Sitefinity 3.2 FAQ

There is no problem to install both versions on the same machine as the virtual directories set by the installation in IIS have different names. For example:

Sitefinity3.1 for the standard version
Sitefinity3.1.Community for the community version

Can I run Sitefinity Standard and Developer editions on the same PC?

It is not really necessary to have both editions because the only difference is in the Sitefinity assemblies in the EmptyProject bin folder located in the \[installation directory]\Sitefinity3.x\ProjectManager\App_Data\EmptyProject.zip. Therefore, if you want to upgrade your site to the Developer version, you should only replace its bin folder.

Can Sitefinity v3.2 be installed on the same machine as v3.1?

Yes, Sitefinity v.3.2 can be installed on the same machine. You don't need to uninstall the previous versions.

Do I need to uninstall v3.1 in order to install v3.1 SP1?

No, you can use the provided patch. For example, if you have installed the SiteFinity_3_1_standard.exe earlier, you need to download the SiteFinity_3_1_SP1_standard_patch.zip and this will be enough to upgrade the projects created with v3.1 to v3.1 SP1.

How do I apply a patch?

Please read the detailed instructions here.

Where do I put the license file?

You should place the LicenseFile.xml in the \Sitefinity3.x\WebSites\[Your_Project]\Sitefinity folder. Don't forget to restart your application afterwards.

What should I do with the domain aliases license keys?

After you sign the Annex to Sitefinity EULA, you will be sent an .xml file containing the license keys for your domain aliases. You need to add those to the LicenseFile.xml for the main domain. Insert them between the element, so if you have, for example, three licensed domain aliases, in the end you should have only one LicenseFile.xml containing all your license keys and looking something like this:

<root>

 <license control="cms" company="xxx" licenseKey="..." />

 <license control="cms" company="domain alias for xxx" licenseKey="..." />

 <license control="cms" company="domain alias for xxx" licenseKey="..." />

 <license control="cms" company="domain alias for xxx" licenseKey="..." />

 <root>

Is it possible to work locally on a Sitefinity site, send a version to the staging server, have clients work on the staging server content, continue to work locally and later on merge the two versions?

The best approach to achieve this is to use one database for both the local and staging servers. In this case, you can set the CacheDependancy mode to InDatabase, so that when you make changes to one of the sites, they are immediately transferred to the other.

I need to translate the Sitefinity admin interface into another language. What should I do?

Currently we do not provide different interface languages for the Sitefinity administration. The Sitefinity admin pages contain all their text as compiled resources that should be translated. What you can do is translate the resource files and send them back to us. We will then build them for you and send you the project with the compiled resources.
If you think this is an option for you, download the localization resources from our web site.
Then open a support ticket from your Client.net account and attach the translated resources as a .zip archive.

Can I remove the logo from my Community Edition site?

Telerik requires the display of the “Powered by Sitefinity” logo on all pages created with the Sitefinity Community Edition.
The logo is automatically added to the bottom of the page outside any tags declared in the master page and cannot be removed, relocated or changed. You can control its position on the page via CSS only.
Currently you cannot change it with any of the logos from the SitefinityLogos.zip.
Selection among several logos from the application web.config and a possibility to choose one through the Sitefinity Project Manager are in our ToDo list.

Pages

How do I create a page?: Go to Pages > Site Map and then click Create a page in the left pane. Fill in the text fields and click Create this page.
How do I populate a page?: Select the page in the site map. Click Edit this page and in the toolbox on the right, select a control to drag into a container.
Drag as many controls as you need, set the key control properties and click Publish.
Can I check the status of all available pages in my app?: Go to Pages > Site Map and click All Pages in the left pane.
If you want to see all pages pending for approval, for example, click For Approval to sort the pages by status. In the pages grid, select the page(s) you want to approve and click Approve.
Can I move pages in the site map?: Drag and drop a child page over the page that will become its new parent. To reorder child pages, click to select the page and then click Move page up/down link button.
Can I preview an older version of a page?: Yes, if the allowPageHistrory attribute is set to true in the application web.config. Select the page you want to preview in the site map and click the History tab. Click View.
Can I compare two versions of a page?: For the time being this is only possible through Preview (see above).
What happens to versions 2 and 3 if I roll back to version 1?: Versions 2 and 3 are deleted and version 1 becomes the latest version.
Can I disable page history?: Yes, you should just set the allowPageHistory attribute to false in the application web.config file.
Which are the required fields when I create a page?: Only Page Name is required.
Can I have two pages with the same name?: Only if you specify a different parent page.
What does (?) stand for?: Click it to display a short help text.
How do I delete a page?: To do this, you need to be granted the Delete/Rollback permission for that page. Select the page in the site map and click the trashcan icon.
How do I change page name, menu label and other properties?: Select the page in the site map and go to the Properties tab.
How do I set the home page?: Select the page in the site map and click the Set home pagelink button. The default page is displayed bold in the site map.
Can I use an existing page as a basis and not start from scratch each time I want to create a slightly different page?: Yes, you can duplicate a page. Select the page in the site map first and then click the Duplicate page link button.
If the allowPageWorkflow attribute is set to true, in order to show the duplicated page on the live site navigation, you need to publish it first. When page workflow is disabled, the duplicated page is published immediately.
Can I change the template or theme of the duplicated page later?: Yes, but in Edit Page mode.
What is external page?: Any page created outside Sitefinity. For example, you have an .html file ready for your Contacts page and you do not need to edit its content within Sitefinity. All you want is to have a link to this file in the dynamically generated navigation of Sitefinity. So you just need to select the External page option and then type the URL to that file.
Sitefinity will not handle the request to this URL. It will be passed to the IIS instead. Pages with the specified URLs must exist in the file system, otherwise an HTTP 404 error is thrown.
Why can't I change the page properties?: Because you are not granted the Change Properties permission for that page, its parent or the whole site map.
What are page permissions?: Page permissions allow you to control who can view, create, modify, delete, approve, publish individual pages or manage page permissions.
I belong to two user roles and a certain privilege is granted to one of my roles but not to the other. Will I be able to perform the action in question or not?: Deny is the most powerful setting. Even if the user is in a role where the same action is allowed, s/he will ultimately not be able to perform the specified action if Deny is set for the other role. An explicit Deny can only be overridden by privileges granted to the Administrators role, which is unrestricted.
Can I skip page permissions for a given role?: Yes, you can, but then the users in that role will not be able to perform any actions with pages in the CMS. They will only be able to view live pages.
Can I set the same permissions for all pages?: If you set permissions for the site map, that is, when you select All pages and go to the Permissions tab, all pages will inherit the same permissions.
If you set permissions for a page that has subpages, the subpages will inherit the parent permissions, unless you break the inheritance and set the permissions for each subpage separately.

Master Pages and Templates

I get 'The page cannot be found' error and cannot edit templates. Why?

In IIS, check if ISAPI mappings for .template extension are set for your web site. For more details, refer to User Manual > Configuring IIS.

How do I add new templates to the project?

You need to upload a master page first to generate a Sitefinity template. This can be done at the Pages > Templates tab.
Alternatively, you can place your .master file in the project App_Master folder and restart the application to force Sitefinity to create the corresponding page template.

What happens when I edit the .master file?

On application restart the Sitefinity template and the pages using it will be updated as long as you don't rename the .master file.

What are the requirements for creating a master page for Sitefinity?

Just make sure of the following:

you add a script manager in the master page if you are going to use RadControls for ASPNET Ajax on your web pages.
there are no characters between the opening and closing <asp:ContentPlaceHolder> tags

Also, if you have old .master files, remove the obsolete
<div class="cmsWrapper"> tag, which was required in versions prior to 3.1. A form adapter is now used, so you must also replace the </sf1:CmsForm> tag with the standard <form> tag as it causes problems in design view of Visual Studio.

Can I preview an old version of a template?

Yes, if the allowPageHistrory attribute is set to true in the web.config. Select the template you want to preview in the grid and click the History tab. Click the View link.

How do I compare two versions of a template?

For the time being this is only possible through the View link at the History tab.

What happens to versions 2 and 3 if I roll back to version 1?

Versions 2 and 3 are deleted and version 1 becomes the latest version.

Can I disable template history?

Yes, you should just set the allowPageHistory attribute to false in the application web.config file.

What happens when I delete a template?

If there are published pages using this template, they will be deprecated and you'll have to select a new template in Edit Page mode. However, the page content is not lost.
When you delete the last template using a given master page, the .master file is deleted too.

Is there a way to enable template workflow?

No, template changes do not pass through workflow and are immediately effected on the live site.

Does Sitefinity support nested master pages?

Yes, in fact .NET does support nested master pages. To make all content placeholders visible when editing a Sitefinity template, you need to create the Sitefinity template using the child master page instead of the parent. If you have more than two levels of nesting, use the innermost child master to create the Sitefinity template. However, before creating the template, make sure you have uploaded all the necessary .master files, together with their codebehind in the App_Master folder using the File Manager.

Can I have nested templates?

Templates in Sitefinity are created from master pages but they are not master pages. They are stored in the Sitefinity database and keep references to the controls they contain. Essentially this means that there is no hierarchy in templates, only master pages.

How can I create nested master pages?

By setting the MasterPageFile attribute in the child master to the name of the parent master. This means that the markup from the child master will be replaced in the parent, where the corresponding ContentPlaceHolder resides. So, the main template (created from the parent master page) keeps a reference to the controls you have put in it. However, this is not the case with the template using the child master. It only knows that it is supposed to show the markup of the parent, and there are no controls in that markup: only a ContentPlaceHolder. This is how nested master pages work in ASP.NET, and if you want to add a control to the main template that is also seen in the template created from the child master, you would have to add it in the markup, and not through Sitefinity. In this way, the control would be created in the file itself and seen from the child master, not in the database.

How can I display an image on all Sitefinity pages?

You can do either of the following:

Declare the Image control in the .master file like this:
<form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server"></asp:ScriptManager> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="Header"> <asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/Images/logo.gif" />
Declare an <img> element in the .master file. The <img> tag should be formed as follows:
<form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server"></asp:ScriptManager> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="Header"> <img id="Image1" runat="server" src="~/Images/logo.gif" alt="" />
Don't forget to add the runat="server" attribute when you use tilde (~) to represent the root.

Files

Is there a way I can hide the Files tab from users?

Yes, through permissions. Go to the Administration > Permissions tab and select the user role whose access you want to limit. Then set the Manage Files permission to Deny and save the changes.

Can I download files?

Yes, you can do that but you need to enable the feature first.
Refer to this KB article for details:
How to enable file download in the File Manager.

Can I get the File Manager to overwrite files?

Yes, the File Manager can be configured to overwrite existing files (by default it appends a number to the file name).
Refer to this KB article for details:
How to configure the File Manager to overwrite files

I don't want users to be able to upload files in a certain folder. How can I achieve this?

Note that you can do this for all users and not for a certain Sitefinity user role.
You should do this in the file system:

Go to the \Sitefinity3.x\WebSites\[Your_Project] folder.
Right-click the folder you want to ban access to and select Properties.
At the Securitytab, select the ASP.NET Machine account or Network service account.
Set the Write permission to Deny and apply the changes.

I want to make sure some users cannot view a certain file even when they know the URL. How can I do this?

Basically, you need to change some IIS settings and add a web.config file in the folder you want to secure. Refer to this KB article for details:
How to restrict the access to a given folder for a specific role

Users, Roles and Permissions

What are roles?

Roles define groups of users associated with the same permissions. They also determine the parts of Sitefinity a user can view.
Note that each new role that you create is granted the CMS access permission by default, which means users assigned to it will be able to view the Dashboard and the live site through the administrative back-end.

How can I create roles?

Note that you need to be granted the Manage users permission to do this.

Click the Administration tab.
Click Create a role link in the left pane.
Type the desired role name.
Click Create.

What is the administrators role?

This role is automatically created and the users in it are granted unrestricted permissions. You cannot delete this role or restrict its permissions. Also, if a user is assigned to several roles, and one of them is administrators, the user is granted full permissions, no matter what permissions are set for the other roles.

Can I assign a user to more than one role?

Yes, you can assign a user to as many roles as you wish. Note that when you first create a user, s/he is automatically assigned to role everyone and cannot be removed from this role.

What is the everyone role?

It is automatically created and means "everyone who is authenticated". Each user who logs in Sitefinity is assigned to this role and is granted the CMS access privilege.
If a permission is set for role everyone, according to the permissions accumulation rule, the same permission is inherited by all other roles different from administrators and, therefore, disabled.
To change the permissions for this role, go to Administration > Permissions tab and select everyone in the dropdown.

Can I move a user from one role to another?

Yes, you can do that at any time. Just select the corresponding checkboxes in the user profile.

Does Sitefinity support multiple membership providers? I want to have more than one data source for users.

Refer to this KB article for details:
Working with multiple membership and role providers

Can I change the permissions for a particular user only?

No, you cannot do that. You should change the permissions for the whole role. Or, create a special role for this user.

I need to set different permissions for individual items. For example, UserA needs to be able to read and modify listA and blogA only. Is this possible with Sitefinity?

This is not possible with the current implementation.

Can I set different permissions for the different language versions of content or pages?

No, this is not possible with the current implementation.

How can I disable the Publish permission? I have set Approve and Publish to Deny for a role but they can still publish pages.

Most probably, you are mislead by the Publish button, which is equal in function to Save when page workflow is not enabled. In the web.config, set allowPageWorkflow to true. You should then be able to see the Save and Send for approval buttons.

Is there a way to add many users at once?

No, you cannot do that. The group operations available are:

assign users to a role
remove users from a role
delete users

Does Sitefinity provide the ability to let users register themselves? I need them to be assigned to the same role and have the same privileges, so adding them one by one would be a real drag.

Yes, you can place the Create user control on a page and let public users register. The control is located in the Login section of the toolbox. Use the DefaultRoles property to set the role(s) to which you want the user to be automatically assigned.

Instead of deleting users, can't I just disable them?

Sorry, N/A.

How can I change my password?

Click the My Profile link in the top right corner of the screen. Then click the Change password link in the left pane.

Can I generate a new password for another user?

Yes, if you have permissions for the Administration tab. Here's how to do it:

Go to Administration > Users.
Find the user whose password you need to change and click the Profile link for that user.
Click the Reset password link.

A new password is automatically generated. The user can then log in the site administration and go to My profile to create a friendly password.

Does the user receive an automatic e-mail notification with his/her credentials?

Sorry, still N/A. You should inform them personally.

Can I change usernames?

No, once a username is set, it is final. The only way to change the username is to register the user again and delete the old account.

Why can't I change my username?

You can change all your user details except for your username because it functions as an ID number. Instead, you can ask your site administrator to create a new user account for you.

Should my email address be unique?

Not necessarily, though it's a good practice to use a unique email address.

Why do I need to change my password?

To prevent unauthorised access to your account. The only person to know this password will be you.

If I forget my password, can I get it back?

No, you cannot get it back yourself, but you can let the site administrator know about it. Depending on how passwords are stored in the database, you will either get your old password, or a new user account.

How many times can I change my password?

As many times as you like.

I sometimes get User ‘xxx’ is not allowed to view this page... error and cannot view pages. Why?

This error is displayed when the currently logged user:

is trying to access the Sitefinity admin part and is not granted the CMS access permission.
is not granted the View permission for the requested page.
is not assigned to any role; in this case s/he belongs to role 'everyone' and by default the CMS access permission is not granted for this role.

Controls

What if the User Control I want to upload already exists?: It will be replaced.
Where does the uploaded control go?: In the ~/[Your_Project]/Sitefinity/UserControls folder. If you specify Group, a subfolder with the same name is automatically created and the files are uploaded to it.
Can I remove controls from the toolbox?: Open the application web.config and find the <toolboxcontrols> section. Delete this line:
<add name="My User control" section="My Controls" URL="~/MyUserControl.ascx" />
Note that the user control file is not physically deleted. By default it is stored in the ~/[Your_Project]/Sitefinity/UserControls folder.
Can I upload a user control manually?: Open the application web.config and in the <toolboxcontrols> section, add this:
<add name="My User Control" section="Generic Controls" URL="~/MyControls/YourUserControl.ascx" description="some descriptive text" overrideToolboxItem="False" />
Then upload your control to the location specified by the URL.
Can I upload a custom control manually?: Open the application web.config and in the <toolboxcontrols> section, add this:
<add name="Custom Control" section="Custom Controls" overrideToolboxItem="False" type="Namespace.ClassName, AssemblyName" />
Then upload your assembly to your project bin folder.
How do I delete a control from the page?: In Edit Page mode, click the trashcan icon in the control header.

Generic Content

Is Generic Content under Modules different from the one I already saw in Edit Page mode?: No, it is exactly the same. Just that it is far easier to manage, sort and filter the separate items here.
I just created a new content item and it does not appear on any page in the site. Why is that?: Consider this as a warehouse of content items. In Pages you can choose which items to display on a particular page.
Why don’t the changes I’ve just made to a content item appear on the page?: Because of the workflow cycle: Send for Approval, Approve/Decline, Publish.
I'd like my content contributors to be able to create items only and then have the editors role approve them. Just like workflow with Pages.: You should enable workflow for the module. To do so, open the web.config and set allowWorkflow to true for the Generic Content module.
When you do this, you'll need to enable the Approve and Publish permissions. Refer to this KB article to learn how to do this:
How to enable Approve and Publish permissions in modules
What are module permissions?: Module permissions allow you to control who can view, create, modify, delete content items, and manage permissions for the whole Generic Content module.
I belong to two user roles and a certain privilege is granted for one of the roles but not for the other. Will I be able to perform the action in question or not?: Deny is the most powerful setting. Even if the user is in a role where the same action is allowed, s/he will ultimately not be able to perform the specified action if Deny is set for the other role. An explicit Deny can only be overridden by privileges granted by the Administrators role.
Can I skip module permissions for a given role?: Yes, you can but then the users in that role will not be able to view this module in the system navigation and won’t be able to access it.

News

Can users post comments?: Yes, it is possible to achieve this. Refer to this KB article for details:
How to enable comments in the News module
I have enabled workflow for news. Can my approvers be notified when there are items pending approval?: Workflow event notification is not built-in Sitefinity but could be implemented manually. Refer to this KB article for details:
How to notify approvers when a News item is sent for approval
Is this different from the News control I already saw in Edit Page?: Use the News control to show news items on Web pages. You create and modify all news items in the News module.
I just created an item here and it does not appear on any page in the site. Why is that?: Consider this as a warehouse of news items. In Pages you choose which of them to display on a particular page.
I want to catergorize my news items. How can I do that?: In the left pane, click Categories/Tags.
How do I delete a news item?: Go to the All News Items screen, choose an item to delete and click the trashcan icon.
Can I put my own document in the article?: Yes, you need to upload it through the editor’s Insert a document tool.
Can I add a custom field, for example subtitle?: Yes. Open the application web.config and in the <metaFields> collection, add this:
<add key="News.Subtitle" valueType="ShortText" visible="True" searchable="True" sortable="True" defaultValue=""/> Then, find this folder ~/YourProject/Sitefinity/Admin/ControlTemplates/News and ControlPanelEdit.ascx and ControlPanelInsert.ascx files.
In <ItemTemplate> section, add this:
<asp:Label ID="Label8" AssociatedControlID="Subtitle" Text="Subtitle" runat="server"></asp:Label> <asp:TextBox ID="Subtitle" Text="" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
Why don't the changes I've just made to a news item appear on the page?: Because of the news workflow cycle: Send for Approval, Approve/Decline, Publish.
How can I apply publication and expiration dates to news?: Go to the All News Items screen, choose the article to schedule and click Edit. Scroll down to section Schedule and open the calendar pop-up to pick a date.
What are module permissions?: Module permissions allow you to control who can view, create, modify, delete news items, and manage permissions for the whole News module.
I belong to two user roles and a certain privilege is granted for one of the roles but not for the other. Will I be able to perform the action in question or not?: Deny is the most powerful setting. Even if the user is in a role where the same action is allowed, s/he will ultimately not be able to perform the specified action if Deny is set for the other role. An explicit Deny can only be overridden by privileges granted by the Administrators role.
Can I skip permissions for this module for a given role?: Yes, you can but then the users in that role will not be able to view the News module in the system navigation and won’t be able to access it.

Blogs

Is this different from the Blogs controls I already saw in Edit Page?: Use the Blog Posts control to show blogs on web pages. You create and modify the blog posts here.
Can users post comments?: To enable users to post comments, you need to go to Blog Settings and set Allow comments to 'Yes'.
Are comments published immediately?: If you don't want them to go live immediately, you can set Moderate comments to 'Yes' in Blog Settings.
How do I delete a post?: Go to All Blogs and click Posts in the left pane. Find the post you want to delete and click the trashcan icon next to it.
I just created a post here and it does not appear on any page in the site. Why is that?: Consider this as a warehouse of blog posts. In Pages you choose which of them to display on a particular page.
I want to catergorize my blog posts. How can I do that?: You need to add tags and categories. Follow the links in the left pane.
Can I add a custom field, for example excerpt?: Yes. Open the application web.config and in the <metaFields> collection, add this:
<add key="Blogs.Excerpt" valueType="ShortText" visible="True" searchable="True" sortable="True" defaultValue=""/> Then, find this folder ~/YourProject/Sitefinity/Admin/ControlTemplates/Blogs and ControlPanelEdit.ascx and ControlPanelInsert.ascx files.
In <ItemTemplate> section, add this:
<asp:Label ID="Label8" AssociatedControlID="Excerpt" Text="Excerpt" runat="server"></asp:Label> <asp:TextBox ID="Excerpt" Text="" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
How do I delete a post?: Go to the All Posts screen, choose an item to delete and click the trashcan icon.

Lists

What is the Lists module used for?

It allows you to create logically related list items, each of which has a title and a body.
It helps you organize:

FAQs and interviews (questions and answer lists)
Contacts (people and details)
Dictionaries (terms and their definitions)
Instructions, to-do lists, testimonials, etc.

How do I insert a list on a page?

Go to Pages. Navigate to the page where you want to insert a list. Click Edit this page and in the toolbox, drag and drop the Lists control to the desired page area.

Can I change the order in which the items are displayed on the page?

Select the list to display its items and then click the Up or Down link to place the item in the desired position.

Polls

How do I delete a poll?: In the Polls list, find the poll you want to delete and click the trashcan icon. In the Polls Editor click Delete this poll at the bottom of the screen to delete the current poll.
How do I insert a poll in a page?: Go to Pages. Navigate to the page where you want to insert a poll. Click Edit this page and in the toolbox, select Poll Box control to drag and drop in the desired page area.
How many questions and answers can I add?: The sky is the limit.
Can users re-vote?: Only if the IPBlocking attribute is set to false. Look it up in Edit PollBox.
How long can the poll title be?: 200 characters.
How do I allow users to select more than one answer?: Select Checkboxes as Type of Answer to enable multiple selection.
Can users post comments?: Not yet.
How do I delete an answer/question?: Select an answer/question to delete. Press Delete. Leave the text field empty.

Forums

Where do I manage users who write forums?: From the Administration > Users tab.
Can I ban a user?: Yes, you can do that from the Administration > Users tab. Create a role first, e.g. Banned Users and assign the user to it.
To define the permissions for the Forums module, go to the Modules > Forums > Permissions tab.
Can I assign a moderator for one forum only?: No, the permissions you grant to user roles are valid for all forums.
Is there any difference between creating/editing posts in the admin and the public part?: No, there isn't. For example, you can have public admins and moderators who will not have access to the Sitefinity administration. They will only be able to manage forum posts in the public part.

Images & Documents

What does library mean?

A library is like a folder for your images and documents. An image or a document can belong to only one library.

How do I display the uploaded images on my web page?

Depending on what exactly you want to achieve, you can do either of the following:

Create a photo gallery for your web site:

In section Pages, open a page for editing.
Expand the controls toolbox.
Drag and drop the Image Gallery control onto the page.
Click Edit in the control header.
At step 1, choose the library you want to borrow the images from.
At step 2, define the gallery display mode.
At step 3, change the default gallery settings.

Insert an image directly in your web page, using the Image control:

In section Pages, open a page for editing.
Expand the controls toolbox.
Drag and drop the Image control onto the page.
Click Edit in the control header.
Select from the images you uploaded in your library.
Click I'm done.
Type the alternative text for this image.
Click Insert.

Insert an image in a content item:

Open your content item for editing from section Pages or Modules.
From the rich text editor's tools, select Insert an image.
Select from the images you uploaded in your library.
Click I'm done.
Type the alternative text for this image.
Click Insert.

How do I display the uploaded documents on my web page?

Again, depends on what exactly you want to do. See below.

Create a list of all files from a library and allow users to download files.

In section Pages, open a page for editing.
In Toolbox controls, expand subsection Images & Documents.
Drag and drop the Download List control onto the page.
Click Edit in the control header.
At step 1, choose the library whose items you want to display.
At step 2, define the display mode, selecting the List or Table option.
At step 3, change the default file list settings.

Insert a link to some document in your content item:

Open your content item for editing from section Pages or Modules.
From the rich text editor's tools, select Insert a document.
Select from the documents you uploaded in your library.
Click I'm done.
Type the text for the link.
Click Insert.

Can I change the allowed file types? For example, I want to enable .xml files for document libraries by default.

You can add any extension you like for document libraries. This is how to add .xml:

Open the application web.config file.
Find section <libraryInfo>
Add .xml to the default extensions like this:

<libraryInfo> 

       <add name="Document" 

        title="Document Library" 

        defaultExtenstions=".doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .html, .xls, .xlsx, .xml" 

        metaKeys="Author, Description, Extension, Name, Size, Category">

       </add>

    </libraryInfo>

Save the file and refresh the page.

Note that you cannot add to the default extensions of image libraries.

Can I add a new library type or remove some of the default ones?

Yes, it's a matter of adding several lines to the web.config:

Open the application web.config file.
Find section <libraryInfo>
Add the lines in red:

<libraryInfo>  

    <add name="My Library"

       title="My own private library type" 

       defaultExtenstions=".*" 

       metaKeys="Author, Description, Extension, Name, Size,Category">

       </add> 

    </libraryInfo>

Note that if you set the value of defaultExtensions to ".*", you will allow all file extensions.

Can I resize my images on the fly?

There are a few query string parameters that you can use.
Make sure the first query string parameter is preceded by a question mark (?). Additional parameters are separated by an ampersand (&).
For example, you could have an URL like this: http://localhost/TestSite/Libraries/Images/bin.sflb?width=100&height=100&proportional=false&decreaseOnly=true

Set the width and height parameters to define the image size.
Set proportional to true to ensure the source image proportions are kept. The image will be resized proportionally to fit.
Set decreaseOnly to true to ensure that smaller images are not enlarged to fit.
Set download to true, if you want the Save file dialog to open.

I cannot download files. I can't see the images I uploaded and get Page not found error. Why is that?

To be able to download files and see images and thumbnails in the Images & Documents module, you should set the ISAPI mappings for .sflb and .tmb extensions on your IIS virtual directory. These should be set automatically by the Sitefinity installer, however, you need to add them manually if you have upgraded using a patch. See details.
Also, make sure the ContentHttpHandler handler for these extensions is registered in the application web.config:


    <httpHandlers>

      <add verb="GET" path="*.sflb" type="Telerik.Cms.Engine.ContentHttpHandler, Telerik.Cms.Engine" />

      <add verb="GET" path="*.tmb" type="Telerik.Cms.Engine.ContentHttpHandler, Telerik.Cms.Engine" />

   </httpHandlers>

How do I change the styles for libraries?

The styles for the gallery templates are located in ~/Sitefinity/ControlTemplates/Libraries/librariesCommonLayout.css. They also depend on the styles defined in the current theme located in the ~/App_Themes folder.
You can also write your own CSS file and declare it in the respective gallery template located in ~/Sitefinity/ControlTemplates/Libraries.

Note that a different template is used for each gallery display mode:

"List & page" mode corresponds to GalleryListViewTemplate.ascx.
"List & lightbox" mode corresponds to GalleryLightboxListTemplate.ascx.
"One per page" mode corresponds to GalleryOnePerPageListTemplate.ascx.
"Simple list" mode corresponds to GallerySimpleListTemplate.ascx.

Newsletters

How do I configure the mail sending options?

Open the application web.config file.
Find section <system.net> and in the <mailSettings> element, modify the attribute values according to your SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) settings.
<system.net> <mailSettings> <smtp from="mailmaster@yourdomain.com"> <network host="smtp.yourdomain.com" userName="YourUsername" password="YourPassword" port="25" /> </smtp> </mailSettings> </system.net>

from

host

userName

password

defaultCredentials

true

port

Save the web.config file.

Tags and Categories

What are tags?: Words or labels you attach to content items.
What are categories?: Groups of related items.
Is there any difference between tags and categories?: Yes. An item can be assigned to one category only but tagged with as many tags as you need. Also, you can either add tags while creating an item or manage tags globally for the whole module. Categories are more like folders; you create them in advance and they are displayed in the category dropdown list in Create/Edit item mode.
Why do I need categorization?: It is good to use tags and categories to describe and organize the content you create. They allow you to easily search for or browse related content.
Why can't I manage categories?: Because you are not granted the necessary permissions.
What is a tag cloud?: A display mode for all available tags. The more frequently a tag has been used, the larger it appears in the tags cloud. When a tag is clicked, all items tagged with it are displayed.
If I delete a category, what will happen to the items in that category?: They will become uncategorized.

Services

What is a search index?

The index is a predefined set of content to search into. For example, if you need to make only 1 section of your site searchable, you need to create an index for that particular section.

I have 4 pages in my site: Home, About, Products, Contacts and Products has subpages. I need the search results to display only results from Products and its subpages. How can I do this?

It's easy. Follow these steps:

Create a new index.
Give it a meaningful name.
Add a PageIndex source.
In the Starting node to index field, write the URL to the Products page, for example ~/Products.aspx

Your index is ready. In Edit Page mode, add the Search box control to a page and set it to use this indexing service.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is used to describe the technology used in creating feeds. RSS is an XML-based format that allows the syndication of lists of hyperlinks, along with other information, or metadata that helps viewers decide whether they want to follow the link.

What is an RSS feed?

Feeds, also known as RSS feeds, XML feeds, syndicated content, or web feeds, contain frequently updated content published by a web site. They are usually used for news and blogs. You can subscribe to feeds to automatically check for and download updates that you can view later.A feed contains a list of items, each of which is identified by a link. Each item can have any amount of metadata associated with it.

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