We’re getting ready to launch the beta of the new awesome.net windows cloud hosting platform. I was showing the new awesome.net site to Will Strohl (DotNetNuke guru and all around good guy) and he said “Jess, make sure you get facebook on there and you integrate it with the open graph api so you can admin it and get analytics and stuff”. The URL he sent me to was: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/.

Now before you go running off to awesome.net, If it’s not after 4/11/11 then you’re not going to see much, but if it’s after 4/11/11 then go ahead and sign up for a beta account, it will be FREE until sometime in September.

Anyway, Will gave me the pointer to the Open Graph but how to integrate it just wasn’t as straightforward as you’d hope so I wanted to give you a quick start guide with this blog post because I think this is something everyone should be doing with their websites.

Quick Intro to the Open Graph API

The Open Graph API allows you to integrate your Web pages into Facebook making it equivalent to a Facebook Page.  This means, when someone clicks “Like” on your web page a connection is made between the user and your page and your page will show up in their likes and interests section on their profile.

Not only that but you can also push information on Facebook to people that have liked your web page. 

Basically, Open Graph will allow the Web to marry Facebook and the two to become one.

You can learn more about Open Graph at: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph/

How To Integrate your Site

What we’re going to do is add a like box to your website so that when visitors like your page it will create a small post on their Facebook page so that their friends will hopefully visit your site and like it too!

The first thing you’ll want to do is visit the open graph URL and give it a read.

1. Pick Your Title

Let’s decide what the title of our page will be. This should be human readable text and t’s going to be the title on the post that people will see.  In my case, I opted for “My Cloud is Awesome.net!” as seen below

so then I create meta tags in a text editor.  It looks like this:

<meta property="og:title" content="My Cloud is Awesome.Net!" />

One note on the title. You’ll be able to change your title up until you have 50 followers and then it’s locked in for good. So make sure you’re happy with the title you picked (I may actually be changing mine soon).

2. Pick your Site Name

Pretty simple, what’s your website’s name? I opted for the domain name in this case so it looks like this:

<meta property="og:site_name" content="Awesome.Net" />

3. Decide on your Type.

Now you’ll have a few options here depending on what your site is about, it could be about an actor, athlete, city, landmark, book, drink, food or it could be about a blog, website or company. In my case, it was about a company so I opted for company and the tag looks like this:

<meta property="og:type" content="company" />

4. Define your URL

This is the URL that will be used to identify your site/object and will be used as it’s permanent ID. I decided to keep it simple and use the main page as the URL so my tag looks like:

<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.awesome.net/" />

The result:

5. Define an Image

Facebook is all about the images. So you’ll want to get an image that’s atleast 50 pixels by 50 pixels in size and post it on your site.  In my case I used:

<meta property="og:image" content="http://www.awesome.net/images/mycloudisawesome.jpg" />

So the image shows here:

6. Define your Description.

This will be the text that shows up next your image and under the post title. I went with some marketing talk:

<meta property="og:description" content="Awesome Websites Deserve Awesome.Net Cloud Hosting. Experience the future of cloud hosting, for FREE!" />

Similar to the title you’re able to change your title at any time but eventually you’ll get enough followers that your description will be locked in permanently. How many? 10,000 followers.  Yes, 10,000. Let’s hope you hit that number (and please don’t do a Charlie Sheen to get there .. good actor, poor choices.).

Here’s how it came out:

7. Define your Admin

You’ll want to make yourself the administrator of your site. You have the option to allow an application to administer your site on facebook or you can have a person do it. I decided to do it myself. How do you pick the administrator? You have to know your Facebook User ID. No this is not your email address, it’s actually a numeric number.  Here’s the easiest way to figure it out.

1. Log into facebook go to your profile and click on photos
2. Next select any album under your photos.  in the url you’ll see something like this:
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=777777777&aid=269239
4. That number after id= is your facebook user id (in the above example it’s 777777777 and no that’s not really my User ID, I’m only using it as an example.

So your admin tag will look like this:

<meta property="fb:admins" content="77777777777" />

8. Define your Optional Data.

These you can find explained on the Open Graph API docs but I went with the following:

<meta property="email" content="sales@awesome.net" />
<meta property="phone_number" content="866-706-8691" />

9. Add it all to your meta tags in your web page’s <HEAD></HEAD>

So once you have all of these ready, go ahead and copy and paste them into your web site’s source code inside of the <HEAD> section. Ideally, place it all just before </HEAD>.

10. Test Before you Like

Before you go liking your site. Make sure Facebook is reading everything on your site. The easiest way to do this is with the Facebook URL Linter at: http://developers.facebook.com/tools/lint/

Putting in http://www.awesome.net I get:

The reason this is important is that the first time I built my page, it didn’t pull my meta data correctly, I liked the page and then immediately had to remove the post from my facebook profile. So test first. Once you’re happy go ahead and like it.

11. Add the Like Code.

Next we need to add the like code to our site. In my case, I went with iframe code. Here’s a tidbit, when loading external javascript if you load it as a iframe it won’t slow down the site from loading in the event there’s a problem with the site you’re pulling the javascript from.

You can visit: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/ to see the different plugins you can integrate with your site. I used the like button builder: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ and copied in the iframe code to my site in the footer:

Why you’ll want integrate the Open Graph API

So you probably saw in the image above where I embedded I have links for an Admin Page and Insights. These are only visible if you’re an admin of your application and visit the site. Clicking on the Admin Page I can see:

So I can interact with my page there and if I go to my Wall I can post stuff that will show up to my fans, etc.

Next we’ll take a sneak peek at the insights page. Since this is a new app on facebook you won’t have any insights to display but it’s going to provide information like this:

Where to go next?

First I’m going to ask that you do me a favor and visit the www.awesome.net site and like the page (bottom left hand corner) next I’ll recommend you check out http://developer.facebook.com and start experimenting with what you can do there. 

Oh and if you’re wondering who that was in my Facebook page, that’s Lyza from www.acutevisibility.com their company does online branding and marketing, if you’re not comfortable integrating the Open Graph API with your site or want to learn more about it, I’m sure they’d be happy to chat with you on it.

That’s where WebMatrix comes in, it will allow you build a staging area on your local company that you can use as a test and development environment that will mimic EXACTLY your production environment.  This means you’ll be using the same version of IIS, ASP.NET, PHP, SQL, etc that your production environment would use. Then when you publish it will not only publish all of your files for you but also your database content and set any file permissions, application settings and even change the version of .NET or PHP your site runs as if necessary!  This is HUGE!

Using WebMatrix to upgrade DotNetNuke

A couple years ago Applied Innovations acquired awesome.net into our company. It’s still run as it’s own independent company with it’s own website built on top of DotNetNuke.  Today we needed to upgrade the install of DotNetNuke from 5.5 to 5.6.1 and because this is a production website for a company that gets a decent amount of traffic we didn’t want to do the upgrade in-place on the webserver.   I decided to use WebMatrix to do this upgrade and built out a tutorial video of the progress.  The video has been broken down into 4 steps each only a couple minutes long and the total video is about 10 minutes total. 

This is a great example of how anyone (regardless of their web development experience) can leverage WebMatrix to manage their production website today.

NOTE: To do this you have to be on Windows Server 2008, running IIS7 and have Web Deploy enabled.  If you’re uncertain if your site supports this just email support@appliedi.net and we’ll let you know if you’re on a 2008 server that supports this or not.

Getting DotNetNuke Ready

Ultimately, we’re going to download a copy of our production website to our local company and work on it there. Before this will work though we need to set a Portal Alias in DotNetNuke so that the site will run on our local computer just as it does on the web server. If you don’t set the Portal Alias then when you run the site on your local computer the first time it’s just going to redirect to domain and your production site.

In the below video we set a Portal Alias for “localhost:42533” which is our local computer and port number we’re going to run the local web server.

Getting Our Development Environment Ready & Downloading The Content

Next we’ll want to make sure we’ve downloaded WebMatrix. If you haven’t or you’re not familiar with WebMatrix, you can get it from www.microsoft.com/webmatrix.   In the video below we’re going to use WebMatrix to download and install a DotNetNuke site on our local computer. It will prepare the files and database for us. We’re not actually going to run this site because once it’s created the directory structure and a blank database we’re going to connect to our production site and pull down all of our website’s files, images and even it’s database.  Yes WebMatrix is going to do all of that for us including the database!

Setting Our local WebMatrix server to run on port 42533

In my first video we set a Portal Alias for “localhost:42533”.  By default WebMatrix picks a random port to run on each time you create a new site in it.  Chances are you’re on a different port. This is easy to fix though, you just go into webmatrix, click on Site, settings and change the port number to whatever the port is you used in the portal alias.  In this video I quickly step you through that.

Let’s Upgrade DotNetNuke and Publish Our Changes

In this last video, we’ve already downloaded the latest upgrade package from www.dotnetnuke.com.  We’re going to go ahead and extract these files over the top of our development/webmatrix site and then run it locally. That’s going to upgrade our local DotNetNuke site and allow us to test it out completely.  Once we’re pleased with it, then we’re going to use WebMatrix and publish all the files AND the database back to the production environment overwriting everything that’s there.  I know what you’re thinking “oh man, this is where it’s going to blow up my website!”.  But in reality we’ve done the upgrade and all of the testing using WebMatrix so we know we’ve tested that this application runs using the same version of IIS, ASP.NET and SQL that we’re going to use in our production environment, so we’re good!

We’d Love To Hear From You

So that’s how I used WebMatrix to upgrade our production website for www.awesome.net.  I could have used a dummy website for this testing but since we’re telling you that it can be done with production websites, I thought it would be best to actually show you it can by doing it.  WebMatrix is a fantastic tool that would let you do this type of operation with just about any type of dynamic website out there be it based in ASP.NET and SQL Server or PHP and MySQL!  It’s a great way to test new modules, new themes, code changes, etc before actually making them live.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and if you’re still not certain about WebMatrix and leary about running on your production server you can sign up for 3 Months of free WebMatrix ready hosting at www.appliedi.net/webmatrix and give it a try!

Now I didn’t do a ton of research on the new bank (they ultimately hooked me with a promise of $125 for a new checking account) but I have been very impressed by their customer service and level of follow up, so now I am bringing them more business. Not only am I opening CDs (with these low interest rates sadly) but I am also referring my friends to them because honestly they are great.

Make a Good First Impression

First impressions are KEY! Within the first minute of me waiting at the new bank, a representative greeted me and told me that somebody would be with me very shortly. She was right. Minutes later I was at a desk with a banking specialist.

Make the Client Feel Important

After setting up my new checking and savings accounts, my representative brought over the bank manager who “wanted to personally introduce herself to me”.  I wish I could say that was because I was opening a huge new account, but truthfully she must do that for everybody and even though she does I felt super important.

Make the Client’s Life Easier

What probably surprised me most about the experience was that my banking representative offered to submit my new direct deposit to my company and follow up with them for me. So wait, I don’t even have to set-up my own direct deposit? HOW FABULOUS!

Make a Follow-up Call/Visit

Even though they had “sealed the deal” with my business already, the new bank earned even more of my business (and more importantly my referrals) by simply following up with me. A couple of days after I opened my new accounts, the personal banking representative called me to check-in, make sure I got my ATM card, and see how things were going. Then two days later her assistant called to let me know the direct deposit process was complete. Both of them asked if there was anything else they could do to help, but I already felt as if I had the royal treatment.

Now THAT is a way to make an impression, provide good customer service, and ultimately gain more business!

(For those of you wondering…my praises are directed at Chase!)

There are many issues that can cause a site to fail a PCI scan, but one of the most common reasons is having SSL version 2.0 and weak SSL ciphers enabled on the server. This is the standard default behavior on Windows Server 2003 so corrective action must be taken to disable these items. Weak SSL ciphers should already be disabled on Windows Server 2008 by default but you still have to disable SSL v2.0. You should ensure you have a full working backup of your server’s system state (which includes the registry) before making any of the following changes.

To disable SSL v2.0 (necessary for Windows Server 2003 and 2008):

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor browse to the following location:  HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server

* For Windows Server 2008 you first have to create the Server key so browse to this location:  HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0
a. Right click on the SSL 2.0 folder, select New, and click Key.
b. Name the key exactly as shown: Server

3. Right click on the Server Key, select New, and click DWORD Value (the exact name on Windows Server 2008 is DWORD (32-bit) Value)
4. Name the key exactly as shown: Enabled
5. Verify that the key is set to type REG_DWORD with a Data value of 0×00000000 (0)
6. If you have a Windows 2003 Server you’ll need to follow the procedure outlined below for disabling weak SSL ciphers. If you have a Windows 2008 server you still need to reboot your server to force the changes to take effect but you are done making all necessary registry changes.

To disable weak SSL ciphers (necessary for Windows 2003):

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and click OK.
2. In the Registry Editor browse to the following location: HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers
3. Right click on the DES 56/56 key, select New, and click DWORD Value.
4. Name the key exactly as shown: Enabled
5. Verify that the key is set to type REG_DWORD with a Data value of 0×00000000 (0)
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for the following keys: RC2 40/120, RC4 40/128, RC4 56/128
7. Reboot your server to force these changes to take effect.

Taking the above steps will correct PCI scanning issues related to having SSL v2 and weak SSL ciphers enabled.

It can be caused by creating a new application under your ASPDNSF root folder, or by turning the “admin” folder into an application.

Here’s the partial error message (the one that is common to everyone):
[HttpException (0x80004005): Theme 'Default' cannot be found in the application or global theme directories.]

If you run into this issue on ASPDotNetStoreFront, please follow the steps below:

1. Download a copy of the App_Themes folder by clicking here.
2. Unzip the file and upload the whole “App_Themes” folder into your ASPDNSF’s root directory.
3. Reset your application pool.
   
   TIP: You can force a reset by renaming your web.config file to web.config2 and then renaming it back to web.config – this will force ASP.NET to reload your configuration file.

This operation should make your ASPDotNetStoreFront accessible again.

There’s a new vulnerability exposed in Microsoft’s IIS FTP server where it contains a stack buffer overflow in the handling of directory names which could allow a remote attack to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable server.  Now before you go off thinking “great, Microsoft isn’t secure” that’s not that case at all. This type of vulnerability is very common and happens in all kinds of applications.   What’s uncommon about this attack and what makes it ‘zero day’ is that it was just announced as a vulnerability and Microsoft hasn’t had an opportunity to patch against it yet.

You can learn more about this vulnerability at the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team’s site: https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/276653

Good news: You’re Zero Day PROTECTED already!

We have installed on our network what we believe to be the best network security devices available on the market today and they’re already doing there job!  On our network is something called an Intrusion Protection Server or IPS.  The IPS is like a firewall that works to block application attacks and vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, SQL injection, etc.   The IPS vendor we use has a strong relationship with Microsoft and as such had this vulnerability protected ZERO DAY.   Had we not had this device in place the only way to effectively protect against this attack would have been to disable FTP writes and that would have been disastrous!

This is an example of what separates a good hosting provider for every other hosting provider out there.  We know you selected us as your hosting provider because you want us to do the hosting and handle headaches like this for you so you could concentrate on your business and building value for your customers.   You didn’t know there was a vulnerability and now because we’re doing what you’ve asked us to do, you don’t care there’s a vulnerability because you’re protected already.

Thanks for selecting Applied Innovations as your Windows Hosting Provider.

Working around IE8 in IIS7

In order to get around this problem, we’re going to add a custom header to the webserver that will tell IE8 to process the page in IE7 compatibility mode, thus displaying the page in IE8 just as it would display in IE7. This edit will be site wide and affect all pages on your website.

In IIS7 we can enable what’s called Delegated administration allowing you to have full access to the same IIS Manager functions we use on the server to manage your site.  What you’ll do is open your site in the IIS Manager, Navigate to “HTTP Response Headers” as shown below:

And then add a new header named “X-UA-Compatible” with a value “IE=EmulateIE7” as shown below:

Working around IE8 in IIS6

In IIS6 the process is similar except you’ll navigate to the site in question in the IIS MMC and click on properties and then select the HTTP Headers tab:

And add a new ‘Custom HTTP Header named “X-UA-Compatible” with a value “IE=EmulateIE7” as shown below:

Working around IE8 on a per-page or per-application basis

If you don’t wish to enable this to your entire website you can also do the same thing via headers inside the <HEAD> section of your webpages. If you add the line:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

In your HTML page just below the <HEAD> line it will enable IE7 Emulation in IE8. If you use a web application with a templating engine, like wordpress you can add this to the headers template so that all pages generate have this setting. Then later after you fix the HTML of your pages you can go in and remove it.

You can learn more about this in the Microsoft Support Article: Your Web site may not display correctly in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1.

Much like other applications we’ve recently introduced, Kentico is now as easy to install through the control panel as a few clicks. Kentico Lite has many features bundled with it right out of the box. See the following Knowledge Base article for instructions on installing Kentico Lite and begin using this wonderful CMS.

Our Community Server 2008 application pack has been custom coded into the control panel to make the process as painless as possible. It literally takes less than 5 minutes to install. Please see our support article that explains the process. This express edition can also easily be upgraded to other versions of Community Server 2008.

Although Applied Innovations is an ASP.net specialized web-host, many do not realize that PHP is available to our customers. With the flip of a switch in the HELM control panel, you can enable PHP. Then, with a mySQL database which is included with VS-1 and higher plans, you can install Joomla! for free and have a huge community of PHP/Open Source developers working together to bring you free add-ons such as the famous free shopping cart “Virtuemart“. PHP runs on Windows, and it runs great especially with “Fast CGI” which is installed on AppliedI’s shared webservers. It should be noted that an advantage of Windows and IIS is that you can run ASP.net 3.5 and PHP side-by-side. Something you can not do on Linux (Well, not 100% functionally anyway; see “ASP.net – mod_mono“).