Thunder connections FAIL!

I am trying in vein to connect Thunder to my sitefinity project, running my local IIS 7.5 server. No matter what IP I give it, the bloody thing will not connect.

I try the localhost:[port number] IP that you get when you select "Go to Administration", but no... that fails with a "Error occurred while connecting to the server." error, right after I enter it in the URL text box.

Then, if I use the IP of my webserver, the one that I bind to the website hosting sitefintiy, I don't get that initial error, but when I try to test the connection, I get "Test connection failed" every... single... time!

The video LIES, it's not that easy to set up the connection! What am I doing wrong? Is it that I'm using IIS with Sitefinity that is causing it to fail?

Hi,

Before connecting, would it be possible to do the following: In Visual Studio, go to Telerik - Sitefinity Thunder - Install Sitefinity Thunder Module and browse to the folder of the project you want to connect to and click install. This will install the Thunder module again. After that, refresh and restart the application. Test the connection again and you should be able to connect without problems. 

Regards,
Atanas Valchev
the Telerik team

I did that, and... fail, fail and BIG SURPRISE, NOT... FAIL!

I cannot understand how something that sounds so simple, is SO FRIGGING HARD TO IMPLEMENT!!

OK, finally got this working. Had to uninstall Thunder, do a registery clean with CCleaner, reinstall Thunder and reboot my machine. To my surprise, when I got Visual Studio up and running, I was able to connect, finally!

Now I have to work out how this Thunder thing functions, so I can add in my custom C# classes for custom web page controls, well widgets now.

Lurch said:OK, finally got this working. Had to uninstall Thunder, do a registery clean with CCleaner, reinstall Thunder and reboot my machine. To my surprise, when I got Visual Studio up and running, I was able to connect, finally!

Now I have to work out how this Thunder thing functions, so I can add in my custom C# classes for custom web page controls, well widgets now.

Lurch,

Thanks for this info. I was able to get a successful Thunder connection using your suggestions above.

However...

There was a new version of Thunder released today. I foolishly thought this wouldn't cause any issues, and let the thing update itself. Big mistake.

My connection now fails all over again. Uninstalling Thunder, cleaning the registry, reinstalling, and rebooting did not help this time.

This is INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING. There are at least four or five other threads about this exact same issue, and no one can provide a decent solution. In fact, despite multiple questions about it, no one has addressed whether there's even a log somewhere we can check to see WHY the remote connection consistently fails.

UGGH!

Addendum: Deleted all Thunder-related files from the live site; rebuilt project and published. Thunder connects just enough to retrieve membership providers, but the test connection continues to fail. Once again, this connection was working until the update today.

Addendum #2: Found this entry in ~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Logs/Error.log:


Anyone?

Atanas Valchev said:Hi,

Did you install the site module again after you updated the Visual Studio extension by going to TELERIK-Sitefinity Thunder - Install Sitefintiy Thunder Module from the VS menu?

Oh yes. Just tried it again, in fact, and the connection still fails.

Please keep in mind that this connection repeatedly failed until I followed Lurch's suggestion above from March 18. Now even those steps won't allow me to connect.

I thought perhaps the fact that I've got SSL required for backend login might have something to do with it, but using "https://" in the connection string prevents even the membership providers from being discovered.

Hi,

Did you install the site module again after you updated the Visual Studio extension by going to TELERIK-Sitefinity Thunder - Install Sitefintiy Thunder Module from the VS menu? This steps needs to be repeated every time the a new version is downloaded, this is the most likely cause for the connection error. This version was released to add support for the recently released hotfixes, it does not contain any changes that could cause issues. 

All the best,
Atanas Valchev
the Telerik team

Update: Another new version of Thunder was released today. I installed that, uninstalled and reinstalled Sitefinity itself (v. 5.2), installed the Thunder module to the local project, built the project and published to the server, logged into the server as admin before trying to connect with Thunder, and VIOLA'! Thunder can now connect.

Not sure what I did differently this time or what changed, but it works.

Thanks,
Kevin

I've tried installing the thunder module and it keeps saying that the folder is an invalid Sitefinity folder.

I was having TONS of problems with Thunder as well... I'm not sure how/when/why it happened, but ALL the Thunder related files became corrupted, preventing them from being overwritten, deleted, or even renamed.  The Thunder interface in VS just kept saying "Invalid Sitefinity Folder".   I recreated the directory structure of my site minus the Thunder files and I was then able to install and connect.

As a first step i did Install Sitefinity module and then tried to connect.. it works fine  thank you.

I was running into the same issue as Lurch.  Unlike him I was able to follow Valchev's suggestion to get my connection up and running.

Hi telerik team.. 

Is there any way to connect sitefinity thunder using different domain/network url.?

while trying to connect using other network url it shows an error like Test connection failed, but its successfully  connects for same domain url.

because here im creating a sitefinity project in server machine, and i need to connect that project with thunder from other machine. Can any one please let me know how to do that ?

Thank you.

Hi,

You should be able to connect ok to either project. Use the url to connect and just make sure that thunder module for the project you are connecting to is up to date (you can do this from the visual studio menu for Thunder and install the module assembly to the project you are connecting).

Regards,
Atanas Valchev
Telerik