I was working my way through Nick Symmonds Beginnin DNN book and got to the Creating a Module chapter.
The TimePunch.SqlDataProvider file he speaks of simply does not exist.
So I moved on to Shawn Walker's book and tried to go through his Hello World Module.
No SqlDataProvider needed for that one.
I figured I could at least learn how to create, register and install a custom module that didn't do anything with data.

All I wanted was for the label to say Hello World and that does't even show up in the module on a page.
Shawn's book says put the label in the viewHelloWorld.ascx file.
What could I possibly be doing wrong?

I've been programming .Net since the beginning. I'm no superman programmer but I no my way around well enough to know when a product is virtually useless and more trouble than its worth. If no one answers this thread with a usable answer my evalutation of DNN is over. Life is too short.
I've implimented Microsoft's Content Management system which was a pleasure to work with no problem. I just wanted to leverage some of these DNN modules like discussions or forums but I can see that is not going to happen.

I would suggest you forget the books - and have a look at the documentation provided on the DNN site itself.

The module developers guide for starters.
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/About/Documentation/ProjectDocuments/tabid/478/Default.aspx

And the other documents on Michael Washingtons website.
http://dotnetnuke.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNuke/tabid/195/Default.aspx

Westa