Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS - Content Management System

Creating the Sitefinity Site

Note that the Sitefinity module providers cannot get their database objects created in medium trust environment and you may get errors. To prevent this, you need to enforce database upgrade in full trust environment, i.e. in your local website. Creating at least one content item in each module before uploading the upgraded database to the hosting server will initialize all modules in the database.*

We would recommend setting up your database’s admin first and creating a home page with some filler text, just so you can ensure that your site is working properly when you visit it. Ideally, you should create a theme and master pages on your local machine. Then, create the content (pictures, text, etc.) on the page live. For more information on this subject, follow the instructions in the User Manual, which can be found in the Sitefinity installation folder.

Signing up for GoDaddy ASP.NET and setting up the SQL database on GoDaddy

All GoDaddy ASP.NET hosting plans come with Access, SQL and MySQL support. This article focuses on setting up your SQL [Express] Sitefinity website only, however the instructions for the other databases are similar.

Once you sign up for your preferred plan, go ahead and set up your account (domain names, FTP users, etc). Go ahead and set up your GoDaddy SQL database as well (we will upload the local DB later on). To do this:

1. Log in your GoDaddy account.
2. Click on Manage Account.
3. Locate the Databases menu at the top and select SQL Server from its dropdown.
4. IMPORTANT: Make sure you write your database name, SQL Server username and password down! You will need them later.
5. Enter the information requested. Do not install DSN and ASP Schema - you will not need these.
6. Once the SQL server is set up (this may take up to 24 hours), repeat steps 1-3, and click on the pencil button next to your DB. Your screen should look as the following screenshot:
    
   
    
7. Write down your unique Host Name URL that has been given to you from GoDaddy.

 
Preparing and Copying/Uploading the Sitefinity Site

While you are waiting for GoDaddy to activate your database, you could delete the skin files in the RadControls folder in your root directory. Although this is optional, deleting these skin files would save some disk space on the server and your site would be uploaded faster. If you have created a user control using one of our UI controls, make sure that the skin you are using is in the appropriate folder. For more detailed instructions about which files are needed on the server, please see this KB article.

When you have finished preparing your files, copy the Web site to their server. DO NOT upload the web.config file yet because you need to make some changes as stated further in this article. To copy your files, use an FTP client such as FileZilla. If you do not have a FTP user and password with GoDaddy yet, you can create one from the Hosting Control Center --> Settings --> Manage FTP users.

HINT: To speed up the upload process, ZIP the local web site folder (usually located in ~/Sitefinity/Web Sites/[MySite]) and upload the zip to GoDaddy's servers. Unzip the uplaoded zip with GoDaddy's File Manager on the server. Since this will upload the web.config file as well, you can safely rename it to, say web.config.orig so that it is not lost.

Attaching your Database

After you have copied the site files to the GoDaddy server, and your database has been activated by GoDaddy, you need to copy the contents of your local Sitefinity SQL 2005 Express Database to GoDaddy’s blank SQL 2005 Database. This process is known as "attaching the database", even though you are not actually connecting your local database to their server.

Prerequisites

1. Log in your GoDaddy account.
2. Click on Manage Account
   
3. In the Hosting Control Center, expand the Databases tab and click on SQLServer. Your screen should look similar to the following:
   
   
    
4. Write down the following information:
   • Database Name
   • Database User Name (should be the same as the Database Name)
   • Database password
5. Click on the Pencil button next to the DB name you would like to upload the local DB to. Make sure to write down the following information from the new screen:
   • Host Name
6. Click on the Configuration button - this will expand the database configuration settings. You will find the following details there:
   • a SqlConnection (.NET) string that you will need later on - make sure to write it down; 
   • a Publishing Wizard Connection URL that you will need later on - make sure to write it down
   • a link to a Microsoft Database Publishing wizard which will help you upload the local database to GoDaddy's server. Go ahead and download and install the wizard. For your convenience, you can get the tool from this link: Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1
7. Have your FTP user name and password handy as well (see Preparing and Copying/Uploading the Sitefinity Site above for more information).

 
Instructions for attaching your database

1. Run the Database Publisshing Wizard and click NEXT.
2. In the Specify Server information field input your server information (usually [PC Name]\SQLExpress or localhost\SQLExpress). Enter your authentication credentials as well. Click NEXT.
3. From the list of availavble local databases, select your Sitefinity database (Sitefinity.mdf). Click NEXT.
4. In “Select an Output Location” chose “Publish to shared hosting provider”. To set up the provider:
   1. Click More... next to the Provider dropdown.
   2. In the Hosting Providers window click New... and input the following information:
      • Name: GoDaddy
      • Web Service address: enter the Publishing Wizard Connection URL from Prerequisites #6 above.
      • Web service authentication: enter your FTP user name and password (from Prerequisites #7 above). Feel free to select the Save Password checkbox
      • In Available Databases, click New... and in the new Database window input the following:
        • Server name: enter your Host Name URL from Prerequisites #5 above
        • Database name: enter your Database name as you have set it up on GoDaddy (from Prerequisites #4 above)
        • User and Pass: enter the DB user name and password as you have set it up on GoDaddy (from Prerequisites #4 above). Feel free to select the Save Password checkbox
        • Click OK
      • Back in the Provider Configuration window select the database we have just added and click on Set as Default
      • Click OK and save the changes if prompted.
   3. Click TEST to test the connection. If the test fails, check the above settings once again, as well as whether your firewall allows FTP access.
   4. Click OK to return to the wizard.
   5. Click NEXT and review the provided information. Click NEXT until the DB upload starts.

  Web.Config

You need to make a few changes to the application's web.config file to deploy Sitefinity on the GoDaddy ASP.NET server.

First, you need to change the connection string in your web.config file because the location of your database will change for your local machine to their server. Here are the steps for changing your connection string:

1. Copy and paste the SqlConnection (.NET) string from Prerequisites #6 above into your web.config file.
    
   This is what your connection string looks like on your local machine:
    

   <connectionStrings>

   <add name="Sitefinity" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Sitefinity.mdf" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

   </connectionStrings>

    
   This is what it should look like on the server (substitude SQL_* with the proper credentials):
    
   

   <connectionStrings>

   <add name="Sitefinity" connectionString=" Data Source=p3swhsql-v13.shr.phx3.secureserver.net; Initial Catalog=SQL_DB_NAME; User ID=SQL_USER_NAME; Password=SQL_PASSWORD;" />

   </connectionStrings>

    
   Basically, everything after connectionString changes to what GoDaddy gives to you.
    
2. Second, you need to turn off healthMonitoring:
   <healthMonitoring enabled="false" heartbeatInterval="0">
    
3. Third, you need to turn off page and module workflow                
   allowPageWorkflow="false" 
   allowWorkflow="False"
    
4. Make sure the following lines are commented out:
   <!--add name="SitefinityXml" securityProviderName="" type="Telerik.Lists.Data.XmlProvider, Telerik.Lists.Data" dataFile="~/App_Data/Lists.xml" visible="true"  /-->
    
5. This next part is optional. You can change the errors mode, so instead of your users seeing a “Error in Applicaton” message, they can see a “Web page down for maintenance” message. In the application web.config, change this portion:
   <customErrors mode="Off"
    
   To this:
    
   <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="~/customerrorpage.html"/>
    
   In your Web site, create an .html page with the customererrorpage.html title. Place any text there as necessary.
    
6. Finally, upload the application web.config file to your server.

 
Editing your website

If you go to your Web site at http://www.mysite.com/, you can see it the way your end users would see it. If you go to http://www.mysite.com/sitefinity/admin/, you are redirected to the login page.

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* Due to some specific IMAPI settings, the Image and Document modules do not work as expected on GoDaddy. We are currently looking for a resolution of this problem. Please, contact us via the support ticketing system for updates.