Looking to start a blog? Great! Please read (and follow) the instructions below and you
will be up and running in a couple of minutes. 

After reading below (and attempting to a setup) if you have any questions, please post them to the mailing list:
http://aspadvice.com/SignUp/list.aspx?l=153&c=25



Quick Steps:

1. Unzip the files somewhere on your local directory
2. Create a virtual directory 'DotText'. If you installed the files directory on C:\, you would map the directory to:
   C:\ASPNetWebLog\DotText
3. Create a new database (DotTextDB).
4. Run the DotText_SetUp.sql file (Found in the Data folder)

UPGRADES:
After installing the new code:
1. Run the KeyWords.sql file
2. Run the DottextSprocs.sql file

Update the Handlers section in your blog.config file based on your set up. The different handler configurations can be found in the handler.txt file (other stuff project)

OPTIONS: The application supports 3 different Configurations. 

You will need to set the following three values:
i) In the SQL code for item 6, update the application value ('UPDATE THIS VALUE HERE BEFORE YOU RUN ME')
ii) In the root web (DotText) there is a file blog.config.
- Update the DataStoreLocation with your Connectionstring values
- Update the  <BlogRequestType>VALUE</BlogRequestType> (It will be either Single or Multiple) (bottom of the file)

YOUR USERNAME and PASSWORD will be demo/demo (case sensitive)

PICK ONE of the following:

A) Single Blog
- Set the Application value (SQL Code) to 'DotText' (for root applications such as blogsite.com, application would be an empty string '' ...not a null value)
- Set the <BlogRequestType>Single</BlogRequestType>
- You can access your blog at http://localhost/DotText  
- Add the following to your web.config:

Please note, you need to have an empty default.aspx file in the root directory. If you are configured to handle index.aspx before default.aspx....switch it :)

B) Multiple Blogs - With Folders
- Pick any name for you directory. Example: Demo
- Set the Application value (SQL Code) to 'Demo' (whatever name you picked)
- Set the <BlogRequestType>Multiple</BlogRequestType>
- Create a folder in the web root called 'Demo'. Add a blank default.aspx file to it.
- You can access the blog at http://localhost/DotText/demo (or whatever you named it)


This set up is ideal if you want to host multiple blogs, but do NOT have access to IIS. You need the default.aspx file to make the
asp.net isappi handle the request.

C) Multiple Blogs - Virtual
- Pick any name for you directory. Example: Demo
- Set the Application value (SQL Code) to 'Demo' (whatever name you picked)
- Set the <BlogRequestType>Multiple</BlogRequestType>
- In IIS to your virtual directory:

This is the best option for those looking to build large communities and/or use the app in a clustered setup.

IIS 5.x
i) Open Up IIS and Navigate to the "Home Directory Tab"
ii) Select "Configuration"
iii) Click "Add" and enter "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_isapi.dll" (C:\WinNT for Win2K) in the Executable box. For the file extension, enter ".*". Finally, make sure that "Check that file exists" is not checked.

IIS 6.0
Setting up Win2K3, is almost identical to Win2K, except that instead of adding a new file ext, you now "insert" a wildcard mapping:
i) Open Up IIS and Navigate to the "Home Directory Tab"
ii) Select "Configuration"
iii) Click "Insert".
iv) Enter the path of the aspnet_isapi.dll. Again make sure you uncheck "Verify that file exists".


6. Run the following:

INSERT INTO [blog_Config] 
( 
 [UserName],  [Password],  [Email],  [Title],  [SubTitle], 
 [Skin],  [Host],  [Author],  [TimeZone], 
 [IsActive],  [Language],  [ItemCount],  [AllowServiceAccess],  [LastUpdated], 
 [News],  [SecondaryCss], 
 [Application]
)
VALUES
(
 'demo', 'demo', 'demo@demo.com','Demo Blog', 'A demo blog',
 'marvin3-red', 'localhost','Demo',-5,
 1,'en-US', 15, 1,'7/28/2003', null, null,
 'UPDATE THIS VALUE HERE BEFORE YOU RUN ME'
)


That should be it. Obviously, there is a lot more going on here. But from this point, you should be able to run the blog.