I upgraded to IE8 and discovered I could no longer create web sites in Sitefinity's web-based Project Manager.  Each time I attempted to create a new web site, I received the following error:

The account, you have authenticated with, has no permissions to create virtual directories. Please make sure that windows authentication is enabled.

Previously, (prior to IE8), this error could be fixed by right-clicking the IE icon and clicking "Run as Administrator" (see blog post).  However, since my upgrade to IE8 this fix no longer worked.  Instead I received a username/password dialog window:

I tried logging in using my local username, but continued to receive the permissions error.

Workaround: Permission Error in Sitefinity's Project Manager

I'm not sure what is causing this problem.  I suspect IE8 has new security features that prevent the browser from auto-applying Windows Authentication to the Administrator account.  I tried ...

This webinar examines the different techniques for creating custom Sitefinity Modules. In this webinar, we create a basic Intra-Site Module.  In addition, we examine Sitefinity 3.6 features that make this task easier than ever.

The notes discussed in this webinar can be found here.

Topics covered in this webinar:

• The difference between Intra-Site Modules and Pluggable Modules
• How to easily add custom modules to Sitefinity
• How to add a Sitefinity Module using ASP.NET User Controls.
• Why the User Control method eventually becomes too complex to manage.
• How Sitefinity 3.6 Views assist with Module creation.
• How to make Custom Modules visually look like they are native Sitefinity modules.
• How to associate Tools with a Custom Module.

Thanks to Ivan Osmak for helping me present this topic and everyone who attended the live webinar!

The Sitefinity Team posted an official announcement to the Sitefinity Forums.  Here are the release notes:

Sitefinity 3.6 Service Pack 1 is now available for immediate download from your Client.Net accounts! It includes many fixes and improvements in various sections of the CMS.

What’s New/ Fixed

New web site template

• Company - Emerald is now included in the templates list.

Content View Based Controls (ContentView, NewsView, BlogPost, EventsView)

• [30542] Fixed:  error "The resource cannot be found" when a ContentView control is dropped to a template page with no extension set;
• [32824] Fixed: problem with comments not enabled for EventsView control set in List&Page mode with Comments;
• [26440] Fixed: Collapse/Expand properties issues in Blog/News Archive controls;
• Improved: Tags in the query strings are handled in a better way when you filter by tag name or TagID.

News Module

• New:  Added option to specify an image from a library as a ...

Don't forget to register for this week's upcoming Sitefinity webinar:

Introduction to Sitefinity Intra-Site Module Creation 
Thursday, April 16 2009 - 11am - 12pm EDT
Register your seat now

Second only to custom controls, custom modules are the best way to add new features to Sitefinity.  This task might seem intimidating, but it's not that bad.  It's possible for any ASP.NET developer to create custom Sitefinity Modules. 

This webinar will examine the different techniques for creating custom Sitefinity Modules.  Then, we'll create a basic Intra-Site Module.  Lastly, we'll examine Sitefinity 3.6 features that help make this task easier than ever.

I'll be leading this webinar and my goal is for everyone to walk away thinking that's easy....

Seasoned veterans of Module creation will likely be bored by my spiel. However, Ivan Osmak (Senior Developer, Sitefinity Team) will also be on-hand to answer architectural & advanced questions. Consequently, there ...

The webinar I conducted a few weeks ago during Webinar Week has now been posted to Telerik.tv.  In this webinar I start with nothing and demonstrate:

• How to install Sitefinity using the EXE and the Blank Project.
• How to apply a custom design to Sitefinity.
• How to create Sitefinity templates using ASP.NET master pages.
• How to create Sitefinity themes using App_Themes.
• How to extend Sitefinity with ASP.NET User Controls.
• How to extract & customize Sitefinity Control Templates.

If you're brand new to Sitefinity this webinar will (hopefully) help you hit the ground running.

To view this video in its full sized glory, click here.

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS is a web-based content management platform and Telerik's RadEditor plays a key role in managing the web site's content.  Using RadEditor, content editors can create HTML without knowing HTML.  However, as you'll see below, simple abstractions can have unforeseen consequences. 

In past blog posts I explained how to Disable HTML Editing in RadEditor and Add Custom Styles to RadEditor.  These techniques help ensure that content editors can do no wrong.

This post I'll add to this theme by demonstrating how to automatically remove dangerous & ugly HTML from content pasted into RadEditor.

The Problem with Copy & Paste

RadEditor is designed to generate valid & clean HTML.  However, a lot of web site content isn't composed in RadEditor.  Often content is created in Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign or various other programs.  This content is then copied to the clipboard and pasted into RadEditor.

Rich-text content ...

Are you an ASP.NET developer who is open to contract projects involving Sitefinity?  Please a post a comment to this blog!

Through the coalition of Telerik/Sitefinity-related web sites (sitefinity.com, telerik.com, blogs.sitefinity.com, blogs.telerik.com, telerikwatch.com, sitefinitywatch.com) we get a steady stream of requests for Sitefinity savvy developers to help with various projects or customizations.

In response to these requests, we will begin promoting the following resources:

• This forum thread
• This blog post
• #sitefinityhire Twitter

You can post to each of these web sites to make yourself known.  When you post:

• Link to your web site
• Describe your Sitefinity experience
• List your contact details

Speaking from personal experience, the other great way to get Sitefinity work is to publish blog posts & participate in the Sitefinity community.  Doing this keeps you visible and your blog posts will generate a steady stream of Sitefinity-related traffic. 

If you ...

The webmaster role died the day web sites became more than a novelty and instead became crucial to a business's communication & customer engagement strategy.  This evolution required everyone, not merely HTML savvy kids, to become involved in the web site management process.

Thus the Content Management System (CMS) was born.

Content Management Systems abstract (hide) the messy web site details (HTML) and make it easy for anyone to create and manage web site content.  This is great!  However, abstractions often come at the cost of flexibility & control.  Imagine the cockpit of a 747.

Imagine all this equipment replaced with 2 buttons (take-off & landing).  Is it easy?  Absolutely!  But it doesn't take a pilot to imagine dozens of scenarios where this abstraction completely falls apart.  The devil is in the details. 

Gross abstractions deny us the ability to control our own fate and address the unknown....

In the past, I've not liked that Javascript, ViewState and a full PostBack is required to page through the posts on this blog:

The bots search engines use to “crawl” web sites have difficulty interacting with navigation that requires complex client-side behavior (Javascript, Flash, Silverlight, completing a form, etc).  Here is a quote from Google's Webmaster Central Blog:

Googlebot is great at following and understanding the structure of HTML links, [but] it can have a difficult time finding its way around sites which use JavaScript for navigation. While we are working to better understand JavaScript, your best bet for creating a site that's crawlable by Google and other search engines is to provide HTML links to your content.

Even aside from the search-engine concerns, navigating to page 2 simply should not require Javascript, Postbacks, ViewState, server-side events, etc, etc.  The same results could be accomplished with the ...

Tomorrow I leave for Orlando, Florida to attend DevConnections.  Telerik will have a booth at this event.  If you're planning to attend DevConnections, please stop by the Telerik booth and get some swag.

I hope to still publish some blog posts during this coming week, but I never know entirely what to expect of my schedule during these events.  Subscribe to stay informed of updates.

I'll also put some updates on my personal @gabesumner Twitter account.

As always, watch this and other Telerik blogs for updates:

• Telerik Blogs
• Sitefinity Developer Blogs
• Telerik Watch

Update: Here is a picture of the Telerik crew after booth setup: