Getting Started With DotNetNuke/Evoq

DNN, an abbreviation of DotNetNuke, is an open source content management system written in C# and based on Microsoft .NET. The latest version of DNN is 9.2.0.

Let’s start with the installation of DNN. Installation of Evoq can be done using the same steps.

Starting with the installation of DNN

Basically, there are four steps for getting started with the development of a website based on DNN.

File system configuration
Web server configuration
Database configuration
Installation

File System Configuration

To download the latest version of DNN, click on the link given below.
(Click on the install package option)
Download DNN
Extract the downloaded folder

Note
Unblock the folder if it has any such option in the Properties window.
Give Full and Modify permissions to the DNN Installation folder to the user account that will need it. DNN Installation folder is the folder where we extracted the downloaded folder.

Right click on the DNN Installation folder and choose properties
Select the Edit option in the security tab
Click Add option
Enter the Username and then click Check Names, if it is the correct username then it will get underlined, click Ok

(If your OS version is 7 or later and IIS version 7.5 or later then your account name is NETWORK SERVICE or the IIS apppool\ApppoolName, which is automatically created by IIS)

Example: iis apppool\sitename
Select the username you added and give full and modify permissions and click Ok

Web server configuration

Basically configuring the web server means adding a site in IIS. Perform the following optional steps if IIS is not enabled in your system or else continue from step number 4.

Go to control panel > programs and features and select Turn Windows features ON or OFF
Expand the Internet Information Services
Check whether the following listed options are checked or not, if not then check those features. (Pre-checked options won’t affect enabling the IIS)

Web Management Tools: IIS Management Console
World Wide Web Services

Application Development Features: ASP.NET 3.5 and 4.6
Common HTTP Features: Default Document and Static Content
(Optional) Security: Basic Authentication

Internet Information Services Hostable Web Core

Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Expand the sites tab
Right-click and select the add website option
Point to the folder where we have copied the files from the extracted folder or the DNN installation folder check the version of Net framework (change to v4.0 if not)
Enter the hostname
(For local development you can enter any domain but for live website use your website’s domain)
Open the host file

File will be located at the path

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Enter the local IP address your system and with that the URL which we entered while setting up the IIS website.

Setting up SQL

Create a blank database for your Website

Open SQL server management studio
Right click on the Databases in Object Explorer and select New Database
Enter a database name of your choice and click Ok

Create a SQL user account

Expand the Security tab and right click on Logins and choose New Login
Enter the UserName, Select SQL Server authentication, Enter the credentials
Select the database you created for your website
Keep in mind to uncheck the Enforce password Policy
Keep in mind to not click OK

Give the newly created user db_owner access to the your database

In the same login window which we opened in step 2 click the User Mapping option in the left most column of the window.
Then check the database which we created for our website in the upper panel (this will enable the options in the lower panel)
And then select the option db_owner

Click Ok

Installation of DNN/Evoq

Open the browser (recommended: Chrome)
Open the link (same as an entry in the host file, which will also be same as the URL which we entered while creating a new site in IIS)
A screen will appear which will ask for some details like user name, password, SQL Server details.
Click continue and installation will start.
Host account will be created on successfully completing the process.
Click visit Website. Homepage will open as shown.