My Experiences Moving ASPforblondes.com to Graffiti CMS

Well that wasn't so bad!  I began the process at about 10 am.  I actually had to get some work done today too, so all things considered, here it is just after 9:00 pm and I've got a darn good start!

The jury is out: 

I'm in love with Graffiti CMS!!!

The process was pretty simple really.   I began at the Graffiti CMS website (www.graffiticms.com) where I downloaded the cms.  I then unzipped it into a folder on my harddrive.  I then had to extract the web files and put them into a virtual directory I'd set up within IIS.  I granted appropriate write permissions in the App_Data directory of my new app and voila!  Out of the box - it just WORKED!  Out of the box, it comes with a pretty vanilla template and some sample data.  The database it is using out of the box can be found in the site's App_Data folder and is entitled graffiti_sample.vdb3.  It is a VistaDB database file.  Well after tinkering around in the site a little bit, I decided I wanted my data in SQL2005 instead so i could share data when developing locally with what I had on the live site. 

Moving the Data to SQL2005

That process wasn't too bad.  Since I wanted the data AND the schema, I had to take the following steps:

1. First I had to go find the Data\Utility directory in the unzipped package of Graffiti files. 
2. I then ran the Graffiti_SQL_Shema sql script
3. I then went into the Data\Utility\Migrations folder and launched the DataMover application
4. I selected VistaDB as the source db type and then browsed to my virtual directory/application to the App_Data folder and selected Graffiti_Sample.vdb3
5. I ran the program and all the data popped right into my sql database
6. Finally, I had to make the following changes in my web.config (as per the graffiti website)
   1. Look in the site's web.config file and find the section for "<add name="Graffiti"....
   2. Uncomment and modify the one that is for sql server
   3. Comment out the "Graffiti" string for the Vistadb
      Change the AppSetting key DataBuddy::Provider value to DataBuddy.SQLDataProvider, DataBuddy in the web.config file.

Installing on My Hosted Server

This was extremely easy.   Here are the steps I used to get the site up on my hosted server

1. I just wiped out the old aspforblondes.com content (after backing up of course)
2. I then used ftp to copy the contents of my local virtual directory/application up to the root on my hosted space
3. Badda Bing, Badda Boom - everything worked!

A Few Configuration Changes

After I was up and running, it was time to make the site my own.  These are a few of the steps I've taken so far to get the site more the way I want it to be:

• Went and found a template I liked (my next step is to create my own from what i like about this design!)
• Wiped out some sample content and created some of my own
• Added some widgets to the side bar for rss feeds, twitter and links
• Discovered that if you set up a post as "uncategorized", you can then go and add that page to the main navigation.  This is especially useful if you want your site to have seperate sections for "Contact me", "My favorite Books", or anything you like.  I began with "Daily Reads"

So - all in all it was a very painless experience aside from the standard "pilot error"  Kudos to Telligent for making such an awesome CMS!!!