I finally got around to testing the new release of  SlickUpload on my new Suse 9.1 test machine running mono 1.0.5

Sorry to say, but as I expected it doesn't work. It doesn't raise any errors but it doesn't upload the file.
See my previous post for the reasons I believe it doesn't work. Its not a problem with SlickUpload, its a lack of implementation in mono for functionality that exists in the ASP.NET/IIS stack.

It is possible that new functionality is available in the mono 1.1.x development branch that may make it into the next release build of mono (I'm doubtful but trying to be optimistic).  Sometime in the near future I plan to setup another test machine and getting frequent updates of the mono 1.1 branch using subversion and doing the builds myself so I can stay on top of the newest features.  It seems from the mailing list that a lot of times when people report bugs the answer is that its fixed in the latest code if you get it from the subversion repository. I think you almost have to be using daily builds to report bugs effectively. I'l post on this topic again after I get setup for doing builds from subversion.  It will be a good learning opportunity for me.

Update:12:33pm

Got an e-mail from Chris Hynes that gives me more hope that this is working in the developer branch. More motivation to learn how to build mono from svn. 

I got the FCKeditor working in conjunction with the Image Gallery. You can browse the Images on the server and insert them into the Html document or in a blog. You can also upload images right in the editor. I've tested it in IE, Firefox, and Mozilla. It works in IE and Firefox but I found a major problem on linux using Mozilla 1.6. In Mozilla 1.6 when you click the insert image icon it opens a dialog box that just stays grey and Mozilla becomes totally hung. I restarted my machine and tried again and got the exact same result.  My guess is it will work correctly if I get a newer version of Mozilla. If I get a chance I'll install a newer version and post again.

I made the switch tonight to FCKeditor becuase it seems plenty good to me and its totally open source unlike FreeTextBox.  Besides I've been having errors on monoForge with the FreeTextBox as of mono 1.1.3 but it could be a configuration issue I suppose since the mono guys say it works for them. Weird thing is the same code has been running fine for a long time on previous versions of mono. Anyway this is my first post with the new editor. FCKeditor is mostly javascript with a very small .NET wrapper whereas the FreeTextBox dll is 136kb which is almost as big as the mojoPortal.Web.dll for my whole site which is at 200kb currently. Not that size matters that much but interesting differences.

Next up on the development front is a Contact Form module so people can send me e-mail without knowing my address. Thats the last piece I need before I can migrate my JoeAudette.com site to mojoPortal from Rainbow.

After that I've got an idea for a more safe version of the File Manager. I'm not getting rid of the current one by any means but its a true file manager and it is very risky to expose the file system so directly, it should only be available to server administrators and developers.  The one I'm developing for normal users will provide a very similar user experience but the folders and file names will be database driven and the actual files will be managed on disk by the system in a safe way with the ability to prevent un-authorised download of files posted by users.  I will store all the files on disk in one folder, but the files will not be stored with their original names. They will be named Guid.ToString() + ".config" and the file name will be stored in the db along with the original file name which will be displayed to the user. This will prevent the files from being downloaded directly via http requests without any special server configuration because the server is already configured not to serve .config files. There will be virtual folders with a FolderID, ParentID, Name structure and the files can be assigned a FolderID. This should be enough to present the user with a normal file system like experiance. This will be a replacement for the Documents module.

I'm shooting for another release this sunday evening with the contact form and new editor.

I'm thinking of switching from FreeTextBox to FCKEditor for the Html WYSIWYG used in this project.  FreeTextBox is great but its not as free as I'd like it to be for this project.  FCKEditor is licensed under the GNU Lesser Public License and most importantly includes the source code.  It also looks plenty feature rich, I let you know how it goes with a trial.

I'm almost finished with a new File Manager module based on the free open source SeekDotNet File Manager  Its pretty sweet and was easy to integrate.

I'm also using a free and open source HttpModule for file uploads written by Chris Hynes. Its called SlickUpload and it can handle very large files and supports a progress bar easily.  It also integrated easily with just a few lines of code and a little javascript.  I've been looking for something like this for a long time and am really glad to have found it. I've used the ABCUpload control and its pretty nice too but I needed a free one for this project since this project is free and open source.

For those of you who had troubles with the last release I promise to test the installation process more carefully, there was some bad data in the initial data creation scripts. I don't have an upgrade procedure in place yet but thats one of the reasons I'm still calling the releases alpha. I think you can upgrade though by replacing all the files and then carefully comparing the table and data scripts to your database and modify your db where needed. At some point I will have an automatic upgrade process but thats my best advice for now. I'm shooting for a new release by Sunday evening hopefully with both the new Image Gallery and File Manager modules.

I'm also happy to report that the performance improvements in mono for ASP.NET are very evident since they upgraded the servers at monoForge to the newer mono 1.1 branch.

Exciting times at mojoPortal!