Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Very recently i had installed Community Server Free Express edition  running on asp.net 2.0 and SQLServer 2005 in my unit for corporate blogging and knowledge management stuff and it's being used now for initial testing.

But the process of getting the community server working was not as easy as i expected it to be.

Not because the installation is complex, but because it has toooooo many bugs:(

And these bugs were not Sev 3 or Sev 4 bugs, they were infact Sev 1:S

The first bug i encountered shocked me! They had mapped a wrong database to the application, and the applciation was showing an error in a SP parameter that never existed:S I wonder how they can do such a silly mistakes and release the product. I would really like to meet their testing team.

Similarly there were many more issues, it took more than 10 days for me get the confidence that i can release this for use.

Thanks to discussion forums on Community Server that helped in solving most of my problems.

And even after the installation i find so many basic features missing in the express edition.

One of them is that i cannot delete a user once i create it:D.
Without knowing this i created so many test users and now i have to delete them by writing a stored proc directly on the database:D


The only reason for me to choose community server against wordpress was that it runs on asp.net and SQLServer which i and many developers in my unit can understand better, and if needed we can make any changes to it's behaviour by using the SDK.
But this did drive me crazy!

But what's strange is popular sites like Hive.net and http://blogs.msdn.com run on this very well.
The only difference is that i am using a free express edition and they would be using a fullfledged licensed version:D

Is it that because this is a freeware they are not caring to resolve these bugs;)

 

Published Sunday, May 07, 2006 12:00 AM by AnjanaRam

Comments

Saturday, May 06, 2006 2:32 PM by Wallym

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

I think the issue involves the fact the telligent is paid to support these sites to some degree. How do you and I know that they haven't solved these problems, but not put the solution back into the CS code base? I don't think it has as much to do with the version being free as it does with the version of the product. CS 1.x had no documentation. This version has something. In situations like this, its a gradual improvement as oppossed to everything being automagically fixed. :-)
Saturday, May 06, 2006 2:48 PM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

I completey agree with you that things can change gradually only and every feature cannot be available immedaitely.

But i think there are certain minimum things that one must check before you make the release itself. And I think this has not been done properly here
Saturday, May 06, 2006 2:51 PM by Sudhakar

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

well, I am one of the frustated users of CS express. Infacct i found "express" part of it is very funny , though it was copied from some great products like "SQL Server Express".

if you wanna give me a software for free, give it to me if it works. But never give me a torn tee shirt.
Saturday, May 06, 2006 10:55 PM by Dody Gunawinata

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

That's weird. I installed Community Server express 2.0 last week on Sql2000 + Win2k3 and it took me only 4 minutes without any problems.
Sunday, May 07, 2006 8:41 AM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Thank God atleast with SQL 2000 it's stable and working well.

I am working with SQL2005 and .NET 2.0
If you are going to try this better go thru all the discussion on the installation bugs in the discussion forums first, else you will go mad.
Sunday, May 07, 2006 10:58 PM by Alex Lowe

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Anjana,

I'm sorry you had a poor experience installing Community Server.

We are always looking to improve our installation process and the product as a whole so we value the feedback. Thank you for taking the time to post on the forums and to post here so we can review the issues you've encountered and correct them in future releases.

Regards,

Alex
Monday, May 08, 2006 1:46 AM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Thanks Alex,
That's nice to hear:)
Monday, May 08, 2006 5:18 PM by Dave Burke

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Anjana, this is historic. Your post is the first I am commenting on as Telligent's Community Server Evangelist. (It's my first day on the job!)

As Alex said earlier, we're sorry about your bad experience installing Community Server, but we REALLY value you blogging about it. The technical details you provided are particularly helpful in assisting us focus in on areas for improvement.

The SQL table mapping issue, for instance, is weird, and the first I've heard of it, and I've been using CS from the beginning. I'll be looking for other appearances of that problem on the forums and elsewhere now thanks to your post. I will also look into the user deletion issue you described.

I hope you decide to continue using Community Server and continue blogging about it--hopefully writing more good posts and critical ones. :-) Either way, thanks again for helping us improve Community Server.

Sudhakar, I was hoping to read more about your bad experience with Community Server. I thought it would be under your "It sucks!" category, but I didn't find anything. :-)

Oh, one more point, Anjana. The Express Version is the exact same CS code base as the code running blogs.msdn.com and hive.net. It just doesn't have some of the add-ons. I'm using the free version at my site, in fact.

Regards!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006 2:58 AM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Hi Dave,

It's your first day, and your right on the job:) That's really great!!!

If you want more details about the database error, just follow this post
in the CS forums. It gives complete details.
http://communityserver.org/forums/permalink/520542/522482/ShowThread.aspx#522482 (posted recently in yr 2006)

To brief you in my words,CS2.0 comes with a web installer and a manual installer. And it seems that the manual installer comes with an old DB. Hence when i run my site after installtion it gives an error in a specific SP schema .
To correct this i downlaoded the database shipped with the web installer and made the necessary correction in my web files.


And as far the 'delete user option', this post can help you understand the requirement better.
http://communityserver.org/forums/thread/520242.aspx

The last time i tried all this was sometime in mid april, so i hope by now some of bugs would have got resolved:) (keeping fingers crossed)


And Dave i would be happy to share my experiences with you if that can help improving the product.

So I would also like to share with you that i am currently using community server for our internal corporate blogging and it's working pretty fine with all the basic things in place and people are happily using it:).
So, except for the installation problems and initial hiccups the product is working fine.

But i think for a person like me who is looking for some readymade product to start working immediately on it without much effort,installation problems are maddening:)

best wishes!




Tuesday, May 09, 2006 4:22 AM by Sudhakar

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

:-) Thanks dave, but there is a reason why I did not blogged about my frustration with CS in my "It sucks" category. I blog about things which i cannot have control and make it work in that category and I dont think CS comes in to that category at all :-).
Tuesday, May 09, 2006 11:06 AM by Dave Burke

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Sudhaker, one word: Yeeeeeouch!! :-)

Anjana, thank you for taking the time to provide the forum URLs on the SQL parameter issue and user deletion. It wasn't clear from your post, but did that have to do with the Membership provider? If so, I went to a presentation on Membership at a local Code Camp just this past weekend and I was thinking about the tricky issues involved in sharing membership among multiple applications. Still, a bug is a bug is a bug.

Regarding user deletion, I read through the complete thread and pinged the CS Development Team on it. User Deletion WILL be in CS 2.1. I posted a few details on the forums thread at http://shrinkster.com/eud.

I agree with you on installation and configuration. The good news is that the guys at Telligent feel the same way and things are going to get better there.

Talk to you later. Thanks!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 4:06 PM by Daniel N. Egan (The Pattern Man)

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

I had exactly the oppisite experience....

see <a href="http://thepatternman.com/archive/2006/05/04/4.aspx" target="_blank">THIS POST </a> for details. My installation and set-up went smooth as silk.

Daniel Egan (The Pattern Man)
Thursday, May 11, 2006 2:28 AM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Hi Daniel,
Happy that your installation went smooth.

It's good that your hosting service provider provided with you an auto installer and thereby avoid the pains of the default MSI that comes with it.
Probably they are doing the required work or changes at the background.
Cool:)
Monday, May 15, 2006 10:06 AM by Chetan

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Hi, my first time commenting here. Your quote prompted me to write this:

> The only reason for me to choose community server against
> wordpress was that it runs on asp.net and SQLServer which
> i and many developers in my unit can understand better,
> and if needed we can make any changes to it's behaviour by
> using the SDK.

I don't get this.

You want to use a system for corporate blogging and knowledge management stuff. While not being prude, how does asp.net or SQLserver matter when it is the knowledge and content you're aiming to generate, store and serve to your users? I thought using mature products would make more sense than trying a platform just for the sake of it. Or, I'm guessing, you're bound to it.

I use Textpattern (http://ckunte.com/archives/2004/08/05/gateway-2/) for our corporate blogging and KM, and it works flawlessly for us. We use Windows 2000 and XAMPP. Again, I am not trying to pimp any particular platform or software here, but it would make sense to use the one that has matured, has some solid userbase, extremely mainstream, not to mention free support, community et al.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 3:09 AM by Anjana

# re: Community Server Free Express Edition Installation

Your guess that i was bound to it is a wrong :) Anyone would always prefer something that gives him the best irrespective of technology. But how best it is depends on lot of factors and not just on the product features.

When you decide your product you will also have to think of crisis management as well, in case you have to troubleshoot some issues in future. And however prude a product is, we may still land up in availability,scalability and many other issues someday or the other.
In such scenarios you or ur team should be efficient enough to troubleshoot the issues and resolve it immediately.
This is where knowledge of that specific technology also starts playing a role:)

For instance, if i had gone for someother product which is not on .NET,and it gave me some intsllation issues like CS did,
probably i would still been struggling to resolve it.

In these aspects i found CS to be good.It's considered to be prude as there are many popular sites running on it. It has an SDK that i can write with and customise things. And it has a stronger support system which is well reflected in the immediate response from the CS team to my blog.
It's true that i am pissed off with those bugs that they have ignored, but i am happy that i could atleast resolve it with some help.

Thanks for a pointer to the TextPattern site. If i find it good in the aspects i have mentioned would defenetly go for it.
I am currently looking out for good software for my personal site as well. Trying out various options like Jhoomla, drupal,Mambo, CS etc. Now let me see where i will land up:)












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