Community Server
Site Upgraded to Community Server 2007
Last night, I upgraded this site to Community Server 2007. The upgrade took a while as this site requires changes to the CS codebase and other tweaking. Other than that, the upgrade went OK for the most part and there are a couple of issues to work out. With this upgrade comes three new Community Server downloads:
Community Server 2007 Contact Form Add-On
Community Server 2007 StrongCoders.CSJobs
Community Server 2007 Shipping Blog Skins with Ad Support
The contact form is the one I use on this site, so it also doubles as an advertising inquiry form.
You be the judge. Compare the anonymous image from Community Server to a picture of Rob Howard. It looks like his silhouette.
Snap and Community Server
Up until an hour ago, this site was using Snap to render web page previews of images and links that linked to external sites. However, this caused the following JavaScript error when using the roles modal in Control Panel > Administration > Membership > Browse People / Find People.
Line: 63
Char: 7
Error: 'document.forms.0.AssignedValues' is null or not an object
Code: 0
The only workaround was to remove Snap.
I've updated the Community Server 2.1 shipping blog skins with ad support for SP1. They can be downloaded
here
.
I've created the following Community Server jobs:
BlogActivityNightlyJob - Executes the cs_BlogActivityNightlyJob stored procedure.
UserActivityNightlyJob - Executes the cs_UserActivityNightlyJob stored procedure.
This elimates the need to run those stored procedures as SQL Jobs. You can download StrongCoders.CSJobs
here
. The download also contains a Control Panel add-in that allows you to manually run the jobs.
I've created a simple contact form for Community Server that can be downloaded
here
. To see it live on this site, click
here
.
By default, the web.config file of Community Server allows any registered user access to the Control Panel, including Setup.aspx and 2 pages hidden from the Control Panel UI that have functionality. To prevent registered users from accessing these files and the Control Panel, change web.config in /ControlPanel to the below. Before doing so, it's a good idea to create a role called ResourceOwner and assign it to all blog authors and file and photo gallery owners as the below change will not allow any of them access to modify their blogs and photo and file galleries since they aren't in the list of allowed roles that can access the Control Panel.
<
configuration
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,Moderator,GalleryAdministrator,FileAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator,ResourceOwner
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
<
location
path
=
"
settings.aspx
"
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
location
>
<
location
path
=
"
Setup.aspx
"
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,GalleryAdministrator,FileAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
location
>
<
location
path
=
"
license.aspx
"
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
location
>
configuration
>
You've probably noticed the ads on my blog. By default, Community Server doesn't have built-in ad support in blog skins. You can easily add it by wrapping AdPart controls around the BodyTemplate control in LayoutTemplate.ascx, which is located in the root of each blog skin folder. The default shipping skins for Community Server 2.1 with top and bottom ad support can be downloaded
here
.
<
CS
:
AdPart
runat
="server"
ContentName
="StandardTop">
<
CS
:
Ads
Zone
="StandardTop"
runat
="server"
/>
CS
:
AdPart
>
<
CS
:
BodyTemplate
id
="BodyTemplate"
runat
="Server"
/>
<
CS
:
AdPart
runat
="server"
ContentName
="StandardBottom">
<
CS
:
Ads
Zone
="StandardBottom"
runat
="server"
/>
CS
:
AdPart
>
I just upgraded this site to Community Server 2.1 RTM. The upgrade worked without any issues. If you guys notice any issues, please post in
Site Issues
.
I just upgraded this site to Community Server 2.1 RC1. The upgrade worked without any issues. If you guys notice any issues, please post in
Site Issues
.
There's a couple of extra steps I take to tweak Community Server out of the box.
Tweak 1
Go to Control Panel > Administration > Membership > Manage Roles (Manage All Roles in CS 2.1). Add a new role named ResourceOwner and assign it to any user that is the owner of a resource like a blog. By default, Community Server won't show the Control Panel link to any user that's not a moderator or administrator. I use this role to give access to the Control Panel link to users like blog owners. Next, in the navigation section of SiteUrls.config, modify the controlpanel link to include the ResourceOwner role in roles.
<
link
name
=
"
controlpanel
"
resourceUrl
=
"
controlpanel
"
resourceName
=
"
controlpanel
"
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,Moderator,GalleryAdministrator,FileAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator,ResourceOwner
"
/>
Tweak 2
By default, the Web.config file in /ControlPanel allows any authenticated user access to the Control Panel. Change Web.config in /ControlPanel to the following:
<
configuration
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,Moderator,GalleryAdministrator,FileAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator,ResourceOwner
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
configuration
>
Tweak 3
In Community Server 2.1 Beta 1, Beta 2 and RC1, there is no Web.config file in the /ControlPanel/Reporting folder, so any authenticated user can access Reporting. Add a Web.config file to the /ControlPanel/Reporting folder with the following:
<
configuration
>
<
system.web
>
<
authorization
>
<
allow
roles
=
"
SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,GalleryAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator,FileAdministrator
"
/>
<
deny
users
=
"
*
"
/>
authorization
>
system.web
>
configuration
>
Community Credit now has an add-on to submit your points from blog and forum posts from Community Server. Download it
here
.
A while back, I used to have my blog located at
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/ryan
before I moved it to here. The biggest challenge in doing so was making sure all of my existing links redirect to the links on this site. Here's how I did it.
1) Download
Madgeek.RedirectModule.dll
and place it in your Community Server bin directory.
2) Add the following lines to web.config making the appropriate changes to the format of targetUrl and destinationUrl:
xml
version
=
"
1.0
"
?>
<
configuration
>
<
configSections
>
<
section
name
=
"
redirections
"
type
=
"
Madgeek.Configuration.XmlSerializerSectionHandler, Madgeek.RedirectModule
"
/>
configSections
>
<
httpModule
>
<
add
name
=
"
RedirectModule
"
type
=
"
Madgeek.Web.RedirectModule, Madgeek.RedirectModule
"
/>
httpModules
>
<
redirections
type
=
"
Madgeek.Web.ConfigRedirections, Madgeek.RedirectModule
"
>
<
add
targetUrl
=
"
^/blogs/ryan/(.*).aspx\??(.*)
"
destinationUrl
=
"
http://blogs.strongcoders.com/blogs/ryan/$1.aspx
"
IgnoreCase
=
"
true
"
permanent
=
"
true
"
/>
redirections
>
configuration
>
I just upgraded this site to Community Server 2.1 Beta 2 to take advantage of the fixes in CS 2.1. The upgrade worked without any issues. If you guys notice any issues, please post in
Site Issues
.
Just updated this site and thought I'd share this with everyone. From the download page at CommunityServer.org:
"Telligent recently discovered a serious security vulnerability that can enable an attacker to obtain unauthorized security privileges in Community Server 2.0 for ASP.NET 1.1 / 2.0. It is highly recommended that you apply this patch immediately."
CS 2.0 .NET 1.1 -
http://communityserver.org/files/folders/releases/entry532260.aspx
CS 2.0 .NET 2.0 -
http://communityserver.org/files/folders/releases/entry532293.aspx
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