When using Umbraco CMS, there are a couple of things that are helpful in how to be able to use the same software for multiple installations and being able to start from scratch over and over.
We have switched to Umbraco recently on our own e-commerce solution and there are a couple of things that makes the managing of database more smooth.
Restart your Umbraco installation
In order to restart your Umbraco you with to start up with a blank database. To do this, change the setting in the web.config file where you can see the current version of your Umbraco installation.
If you set it to blank, then you will be able to run the installation wizard once more.
This will guide you through the installation and finally you will end up with an installation.
If you just delete the App_Data\Umbraco.sdf file having the default setting for connection string in your Web.config, you will have a problem on startup:
If you have a problem like this on startup:
Boot failed: Umbraco cannot run. See Umbraco’s log file for more details.
-> Umbraco.Core.Exceptions.BootFailedException: A connection string is configured but Umbraco could not connect to the database.
vid Umbraco.Core.RuntimeState.DetermineRuntimeLevel(IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory, ILogger logger) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\RuntimeState.cs:rad 194
vid Umbraco.Core.Runtime.CoreRuntime.DetermineRuntimeLevel(IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory, IProfilingLogger profilingLogger) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\Runtime\CoreRuntime.cs:rad 290
vid Umbraco.Core.Runtime.CoreRuntime.Boot(IRegister register, DisposableTimer timer) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\Runtime\CoreRuntime.cs:rad 169
Beskrivning: Ett undantag som inte kunde hanteras uppstod när den aktuella webbegäran kördes. Mer information om felet och var i koden det uppstod finns i stackspårningen.
Undantagsinformation: Umbraco.Core.Exceptions.BootFailedException: Boot failed: Umbraco cannot run. See Umbraco’s log file for more details.
-> Umbraco.Core.Exceptions.BootFailedException: A connection string is configured but Umbraco could not connect to the database.
vid Umbraco.Core.RuntimeState.DetermineRuntimeLevel(IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory, ILogger logger) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\RuntimeState.cs:rad 194
vid Umbraco.Core.Runtime.CoreRuntime.DetermineRuntimeLevel(IUmbracoDatabaseFactory databaseFactory, IProfilingLogger profilingLogger) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\Runtime\CoreRuntime.cs:rad 290
vid Umbraco.Core.Runtime.CoreRuntime.Boot(IRegister register, DisposableTimer timer) i D:\a\1\s\src\Umbraco.Core\Runtime\CoreRuntime.cs:rad 169
This problem is because there already is an entry in the Web.config file pointing to an existing installation and then the database will not be created.
You will have the same problem if you change the connection string to point to a SQL Server instance but with no contents.
To resolve the problem, reset the setting in Web.config as mentioned above.
Fredrik Gustavsson