When you create a new DotNetNuke installation you have some custom updates in your web.config file.

When you upgrade DotNetNuke the new web.config is named release.config. You need to rename release.config to web.config and merge your custom updates into the new release.config.

Here are the steps for merging release.config and your web.config.

Go through your current web.config and compare to release.config, updating release.config to match your current web.config where appropriate. Wherever you make a change, put a comment so you can find your changes next time. Here are some changes, from top down. You might have others.

1. Connection Strings

<connectionStrings>
<add name="SiteSqlServer" 
connectionString="Data Source=xxxxxxxxx;
Initial Catalog=xxxxxxxxx;
User ID=xxxxxxxxx;
Password=xxxxxxxxx;" />
</connectionStrings>

2. Connection strings in appSettings

<appSettings>
<add key="SiteSqlServer"
value="Data Source=xxxxxxxxx;
Initial Catalog=xxxxxxxxx;
User ID=xxxxxxxxx;
Password=xxxxxxxxx;" />

3. Also under appSettings, turn off AutoUpgrade. This prevents the upgrade from running automatically if someone else gets to your website before you do after you upload the upgrade files. To run the upgrade you will need to go to this page: /Install/Install.aspx?mode=upgrade

<add key="AutoUpgrade" value="false"/>

4. Machine key. You need to keep this the same for the database to decode encypted fields, like passwords.

<system.web>
<machineKey validationKey="xxxxxxxxxxxx"
decryptionKey="xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
decryption="3DES" validation="SHA1"/>

5. Code directories. If you have updated your App_Code folder with code directories, put them here. This is how I do it. If you use these folders, you will also need to move the .vb files in App_Code to the vb folder.

<compilation ...
<codeSubDirectories>
<add directoryName="cs" />
<add directoryName="vb" />
</codeSubDirectories>

6. If you want to see the errors, change to this.

<customErrors mode="Off" />

7. Increase the timeout, to a big number, if you like. This way loading large modules will not cause a time out.

<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms name=".DOTNETNUKE" protection="All"
timeout="80000" cookieless="UseCookies" 
slidingExpiration="true" />

8. Increase membership userIsOnlineTimeWindow to 30 minutes if you like.

9. Update to your membership settings. The one change I make is to the applicationName, which I like to use "/".

<membership ...
<add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider"
type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider"
connectionStringName="SiteSqlServer"
enablePasswordRetrieval="true"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
minRequiredPasswordLength="7"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" 
requiresUniqueEmail="false"
passwordFormat="Encrypted"
applicationName="/"
description="Stores and retrieves membership data from the local Microsoft SQL Server database"
/>

10. Update your DotNetNuke database object qualifier. This is a prefix that is used to identify DotNetNuke database objects. I use "dnn_" as the object qualifier. If you do not know yours, use Sql Server Management Studio to connect to your database and look at the table names.

Make any other changes that are in your original web.config.

<data defaultProvider="SqlDataProvider">
<providers>
<clear />
<add name="SqlDataProvider"
type="DotNetNuke.Data.SqlDataProvider, DotNetNuke.SqlDataProvider"
connectionStringName="SiteSqlServer"
upgradeConnectionString=""
providerPath="~\Providers\DataProviders\SqlDataProvider\"
objectQualifier="dnn_"
databaseOwner="dbo" />

<membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider"
userIsOnlineTimeWindow="30">

By Andrew Weitzen, Bronze Inc. (c) 2010

Bronze is the publisher of several online Internet journals including: InternetHandholding.com, DomainNames.gs, DotNetNuke.bz, Programmer.bz, Software.vg, WebHosting.vg