Umbraco/FAQ

This is a list of frequently asked questions.

Hosting

Where can I host Umbraco?

The following hosting packages are successfully hosting Umbraco installations.

DK

http://int.fab-it.dk/ - Umbraco Webhosting plan

http://www.pakhus14.com - Individual hosting plans (any@pakhus14.com or +45 70202125)

http://www.jesper.com - Individual hosting plans (contact jesper@jesper.com)

http://www.rackhosting.com - Offers virtual or dedicated Servers. Plesk control panel or remote admin.

http://www.zitechnet.dk - runs Umbraco as well, just tell support staff to grant write permission to aspnet/network service system account on the appropriate umbraco folders

SE

http://www.neno.se/ - Webbpaket Windows Avancerad

http://www.strongbox.se/

UK

http://www.webhosting.UK.com/ - Managed Linux Windows Hosting Services.

http://www.hostway.co.uk/ - Gold Plus windows plan.

http://www.eukhost.com/ - Windows Hosting Plans

http://www.bodhost.co.uk/ - Linux/Windows Hosting plans

CH

http://www.pipeline.ch/

http://www.genotec.ch/

DE

http://www.abnetz.de/ - Individual Webhosting, Several packages (starting with 150 MB Space, 50 MB MSSQL), with ASP.Net 1.1 and 2.0, administration via Plesk

US

LunarPages - Running umbraco successfully. For Plesk control panel permissions settings instructions, see: HOW TO: Set umbraco Directory Permissions Using Plesk

GoDaddy - Shared Windows (ASP.NET) hosting. Deluxe and Premium plans come with 1 and 2 SQL Server databases. Setup was easy. Make sure to create a database and set Read/Web/Write permissions on the necessary directories before beginning installation.

What type of webhosting do I need?

Your hosting package needs to support the following:

• ASP.NET 1.1 or ASP.NET 2.0
• One of the following database servers
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000
  • Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine 2000 (MSDE)
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

Installation

While the installation process, a 'invalid object name umbracoUser' error occures

This error may appear, if the web.config-key "umbracoEnableStat" is changed from false to true prior the installation. The key must not be changed to anything else than false until the installation procedure using the wizard is completed.

It seems it is possible that the installation is ready to continue but for some reason does not do so. Try browsing to http://localhost/install and setup might continue (if your installation is in http://localhost)

After successful installation a 'No node found' error occures

After successful installation the following error occures:

No node found (http://localhost/default.aspx?umbPage=/default.aspx, '/root/node [@urlName = ""] | /root/node')

This is because there aren't any pages yet. Go to your administration area (http://foo.bar/umbraco), login and create some content first.

Getting Started

I've installed Umbraco, now what?

There are three screencasts here which will introduce you to the Umbraco UI and how to get started creating Document types and templates.

Configuration

Email Configuration

Where can I configure my SMTP server?

The SMTP server is set in the web.config file which is in the root folder of your Umbraco installation.

You need to set the following key:

<add key="umbracoSmtpServer" value="127.0.0.1"/>

How can I change the email address that notifications are sent from?

The sender of notifications is set in the umbracoSettings.xml which is in the config folder under the root of your Umbraco installation.

You need to modify the following section to contain the e-mail address you wish to use as the sender:

<notifications>
	<!-- the email that should be used as from mail when umbraco sends a notification -->
	<email>darren@xxxx.com</email>
</notifications>

You might also need to change the settings in formHandlers.xml located in the same directory

	<parameter alias="sender">robot@umbraco.dk</parameter>

How can I change the text in the Umbraco notifications Email?

The notification Email message is set in the appropriate localised xml file for he language that you are using in the directory umbraco\config\lang under your Umbraco installation directory.

You will need to modify the following section:

<area alias="notifications" version="2.1">
	<key alias="notifications" version="2.1">Notifications</key>
	<key alias="editNotifications" version="2.1">Edit your notification for %0%</key>
	<key alias="mailSubject" version="2.1">[%0%] Notification about %1% performed on %2%</key>
	<key alias="mailBody" version="2.1">
Hello %0%

This is an automated mail to inform you that the task '%1%'
has been performed on the page '%2%'
by the user '%3%'
		
Go to http://%4%/umbraco/default.aspx?section=content&id=%5% to edit.
			
	</key>
</area>

Umbraco settings

How could I set a default 404 error page?

Open /config/umbracoSettings.xml Find the line that says <error404>1</error404> and replace 1 with the id of the page you want to show.

<errors>
   <!--  the id of the page that should be shown if the page is not found --> 
   <error404>1</error404> 
</errors>

How could I Use DirectoryUrls?

Why should you enable this? This changes the links to the pages from example http://www.mydomain.com/news.aspx to http://www.mydomain.com/news

Open /config/umbracoSettings.xml Find the line that says <umbracoUseDirectoryUrls>false</umbracoUseDirectoryUrls> and replace false with true. It should then be like this

   <umbracoUseDirectoryUrls>true</umbracoUseDirectoryUrls> 

Then you have to let IIS handle all requests.

IIS 6.0 2003 server

Follow these instructions [1]

Templating

How could I display a page with an alternative template?

Just set the 'altTemplate' parameter in the query string to the alias of your desired template. For example

http://foo.bar/page.aspx?altTemplate=MyAltTemplateAlias

Rich-Text Editor

How do I change the stylesheet that is used in the built-in editor?

You can change the behaviour by adding some editor css to the first stylesheet in the list.

#holderBody {
	background: #fff;
}

#holder {
	border: 1px solid #ccc;
	padding: 10px;
	margin: 5px;
	text-align: left;
}

Where can I get help?

Help is available from

 - Umbraco Forum: http://forum.umbraco.org  
 - Yahoo Groups : http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/umbraco (no longer an active group, the umbraco forum is preferable)
 - Niels Hartvig's Blog : http://hartvig.com/
 - The Umbraco RSS Feed : http://umbraco.org/weblogs.aspx?altTemplate=rss