The installation of Community Server within a GoDaddy Windows shared hosting environment is viable, without the additional monthly hosting fee, if the scope of implementation is relegated to a small community. A larger venture would require additional resources that is best suited for virtual or dedicated hosting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following describes the installation of Community Server cs2008.5 SP2 to a GoDaddy Windows Shared Hosting Plan ( IIS7, ASP.Net Runtime Ver: 2.0/3.0/.3.5) via the manual database setup method. (updated 05/06/09)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.     In the main menu of the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center, navigate to: Content > IIS Settings.  In the directory listing, check-mark Content Root and press the Advanced icon in the sub-menu.  Select the Integrated pipeline mode, if not already selected.

2.     If you intend to install to your root. (i.e. www.mydomain.com) move on to step 3.
To implement CS as a sub-application, press the Create icon in the sub-menu and enter a relevant virtual directory name for your community. Check-mark Set Application Root and press OK. (It may take 5-20 min for the folder to be created)

3.     Navigate to Databases > SQL Server and press the Create New Database button. Enter your database name and provide a strong password. Record this information as it will be utilized during the database installation. Leave the ASP Schema and DSN unselected and press Continue. (It may take 5-20 min for the database to be created.)

4.     While you wait, prepare the installation files. If you have not done so already, download the Web Install version of Community Server.  Unzip the archive to a directory of choice.

5.     Navigate to your root and open Web.CONFIG with a text editor of choice. Scroll down to approx line 40 and change the value "RemoteOnly" to "Off" (be sure to match the case) in the following string:

<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="~/error.htm">

This will permit CS to display a more detailed error message, in case there are post installation issues. If all goes well, then you can change this item back to its default.

6.     Navigate forward to "root/Installer/SqlScripts" and open InstallCommon.sql with your preferred text editor and replace the (20) value with (200) for the following strings:

Line 43 [Action] varchar(20),
Line 63 DECLARE @action varchar(20)

7.     ReZip the archive at the Web (application root), which is the directory with the pertinent application files.  Retain a copy of the connectionStrings.CONFIG as you will edit and re-upload in step 13.

8.     Upload the modified ZIP to your root / application directory using your FTP application of choice, other than the GoDaddy FTP wizard, since the archive is too big.

9.     Navigate to GoDaddy Hosting Control Center, Content > File Manager and locate the root / application directory with the ZIP archive. Using the available tools, check mark the ZIP icon and click Unarchive in the File Manager Sub Menu. Verify the folder location and press OK.

10.   View the root / application directory and make sure that the CS application files are present. If you see only one folder, then the Zip archive contained an additional level, so navigate forward and move the files back to your intended application root.

11.   To mitigate any post install issues, set the folder permissions for your application. Navigate to the GoDaddy Hosting Control Center, Content > File Manager > (your application root) and individually check the following folders and apply the following settings by selecting the Permissions Icon in the File Manager Sub Menu. Deselect Inherit, leave Read unchanged, and select Write. Click OK to apply changes.

·         Blogs: Read & Write

·         filestorage: Read & Write

·         Forums / Storage: Read & Write

·         Media: Read & Write

·         SiteFiles: Read & Write

·         Utility / RankIcons: Read & Write

·         Utility / RoleIcoms: Read & Write

·         Wikis: Read & Write

12.   Time to engage the database installation. First, navigate to Databases > SQL Server and note the status of the database. If it is "setup" then click the corresponding Edit/View Details icon within the Action Column and record the values for Host Name and Database Name.  Then Open Manager button in the sub-menu and provide the database name and password when prompted to log in to the SQL Server Web Admin.

13.   Now is a good time to edit your copy of connectionStrings.CONFIG and replace the following values in bold, with the pertinent server information presented in step 12.

<connectionStrings>

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString ="server=SERVERNAME; uid=USERID; pwd=PASSWORD; Trusted_Connection=no;database=DATABASENAME" />

</connectionStrings>

Save the file, (make sure it retains the .CONFIG extension) and upload to your application directory and overwrite. 

14.   There is a peculiar nuance with the web-install method and GoDaddy, namely the inability to select the database when prompted; therefore, we are going to execute a manual setup utilizing the SqlScripts packaged within the installation archive. 

Within the SQL Server Web Admin, locate Query Analyzer in the navtree.  Revert back to the CS installation archive and navigate to the SqlScripts Folder.  Using a text editor, open cs_CreateFullDatabase.sql and copy (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) its contents to the Query Analyzer text-area.  Alternatively, you could also use the Open SQL file to point to the aforementioned script. Once the text-area is populated, press Execute and await for confirmation.  With the database structure created, it is time to initialize the community via a stored procedure. 

15.   The following was cited from the HOW_TO_SETUP_DATABASE text file, included with the scripts.  Within the Query Analyzer, copy and paste the following string, substituting "localhost/cs", "admin@example.org", "AdminUserName" and "AdminPassword" with your desired values:

exec dbo.cs_system_CreateCommunity 'localhost/cs', 'dev', 'admin@example.org', 'AdminUserName', 'AdminPassword', 0, 0

If you would like to have a sample blog and gallery created, change the last zero (0) to one (1)

exec dbo.cs_system_CreateCommunity 'localhost/cs', 'dev', 'admin@example.org', 'AdminUserName', 'AdminPassword', 0, 1

Press Execute to finalize.

16.   Navigate to your URL and verify the creation of your new community.  If you are unable to connect, verify that the values in the connectionStrings.CONFIG are accurate.

17.   Post install, navigate to GoDaddy Hosting Control Panel, Content > File Manager, then to the application directory root and delete the Installer folder.

There was a GoDaddy installation guide, authored by Dave Stokes, which presented an in-depth visual walkthrough. It was written for CS2007, but provided some excellent guidance and troubleshooting. Unfortunately, the original link to this material is unavailable, so I have mirrored the information here.

Any errors may be attributed to permission issues, unless the application install insistently fails. Fortunately, error codes can be deciphered by the pros at http://dev.communityserver.com/. For any MS SQL issues, the GoDaddy techs are adept to resolve.

If you wish to discuss or leave comments, please do so here. 

Also, I have posted a few free cs2008 themes here: http://andrewbelon.com/digital/media/g/csthemes/default.aspx