I thought I'd take a minute to share with the community an example of an enterprise solution that can be created /w DotNetNuke.  I'm just about to the sale point of my product (which I now have over 2,000 hours invested) to the Skydiving community.

The product has web components (all dotnetnuke) and windows forms components.  Communication between the two is all through the database in my products tables, all pre-fixed with rd_ to avoid confusion.  The windows forms application uses read-only information only from the DNN tables and only on a few occasions.  I am using SQL Server replication between the web site and the local system.  The database was carefully designed to avoid concurrency issues durring times when replication stops due to a failed link...  this was done by seldomly updating critical rows, but instead appending changes and using indexed views for summaries.  As an example, there is no place where an account balance is stored - instead credit and debit rows are added, and a view is used to calculate a balance each time it is created.

Over a week's time, my beta system is seeing 100 or so web orders placed, and 100 or so phone orders (using the windows forms application) and 20 or so walk-in orders.  Because availability is a big issue; this solves a big problem in an industry where the only other solutions are web-only or office only; and a good amount of time is spent combining reservations of different types into a master list..  Also, because I was unhappy with the flexibility of existing DNN shopping cart and events modules; I wrote my own and gave them windows forms to provide a full point of sale package for my clients.  I still have a little work to do in many areas, and a lot of work in a few areas, but the product is robust enough to already be in production.

While I don't have a lot of documentation up yet; I do have a bunch of screenshots posted with descriptions.

view this website for product information:  http://www.RealDropzone.com

One of the reasons I am posting this here, is that I see great potential for an industry generic point of sale plug-in for DotNetNuke; and while I don't have time to modify andn package my solution for such a cause; If I find someone else who would like to take on a project like this; I would be more than willing to assist with a few hours a week and by providing code and insight based on my last year's experience.

It is worth mentioning that a key component that I was missing when I designed this solution, is the web services project that Micheal Washington has been working on - Had it been as mature when I started as it is now, I would have gone a different route.

I hope that this post gives other vertical industry developers an example of just how powerful a role DotNetNuke core can be in providing value-add to enterpise solutions.  If I hadn't had DotNetNuke as a tool in my toolbox, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish what I did in such little time; plus the content management aspect of my solution is a great selling point.