ASP.NET MVC 4 AllowAnonymous Attribute and Authorize Attribute
Orchard Themes and HTML Helper for Accessing Current Orchard Theme Folder
As an Orchard Developer there are times you need to access an asset within the current Orchard Theme Folder from a view. Since the current Orchard Theme can be easily changed by the Orchard Administrator on the fly, you obviously can't hardcode a path. You need some way of programmatically determining the path to the current Orchard Theme. As with most things in Orchard, there is an HTML Helper for that.
Umbraco 5.1 Released - ASP.NET MVC CMS
Although I prefer Orchard CMS, I've been spending a great deal of time learning Umbraco and recently Drupal. Umbraco v5 is a CMS based on ASP.NET MVC just like Orchard whereas Drupal is based on PHP. However, as I mentioned after reading Using Drupal, Orchard CMS was inspired by Drupal so it is pretty eay to understand Drupal once you know Orchard and vice versa. Umbraco v5 is coming along nicely, however, and the Umbraco Development Team recently released Umbraco 5.1, which has a number of bug fixes and enhancements.
The Journalist Orchard Theme in Orchard 1.4
In addition to the Orchard 1.4 features found in What's New in Orchard 1.4 as part of my Orchard Tutorials, there are also a lot of little changes in Orchard 1.4. For those Orchard Web Developers who have been developing Orchard Websites, Modules, and Themes for awhile, you are very familiar with the default Orchard Theme, The Theme Machine, which has been in Orchard CMS since day one. Well, with the release of Orchard 1.4 another Orchard Theme has snuck into the default installation of Orchard - The Journalist.
Orchard Website Upgraded to 1.4 - Autoroute Projector Module and New Fields
Orchard 1.4 was released the other day and today we upgraded our Orchard Website to Orchard 1.4. We wanted to take advantage of the bug fixes and performance enhancements as well as the new routing provided by Autoroute and Alias, the projector module, and a number of new fields that can be attached to Content Types. Be careful when upgrading Orchard to 1.4 as the change from the Route Part to Autoroute and Title Parts is a breaking change and the upgrade will require you to enable and run a new module, called UpgradeTo14, once you have migrated all your data, custom modules, media folder, and settings to the new Orchard 1.4 website.
Orchard CMS Developer Meeting
If you are an Orchard Developer and interested in the new features of Orchard 1.4, be sure to attend a virtual Orchard Developer's Meeting on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM (PT). There are two topics being presented by two different presenters.
Custom 404 Error Pages with Orchard CMS
I received an email from an Orchard Web Developer asking how to create a custom 404 Error Page with Orchard CMS. This task is very similar to another developer request recently on how to display a Google SiteMap File ( site.xml file ) with Orchard CMS. As with the Google SiteMap File, this isn't really an Orchard CMS question, but more of an ASP.NET MVC and Web.Config challenge. Although there are many ways to solve this challenge, in this case I will be creating a simple custom 404 HTML Error Page in a website directory and setting customErrors within the web application's Web.config file to point to the custom 404 Error Page. This solution works not just in Orchard CMS, but can pretty much be applied to any ASP.NET MVC Web Application. When finished reading this Orchard Tutorial, check out my other Orchard Tutorials.
Orchard Authentication Module - Secure Pages
Developing Orchard Websites is fun, especially when the Orchard Website requires a custom Orchard Module to extend the functionality of Orchard that isn't provided out-of-the-box or in the Orchard Gallery. In addition to developing Orchard Websites and custom Orchard Themes, I develop a lot of Orchard Modules for clients. From time-to-time I like to mention custom Orchard Modules I develop, and this time I thought I would mention a module I created to help secure Orchard Pages from anonymous users. It's an Orchard Authorization Module that allows the Orchard Website Administrator to secure selected front-end pages from public / anonymous users.
Send Email When Blog Post Published
I haven't heard much noise about the Rules Engine in Orchard CMS so I thought I would just simply post an image of how easy it is to create a rule in Orchard that sends an email when a blog post is published. Now, of course, you can create numerous rules, and I created an Orchard Tutorial showing you just that: Rules, Tokens, and Forms API in Orchard CMS. However, sending an email when a blog post is published is built into Orchard and all one has to do is enable the Rules, Content Rules, and Email Rules Modules and create a new rule using the events and actions available in those modules.
Blog Post Created On Date and Time in Orchard CMS
I have been blogging a lot of tutorials lateley on Orchard CMS and the new features in Orchard 1.3. In particular, I have created Orchard blog posts on Markdown Support for Pages, Blog Posts and Content Authoring, Previewing Unpublished Blog Posts and Pages in Orchard 1.3, Deleting Content Types in Orchard 1.3, and recently the new Title Part and ITitleAspect in Orchard 1.3. Recently I have noticed my blogging habits changing. In the past I would complete a blog post start to finish and either publish it immediately or schedule it to be published later. Once that blog posts was published, I would create a new blog post in Orchard and continue the cycle. Recently, however, I have started writing 3 or 4 blog posts simultaneously and finishing / publishing them at different times and not necessarily in the order I created them. Because of this, I have learned to love the Created On Date and Time Editor for Blog Posts and other Content Types in Orchard CMS.
Head First jQuery Book Review
I just finished reading Head First jQuery, which I received as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. Head First jQuery is my first Head First Book. As the title implies, Head First jQuery is focused completely on web designers and web developers new to jQuery and even JavaScript. In fact, Head First jQuery doesn't stop there, it also teaches basic PHP and SQL using MySQL as it pertains to using AJAX and passing XML and JSON to and from the browser and web server. If you are completely new to jQuery and a visual learner, you will appreciate the plethora of photos, images, and graphics on every page in Head First jQuery to help convey the concepts of JavaScript, jQuery, jQuery UI, PHP, MySQL, JSON, XML, and related technologies.
Upgraded Website to Orchard 1.3
As I mentioned earlier, Orchard 1.3 was released this past week with a number of really cool features! I've been ugrading client websites and found a little time this past week to upgrade my own Orchard Website. Upgrading from Orchard 1.2 to 1.3 was uneventful, which is the way I like it. While upgrading to Orchard 1.3 I also changed the Orchard Theme. The original Orchard Theme was the first one I created and debated keeping it for sentimental purposes, but in the end I thought this gave me a chance to create an Orchard Theme that was a bit less serious. Hope you like it.
Orchard 1.3 Released - Forms API, Tokens, Content Item Preview
We're very excited about the release of Orchard 1.3 today. We have already upgraded a client website from Orchard 1.2.41 to Orchard 1.3.9 this morning and everything looks great. Lots of bug fixes and improvements in Orchard 1.3, including: Content Item Preview, Forms API, and Tokens to name a few. Orchard Web Developers will particularly enjoy the ability to delete content types and parts as well as the Task Lease API; rules to trigger custom actions based on particular events; localization of data annotations, widgets, and alternates; etc.
Orchard CMS Navigation - Admin Menu and LocalNav
This is another quick Orchard CMS Tip. The other day while building a custom Orchard Module for a client I wanted a tabbed navigational interface in the administrative dashboard. If you're an Orchard Web Developer, you have seen the tabs when choosing Content, Modules, or Themes from the dashboard's administrative menu. The tabs, which are referred to as Local Navigation items, provide a nice UI in the dashboard that allows one to easily switch between groups of related items. In this quick Orchard Tutorial, I will show you how to create those tabs in your custom Orchard Modules during the navigation building process.
JavaScript Web Applications Book Review
I had the pleasure of reading a copy of JavaScript Web Applications by Alex MacCaw from O'Reilly over the summer while it was still in early release. Even in early release form the book was an absolute joy to read. The book not only discusses techniques and patterns for developing web applications using the popular MVC pattern, but it discusses techniques for building your own JavaScript MVC Library, common JavaScript pitfalls and how to avoid them, and popular JavaScript MVC Libraries like Spine.js, Backbone.js, and JavaScriptMVC.
Firefox Scratchpad for JavaScript Development
In Firefox 6 Mozilla has added a JavaScript Scratchpad to their Web Developer Tools. This allows JavaScript Developers to enter JavaScript into the Scratchpad and execute and debug it. This is much more handy for web developers than entering JavaScript into the console. If you enjoy experimenting and developing with JavaScript and use Firefox for your main browser, you may want to download Firefox 6 for the JavaScript Scratchpad.
HTML5 and CSS3 Support in Visual Studio 2010
HTML5 and CSS3 are important standards for developing websites, but Visual Studio 2010 SP1 does not offer intellisense and validation against these W3C Specifications. However, Microsoft Visual Studio Developers can now download a free Visual Studio Extension, called Web Standards Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1, that provides support for HTML5 and CSS3 in Visual Studio!
jQuery Intellisense in Microsoft Expression Web 4
Expression Web 4 is a web design and development IDE from Microsoft. We've been mentioning the new features in Microsoft Expression Web 4 introduced in Service Pack 2. Two features we have mentioned are the image thumbnail previews of images selected in the folder list as well as code snippets to increase web developer productivity and reduce errors. Another new feature in Microsoft Expression Web 4 is jQuery Intellisense!
Web Design Using Expression Web 4 - Snippets
Let's continue our look at the new features in Expression Web 4 SP2. Last time we mentioned the new thumbnail preview for images selected in the folder list. This time we are focusing on the snippets panel that allows web designers and developers to easily copy and paste reusable snippets into the code view in Expression Web 4.
Expression Web 4 SP2 - Thumbnails for Images in Folder List
If you haven't heard, Expression Web 4 SP2 has been released and it is quite a big deal. Several of the new enhancements in the new web development IDE are so awesome that we cannot believe they weren't already a part of the package. First up - Microsoft Expression Web 4 SP2 now display thumbnails of images selected in the folder list!
CoffeeScript and Orchard CMS Module Development
Spice up your Orchard CMS Development with a little CoffeeScript! CoffeeScript is a small language that compiles to JavaScript and is often easier to write and read compared to JavaScript. When you are developing Orchard Modules that require custom JavaScript go ahead and write the code in CoffeeScript and take advantage of a free Visual Studio 2010 Plugin that compiles the CoffeeScript to JavaScript for you!