So I finally got Community Server 2007 installed, well upgraded from version 2. Seeing how I just spent the better part of 9 hours doing it, I thought I'd recap for anyone who might run across the issues I did.

The main issue I encountered occurred when I uploaded the new content files, and installed the database update script. When I tried to access the site, I got an exception "Specified cast is not valid." No matter how much kanoodling I did with tracing, compilation debug and turning off custom errors, I could not find a real answer as to the source of the problem. The only real clue was that the stack trace ended at "CommunityServer.Components.CommonDataProvider.PopulateUserFromIDataReader." I check out the method in Reflector, and sure enough it is unboxing values from the database, which must mean that the problem is at the database level.

To back up a sec, I host with GoDaddy. They don't allow remote access to their databases, and their web UI tool is pretty bad, so I've been using the Database Publishing Wizard and Service. I couldn't use either of the two methods listed for deployment, so I used the alternative option. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that somehow the .SQL file was blocked to requests, and the updates never happened to the database. Ultimately, I ended up changing the extension to .TXT, and the script ran.

So now Phase 1 is done, and we're onward and upward to Phase 2 – the fun part. I need to slice up my Photoshop files and integrate them into a CS theme. Oh, look at the hour! I guess I'll be doing this stuff tomorrow.

Napte buna!