When I first found YEF I thought (but now I am convinced) it's an amazing product, and the price of free is great. Once I downloaded it and uploaded it to my GoDaddy hosting, well then all the problems started. I followed all of the instructions in the install docs but to noavail, I was still unable to get it working. So after a couple of weeks of changes this and that (I will explain all of the this's and that's) and reading the forum competly (or so it felt like) I was able to get it to work (with the help of a few posts, which I will cite).
Seeing as how the great people a YEF share their knowledge all the time I wanted to take the time to give back to them and their community a little bit, so I am posting the complete instructions on who to get this working with your GoDaddy hosting account.
1) First things first, make sure you download YAF-v1.9.3-FINAL-BIN-NET20
2) You need to create your database. Currently YEF only supports MSSQL (with MySQL support on the way I believe). From your hosting control panel select databases then SQL Server. Once their enter your database name, select DSN and enter a password. You must remember this password, username and database name as you will need it in the db file. Once you click OK it will take about 5-10 minutes for the system to create the database.
3) Go to your File Manager (Content --> File Manager) and create the Folder for your forum (often just called Forum). Make sure you remember the directory structre where you created it (i.e. root\mtw\forum).
4) We need to make this folder (where the forum is being held) Virtual Application folder. Go to Content --> IIS Settings. Once there Select Content Root and click the create button. In the Directory Name box enter the path to your forum (i.e. mtw\forum), select Set Application Root and Anonymous Access and click OK. Once you click OK it will again take 5-10 minutes for it to create this Virtual Directory (don't worry you can still move on to the next steps while it's creating)
5) In the YAF-v1.9.3-FINAL-BIN-NET20\webconfigs folder (when you extracted the YAF-v1.9.3-FINAL-BIN-NET20.zip files to) copy the recommended-web.config file to the root of the folder and rename it to web.config.
6) Upload all of the files from the YAF-v1.9.3-FINAL-BIN-NET20 to your forum folder (i.e. mtw\forum)
7) Next we need the Host Name for the database. This is the server name that GoDaddy has assigned to house your database. Go to Databases --> SQL Server and you should see that your database says setup. If it still says "Pending Setup" then we need to wait until it's set up before we can continue. Once it's set up click the Pencil (Edit/View Details) Icon and it will load your database settings. You will then see the "Host Name", now write this down.
8) Now we need to start changing the app.config, db.config, mail.config and web.config (Thanks to RickP714 for the posting on this: http://forum.yetanotherforum.net/yaf_postst8918_GoDaddy-1-9-1-8-to-1-9-3-update-success.aspx )
Do the following:
MODIFYapp.config:
add a password manually to (Line 12)----------------------
add a root to (Copy Line 104 to Line 106 and change)------
Enable URL Rewritting (Line 34, change False to True)-----
db.config:
add your connection string
Note: Data Source = Host Name you copied from GoDaddy SQL Server Screen --> View/Edit Details
mail.config:
add your GoDaddy email accountinfo:
Line 4 ------------Uncomment Line 7---
web.config:
(Thanks to logan for this: http://forum.yetanotherforum.net/yaf_postsm30955_Auto-login-not-working.aspx#post30955 )
Go to: http://www.developmentnow.com/articles/machinekey_generator.aspx and click on Generate Random Keys, copy the ASP.NET 2.0 machineKey.
It should look something like this:
validationKey="D5AA0100C84F39ABDA779B2C112CDBA0D6E289F2DD38CD568841F190532B2D46AAA94663348409A71D5A0CE33D4969C1781FB8EA7631617E20CC3F512FF9B90D"decryptionKey="667D2CC04EE0960A055C0CFC8939559DE1FF0AA6884031F977F774291FA4E905"
validation="SHA1" decryption="AES"
/>
Paste that info on Line 40 (in the system.web section)
On line 110 add the following: minRequiredPasswordLength="3" minRequiredNonAlphanumericCharacters="0" to the:
9) After you have done this, saved your files and uploaded them. Then open your forum/install folder and go through the process (i.e. www.mysite.com/mtw/forum/install)
10) It will ask you for your config password, this is the password we set in Step 8 in the app.config file (the manual password).
11) It will then ask you to create a admin user name and password (Password must be min 3 chars, as per Step 8 the last change in web.config file)
If you have any problems just let me know and I will see what I can do to help.
Thanks and good luck!