DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy

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Posted by: mamlin 4/15/2009 11:26 PM

Want to install DNN on GoDaddy (but also want it to be easy)? Here's a brief overview of options and a handy tip -- removing subfolder name from URL -- when auto-installing DNN under GoDaddy's "Deluxe" hosting plan...
 

Multiple Installation Options
With GoDaddy you have multiple installation options.  You can go the easy route with the GoDaddy-provided auto-installer or you can chose to perform a manual installation.

Auto-install DNN with GoDaddy's Auto-Installer 
The easiest method by far.  The downside is that you must start with whatever version of DNN GoDaddy is offering (but you can later upgrade if needed) and all of your site's pages include a subfolder name as part of the URL (but I'll show you how to fix that).

Manual install DNN yourself via GoDaddy Control Panel and FTP 
As an alternative to the auto-installer and the related "subfolder-in-the-URL" issue, a number of people have posted information on how to install DNN in the root on a GoDaddy shared hosting plan.  There are at least a couple of ways to do this (usually involving, at some point, the manual movement of files from a subfolder to the root).  Such methods work perfectly fine but may cause headaches later when it comes time for a major DNN upgrade with changes (additions, actually) to the root.   The upside of this approach is that your site is accessible without need for a subfolder name the URL.
 
I won't cover the manual installation procedure (there's more than one method).  Instead, I'll show how to get rid of the unwanted subfolder name in the URL for those who prefer to take the easy way out and use the provided auto-installer.


TIP -- Remove subfolder name from URL in an Auto-Installed DNN site
When using GoDaddy's auto-install feature (installs DNN in a subfolder), you'll need to modify your WEB.CONIG file, your PORTAL ALIAS settings and you'll need to do a bit of domain name trickery (using GoDaddy's online admin console) to get rid of the subfolder name in your site's URL.
 
Step 1:  Domain Name Changes
Do to GoDaddy's default configuration of virtual folders, you'll need to disable your default domain (by changing its asigned name in the GoDaddy control panel) and recreate the domain to point to the DNN subfolder as the domain's root folder.  The good news is that this is easy to do.  The bad news is that it may take a day or more to accomplish.  Why?  Because when you change the domain name you need to wait for the change to replicate to the DNS servers before proceeding.
 
Ok, here we go:
 
Step 1a: Change your default domain 

  • Log in to the GoDaddy account manager.  In the left-hand menu under "My Products", click on "Hosting" to bring up the list of your hosting accounts. 
  • In the hosting accounts list, find your DNN website domain and click on "Manage Account" for that domain.  This will open a new window with the "Hosting Control Center".
  • In the new "Hosting Control Center" window, click the "Your Domains" button (or use the menu options: SETTINGS->DOMAIN MANAGEMENT).
  • Now you should see your domain name listed in a table with "status" equal to "Setup Primary".  Click the checkbox in from of your domain name, then click the "Change Primary" icon a little above the checkbox you clicked.
  • In the "Edit Primary Domain" box that opens, type in a fake domain name.  This cannot be a real domain and you'll still want it to be something meaningful.  I recommend that you add "-false" to the end to show it is a fake name.  For example, if your site is "xyz.com" then you'd change it to "xyz-false.com".  Click "OK" after you've typed in your fake domain name.

That's the end of step 1a.  It will also soon be the end of web access to your site once the DNS servers drop your real domain name and replace it with the fake name.  Don't fret:  this is exactly what we want the DNS servers to do.  Once your site is no longer accessible on the web (may take up to a day), proceed to step 1b...

Step 1b: Add your "real" domain with a new root folder 

  • Does your site no longer come up in a browser?  Good!  Log in to the GoDaddy account manager and go back to the domain management screen for your DNN site.
  • Do not click on your "fake" domain name -- we will not do anything more with it.  Instead, click the "Add Domain" button near the upper-right corner of the domain name table.
  • In the "Add Domain(s)" box that appears, type in your "real" domain name.  For example, if your website is "xyz.com" then type in "xyz.com" in the "Domain" field.
  • In the "Folder" field, type in the name of the subfolder your DNN site is installed in along with a trailing forward slash.  For example, if your site is installed in a folder named "dnn" then type in "dnn/" as your folder.
  • Click "OK" to create your new domain reference with the website subfolder set as your site's root folder.  Your list of domains should now have your "fake" domain with no folder set as well as your new "real" domain with your site's subfolder set.

Again, as with Step 1b, it may take up to a day for your new domain setting to make its way onto the web.  Wait until you are able to (once again) bring up your website (using just the domain name without the folder name) and then move on to Step 2.
 
Question #1: Why did we just do all of that?
Answer:  Because GoDaddy does not allow us to change the default folder setting for the "primary" domain.  If GoDaddy allowed this, we could have fixed things in just a few minutes.

 

Step 2: Portal Alias

Your DNN site should once again be accesible.  Now you can browse to it using just the domain name (with no folder name in the URL).  Unfortunately, clicking a menu link to any page will once again add the subfolder name into the URL.  Steps 2 and 3 will take care of that!
 
Log into your DNN site and browse to ADMIN->SITE SETTINGS.  At the bottom of the page are your Portal Alias settings.  Click "Add New HTTP Alias" to add a new alias with the name of the subfolder your copy of DNN is installed in.
 
Example:
If your site is "www.mywebsite.com" and the subfolder your DNN site is installed in is "mws", then the portal alias you want to add is:
 
   www.mywebsite.com/mws
 
For good measure, go ahead and add another alias without the leading "www" (mywebsite.com/mws).  Do the same without the trailing folder name (mywebsite.com).  When you're done you should have the following portal alias entries:

   mywebsite.com
   www.mywebsite.com
   mywebsite.com/mws
   www.mywebsite.com/mws
    

Step 3:  WEB.CONFIG
Within the "appsettings" section, find the "HostHeader" key (do a text search for "hostheader").  Set the value to be the name of the subfolder containing your auto-installed copy of DNN.

Example: 
If you installed DNN into subfolder "mws" then the "HostHeader" entry in WEB.CONIG should be
 
  < add key="HostHeader" value="mws/" >< /add >
 
Be sure to include the trailing slash at the end of your subfolder name.  Also note that I've added an extra space just after each "<" and before each ">" so you'll want to remove those if you copy-and-paste.
 
 
That's it -- you should now be able to browse your site without having the subfolder name appearing in the URL.
 
 
Hopefully this will help those already on GoDaddy servers as well as those just starting out.  To be honest, once I knew how to get around a few basic limitations, I have experienced very few issues with GoDaddy-hosted DNN sites.  Compared to some good "DNN-friendly" hosts, GoDaddy certainly required a bit more effort to figure things out.  I must admit, though, that the low monthly hosting fees have proven to be an ongoing benefit.
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Comments (14)   Add Comment
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Anh on 4/24/2009 2:16 PM
Nice work!<br>Just want I need!<br>Thank you!
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Cannibal on 8/10/2009 9:11 AM
Very nice, but will this allow you to use multiple portals with multiple domain names as well?
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Ismet Dumlupinar on 8/10/2009 9:11 AM
mamlin your post is cool, however it may not work if you want to host multiple domains under single dotnetnuke installation within Godaddy. For those folks, i published advanced installation tutorials at my blog. I have to state that they are not free to read, but it worth paying a small amount instead of paying 7$ per month for each website you host under godaddy. Here is the link: http://www.mynetnuke.com/Blog.aspx
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By mamlin on 8/10/2009 9:19 AM
Ismet- I don't use this blog to list links to paid products and services that I haven't tried myself. However, since I have not yet tackled the subject (multi-portal installations on GoDaddy) and in the interest of potentially helping others with a need, I've included your comments and the link to your paid content. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Joe Craig on 8/17/2009 3:04 PM
I'm working with a site that has been developed externally. Are there any good solutions for importing/restoring a database file? The person with whom I am working reports that it is not possible to upload a .bak file and restore it to the database server at GoDaddy because of "security reasons."
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By mamlin on 10/16/2009 1:59 PM
Hi, Joe- The person you spoke to is correct. GoDaddy offers shared DB hosting and in doing so does not allow you full admin access to your DB (because you could possibly do bad things affecting others' DBs). Likewise, you cannot upload your own BAK file since it can include admin-only items that violate the security restrictions for shared host DBs. GoDaddy will only allow you to restore an unmodified BAK file that was originally created by GoDaddy. (This is the price you pay for cheap-but-secure shared hosting.) _________ Regarding your question: There have been a few products that advertise DNN DB replication from a local DNN DB to a shared-host DBs such as GoDaddy. One product that promises to work with GoDaddy shared hosting is from XP Idea: http://tinyurl.com/dnnbackup ____ Another option is Evotiva BackupScript -- an old version was actually "DNN Reviewed/Approved" by DNNCorp. I've seen posts from people who say it works with GoDaddy and posts from other who say it does not work. I used an old version of the module and it worked fine with my local databases (which I had admin rights to). However, the tone used by the rep (developer?) for the company is _VERY_ unprofessional when defending the product to those who claim issues. I was turned off enough by his combative tone that I've not bothered to try newer versions of the module. One telling example can be found in this thread which starts off ok but quickly degenerates into accusations and name-calling: http://dotnetnuke.com/tabid/795/forumid/108/threadid/72926/scope/posts/Default.aspx _____ There have been a couple of people who have claimed to have written their own scripts to copy DB tables and SPs to/from GoDaddy but, unfortunately, I could not immediately dig up any info on those claims (where did those Delicious bookmarks go?) Hope that helps - good luck!
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Mary Berger on 10/16/2009 2:00 PM
This is great info, I am having an issue with uploading HTML files on my web site. DotNetNuke won't let me through my admin file manager. So, I installed them through the file directory on GoDaddy. But... when I go to my web site/admin/file manager they are not there. However if I upload a file through my web site/admin/file manager I can see it in my GoDady file manager. So I can upload docs through my web site (except HTML Files that I need for my business)and I can see them in the GOdaddy file system. And, I can upload files from my godaddy file manager but I can't access them or see them through my web site admin/file manager. Any help would be great. -Mary
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By MorlockBuzz on 10/16/2009 2:12 PM
After I have added the real domain name and the correct subfolder in Step 2b do I need to change what the primary domain is to the new domain with the folder? (The little Star is still next to my xxx-false.com original domain indicating that it is the primary.)
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By mamlin on 10/16/2009 2:11 PM
Mary- The issue you describe is not a problem with GoDaddy hosting but is actually what you'd expect from a DNN site. DNN only 'sees' files that it has indexed (has assigned a DNN 'fileid' to). When you upload via GoDaddy interface DNN does not get a chance to index the file and assign a fileid. When you upload via DNN interface DNN automatically assigns a fileid at the time it saves the file. To force DNN to index your files you can go into the DNN file manager, check the 'Recursive' box and then click 'Synchronize Files'. This will make DNN look through all files within your portal's 'PORTAL' folder and assign a fileid to any files DNN was not already aware of. After that all files will be available through the DNN interface. Also note that not all filetypes are 'allowed' by default. Look under HOST -> HOST SETTINGS -> ADVANCED SETTINGS -> FILE UPLOAD EXTENSIONS to be sure all the filetypes you are uploading via GoDaddy are included as 'allowed' filetypes in DNN.
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By mamlin on 10/16/2009 2:26 PM
MorlockBuzz- No, there is no need to try to move the 'star'. It denotes the default primary and, as of the time of this posting, it cannot be changed.
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By matt on 12/11/2009 5:24 PM
Can anyone verify if this will work on the economy hosting plan? My DNN site is working, I just want to move it to the root. Thanks
Fake primary domain on GoDaddy - SSL issues    By T Pitch on 12/11/2009 5:25 PM
If you ever want to apply for an SSL certificate with GoDaddy, they insist on including the primary domain in the certificate application (even if applying for the multiple-domain UCC). If you have a fake primary domain, the application will subsequently be rejected due to this included domain not resolving. Their support team will simply recommend a resolving domain name be used as the primary domain. Bare this in mind before switching (if you're on Apache consider using .htaccess directives to redirect instead). While they don't turn their noses up at you using a fake primary domain, this is still a hack that you may find will render some of their features useless, and making a mistake can be highly inconvenient considering the ~24 hour wait time involved with a primary domain switch.
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By Jeffs on 2/11/2010 11:00 AM
Thanks for the great article. Its working for the most part for me, except I dont find the Portal Settings in ADMIN->SITE SETTINGS. I'm using v5.1.2 if I recall correctly. Is there a different location for portal settings for this version? Thanks in advance
Re: DNN Hosting Tips: DotNetNuke on GoDaddy    By mamlin on 2/11/2010 11:07 AM
Jeffs- Yes, the article was written for DNN 4.9.x but it works (so far) for DNN 5.x installations as well. For DNN 5.x you will find the "Portal Aliases" section within the "Advanced Settings" area under ADMIN->SITE SETTINGS. Thanks for the comments!

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