ASP Starter Kit Help

Small Business/ Personal kit download UPDATE

jason — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:05:45 +0000

After not being available for a week or so, Microsoft has updated their download page for Starter Kits. There have been some additional kit added such as, BlogEngine.NET Starter Kit, Kigg Starter Kit, Dropthings.com, FlexWiki, Umbraco and Yet Another Forum.

You can download all of the starter kits from the ASP.net site

Download Small Business Starter Kit

jason — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:36:44 +0000

If you are in need of the Small Business Starter Kit while Microsoft relocates their starterkits on the web you are welcome to download them here. Just click for the VB or the C# versions.

Download Personal Starter Kit

jason — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:18:08 +0000

Microsoft has (temporarily?) disabled the links to download older starter kits from its website. As such, I am hosting them here until they are re-enabled. If you want the download the Personal Web Starter Kit just click here - Personal Web Starter Kit Download
If you are in need of another starter kit that is not available from the Microsoft website, leave a comment I will upload it if I can.

WordPress 2.51 and IIS error - Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_URI in \wp-settings.php on line 81

jason — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:44:30 +0000

The original wordpress 2.5 error mentioned in the last post was fixed in the 2.51 release but there is an additional error that crops up. If you are getting an error similiar to the follwing:

Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_URI in F:\Domains\mydomain.com\wwwroot\wp-settings.php on line 81

To solve this issue you need to edit the wp-settings.php file. After line 79 or “// Append the query string if it exists and isn’t null” add the following line:
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = substr($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],0);

This error is due to IIS not recognizing ‘REQUEST_URI’

If you don’t want to make the modification yourself you can download the modified wp-setting.php file from here.

WordPress 2.5 and IIS error and solution

jason — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:54:18 +0000

After installing WordPress 2.5 I started getting a line of error text in every page of the admin area:

Notice: Undefined index: PATH_INFO in C:\WebSites\user\webroot\blog\wp-settings.php on line 72

Notice: Undefined index: PATH_INFO in C:\WebSites\user\webroot\blog\wp-settings.php on line 75

To solve this issue you need to edit the wp-settings.php file. Open the file in your favorite editor and after line 71 or “// Some IIS + PHP configurations puts the script-name in the path-info (No need to append it twice)” insert the following:
if ( isset($_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) ) {

add the closing “}” just above the original line 77 or “// Append the query string if it exists and isn’t null”

With those changes the problem is solved. I assume this problem will be fixed in the next release of WordPress.

Starter Kit Friendly Web Host

jason — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:14:12 +0000

Since my favorite web host has moved upstream and no longer will offer starter (e.g. less than $59/ month) hosting plans to users I have a new starterkit friendly hosting company - http://aspkit.net - You get MS SQL 2005 with all plans, auto install of many startkits, full trust environment, free 7 day trial and much more all startering at $9.95/ month. If you have been banging your head against 1and1 or godaddy service and tech support or if you just need a full trust environment this is the place for you. Aspkit.net is .NET only and focuses on starter kit hosting with a support staff that knows your issues. If you want to see how easy it can be to get your starterkit online check out http://aspkit.net. Give it a try.

Google Map API - Adding address markers and geocoding

jason — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:19:12 +0000

I had a need to add a set of markers to a Google map using the Google Maps API that could be easily modified over time. It is fairly easy to add markers with the Google Maps API but I wanted to put something together that will do the geocoding at the same time so I don’t have to manually add the lat / lng coordinates when I just want to add an address. As a result I put together the following bit of script. The addresses are loaded from an xml file named data.xml, geocoded and then added to the map. If you are going to use this example for yourself, just add your Google Maps API key and enter the addresses you want to add. You can visit a LIVE SAMPLE or download the full html page and associated data.xml file from HERE. If you would like to geocode a single address visit this site.

Examples of live Starter Kit Sites

jason — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:22:59 +0000

Since I talk about using various starter kits, I thought I would share the acutal live sites that I have put up over time. In no particular order, here they are:

http://www.rvresort.com - using “My Web Pages”

http://www.redhotchilimommas.com - using “Club Starter Kit 2.0″

http://www.skyriverapartments.com - using “Personal Starter Kit”

If you any questions or comments about any of those sites, just let me know.

Working with the My Web Pages Starter Kit

jason — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:05:48 +0000

I had a need for a simple content management system website that could be up and running with minimal effort and the “My Web Pages Starter Kit” fit the bill. The “My Web Pages Starter Kit” is as simple as it gets to install and use - just upload the files to your host and you can manage everything in your browser. It is very shared hosting friendly as it works in a Medium Trust environment and does not need a SQL database since it stores data in XML files. It comes with 16 themes that you can select from and is available in 8 languages and counting. So that is the good news. I found some of the built in features a little weak and the community support to be a bit tepid but if you are looking for a simple CMS and don’t want to invest the time to ge up to speed in DNN, you should check it out. It may fit the bill for you if its built in features meet your needs.

Adventures in CSK 2.01

jason — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:02:16 +0000

My recent adventures in starter kits is CSK 2.01 and I am here to share what I have learned to make your implementation a little easier. First, get yourself a good web host CSK because of its PayPal integration needs a Full Trust host - GoDaddy and 1and1 will not cut it. Second, replicate the DB onto your server and upload the web files as is outlined elsewhere on this site. Now for the fun stuff. CSK is all about ecommerce and has an amazing amount of functionality for a full fledged ecommerce site with integrated shopping cart, shipping providers and really everything you need for your ecommerce business to be up an running. While CSK is great overall it is a little lacking in the documentation department for the beginner. I will try to identify the issues that I found troubling and will hopefully save you some hours of work in the process.

If you are not using SSL be sure to go to checkout.aspx.cs and comment out line 36 Utility.TestForSSL(); Otherwise you will get “page not found” error when you try to checkout
PayPal Pro Integration - If you are gonig to use PayPal Pro (which is nice because you can accept credit card payments directly on your site but it costs $20/ month) you need to follow a few steps. First sign up for PayPal Pro on the PayPal website and you will be given API Account Name and Password that you can enter into the admin section of CSK. You will also be given the option to download a certificate from PayPal but you will notice that it will have a .txt extension versus the .pfx extension specified in CSK. To remedy this you will need to use OpenSSl to convert the PayPal certificate from PEM to the correct .pfx type. OpenSSL is a command line utility which can be downloaded from here with instructions http://forums.commercestarterkit.org/files/folders/pp1000/entry6647.aspx Once you have your .pfx file upload it to your App_Data folder and then enter the file name and password into the CSK Admin section and you are good to go.
When using the integrated USPS shipping provider, request your account from USPS and then immediately request the production server from USPS. The functionality is already integrated and you can only send predetermined shipping info with the test server which won’t do you much good. Just email or call USPS and they will set you up right away. You will notice in CSK that it asks for a password but you never choose one from USPS - you just need to enter something into that the password field. It does not matter what it is but it cannot be left blank or you will get an error

Hopefully with these tips you should be up and running in no time.