Getting Started with the Source Code

Getting started with the source code requires a few steps. First and foremost, you should become familiar with DNN.

1. Fork the repository into your own GitHub repository.
2. Create a directory on your development computer where the project will live. Ideally, the path should be something like C:\Work\Hotcakes\.
3. Create a Website folder in this new directory and install DNN Platform version 09.02.02 there.
4. Install the latest Hotcakes Commerce release into the website. This gets your database to where it needs to be.
5. Clone your repository into the empty Hotcakes folder.
6. Be sure to have this repository added as the upstream remote and your repository as the origin remote.
7. Update the web.config to reflect your database connection string.
8. Copy the contents of the folder in C:\Work\Hotcakes\Website\Portals\_default to the same folder inside the cloned Hotcakes repository (do not overwrite any files, just copy the missing files and skip the others).
9. Delete all of the files in the Website directory, including the Website folder.
10. Move the contents of the cloned Hotcakes repository to the directory where I created the DNN solution, in this case, C:\Work\Hotcakes\.

You can now begin looking at the code and building it.

Special Notes

• Open Visual Studio using the Run as Administrator feature and open the solution. In some environments, you might not get all of the dependencies installed (e.g., some AWS WorkSpaces). If this happens, it may be a missing dependency. For example, Microsoft.AspNet.MVC might not have been fully copied to the Microsoft.NET folder. To solve this, simply install the dependency using the ConsolePackageManager tool with the command Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.MVC -Version 4.0.40804.0 (You can get the version by checking the library's .csproj file corresponding to the error.) Then, copy the .dll from that reference to the following path C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NETFramework\v4.7.2. This solves the whole problem.
• If the PesonaBar toolbar is not visible you should delete the .resources file found in the C:\Work\Hotcakes\Website\DesktopModules\Admin\Dnn.PersonaBar\Resources\ directory.