DNN Error

I have been using DotNetNuke (DNN) A LOT recently. For building a web framework, it absolutely rocks and is very easy to use. It is also very popular (I think 800k sites and growing) so there are loads of add-ons, videos, help guides, etc. Plus, it is free. I may need to put my demos site under it and showcase SAS a bit.

Normally, it is also pretty easy to use. Recently, though, I encountered a tough issue to debug.

I encountered the following error on opening the site:

An error has occurred. An error has occurred.

As I read up on it and understood it a bit more, lots of things can cause it. Basically, DNN has a serious error and it will not start.

To help diagnose it:

1. Go to the SQL Server database and open up the EventLog. 
2. Go to the last events in the log. An error on compilation or missing files typically will generate multiple entries. Look for the cluster of errors at the bottom of the log.
3. For the first record of the error, select the LogProperties, right-click and copy. Save this to a file called errors.xml (or whatever). Right-click and open it in a browser.
4. The final part of the XML file will contain the actual exception.

This error will be masked as other things. What I have seen is the following:

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

DotNetNuke.UI.Skins.Skin.GetSkin(PageBase page)

 

 

However, if I went up 4 records, I got the real error message:

DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Unhandled error loading page. ---> System.Web.HttpParseException: The file '/DesktopModules/DDRMenu/Menu.ascx' does not exist.


Ultimately, I had to delete a virtual directory in IIS to get it working again.

HTH someone else in the search engines.