Installing the SharePoint Forums Web Part

The biggest problem that I keep hearing about with the SharePoint Forums Web Part is installation. I think there is a flaw so that you will, almost always, get at least one error on security but with a page refresh this goes away (at least with all the tests I've done where I'm running as non-admin, non-Full trust, I get this).

However the biggest problem that everyone is talking about is the steps they're going through installing the web part and the errors they're getting. Here's an example:

"I've read all the documetation and followed it exactly and installed the dll files in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot directory but it still doesn't work."

Okay, this is wrong. The documentation does not say this, it says to find the directory where SharePoint is installed and in a default setup it will be this. It also says to create the "bin" folder (where the assemblies are) if it doesn't exist.

It's feedback like this that is causing problems with people installing the web part.

I'll be the first to admit, if the documentation is wrong (and it might be) then I'll update it so that anyone can install this. I'll also be the first to admit that if you've never installed a custom web part (and there are a lot of people that haven't) that these instructions can be a little daunting. We are working on an installer to make it as idiot-proof as possible and hopefully reduce it to a one-click install. The problem is that there are several moving parts that need to happen for the web part to make it into a virgin system including:

• Copying the assemblies to the "bin" folder
• Adding the SafeControl entries to the web.config file
• Creating a custom policy file
• Setting the custom policy file in the web.config
• Adding an assembly to the "gac"

These are non-trivial steps, but as far as I know I've documented them as much as possible on the Wiki site. So please refer to the installation instructions here first and foremost. Also remember to click on the hyperlink for each step, as it contains a more detailed set of instructions.

Like I said, if the instructions are incorrect or missing information (even the smallest thing) please let me know. Did I screw up? Maybe? Did you just assume things and skip steps? Possibly. I've been communicating with a *lot* of people and *almost* everytime, they've just ignored what the documentation said and put things in weird places (I even had one guy that copied the dll files to the 60 hive, which is just completely wrong).

Okay, enough of my ranting. Since I can't be at everyones machine to do the install for them the documentation (until a complete installer comes along) is the next best thing. Please help make it a complete and accurate document.

Thanks.