
• Choose if using Windows Authentication or username and password
• Type in your database name
• Click test connection
• If successful then click ok
• Type name of connection
• Click Save

Step 3:
Right mouse click on the connection you made and click "Database Mapping"
• Choose the table you want to import from
• Choose the column that contains your SKU code.
• Match your columns with the columns in nop using the dropdown boxes.
• click save to save you database mapping.

Step 4:
Right mouse click on the connection you made and click "Analyze data" this should some details about the file you are importing and information about nopCommerce.

Step 5:
Right mouse click on the connection you made and click "Import New Products". This should import products. Go to your website and see if it worked.


File can be downloaded from
http://www.agentx.info/setup.msi

Change ValidationGroup on Wizard Buttons

To change the validation group programatically on the Wizard Control button you can loop through find all buttons and assign the validation group property. See below.

        public void AssignValidationGroup(Control ctrl)
        {
            foreach (Control c in ctrl.Controls)
            {
                string i = c.GetType().ToString();
                if (c.GetType().ToString() == "System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button")
                {
                    ((Button)c).ValidationGroup = "osMemberControlsValidate";
                }
                if (c.Controls.Count > 0)
                {
                    foreach (Control cc in c.Controls)
                    {
                        AssignValidationGroup(cc);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

Umbraco Member CanEdit == False?

How do you deal with this situation? In the members section of Umbraco there is a property called MemberCanEdit which then allows in theory a member to edit or not edit the property.

Each property renders a System.Web.UI.Control from the IDataEdtior interface. With System.Web.UI.Control there is no property which can disable the control as opposed to the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl which you are normally use to which has the enabled property.

For controls which are infact webcontrols you can cast the control to a System.Web.UI.WebControl.WebControl control and you will then get the benefit of an enabled property. Not sure what do to do if this fails...Show a label instead?

                        if (mt.MemberCanEdit(pt))
                        {
                            _dataFields.Add(dt);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            try
                            {
                                ((System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl)dt.DataEditor.Editor).Enabled = false;
                            }
                            catch
                            {

                            }
                        }

Member Action Handlers

Sometimes you need do stuff with members once you've created, delete, changed something. The code below adds two new action handlers 1 when a member is created and one when a members is saved. In version 4 of Umbraco create a new class project and do something like so:

   1:   public class MemberAction : ApplicationBase

   2:      {

   3:   

   4:          public MemberAction() {

   5:          Member.New += new Member.NewEventHandler(Member_BeforeSave);

   6:          Member.AfterSave += new Member.SaveEventHandler(Member_Save);

   7:          }

   8:   

   9:          void Member_BeforeSave(Member sender, NewEventArgs e)

  10:          {

  11:              //do something here

  12:          }

  13:          

  14:          void Member_Save(Member sender, SaveEventArgs e)

  15:           {

  16:              //do something here

  17:             

  18:              //get new member details

  19:               Member m = Member.GetMemberFromEmail(sender.Email);

  20:           }

  21:          

  22:      }