I'm at a company finally looking into Content Management, but we already have several mostly self-contained business applications that need to stick around after we implement something. Yet when comparing the CMS options we have, I feel like all of them are too 'self-centered' to work together with other .NET applications. But I'm hoping that I am wrong (and I am totally new to DNN so definitely want to know if I'm wrong...).

Skins

In my current attempts to keep things consistent and use templates, we currently use MasterPages throughout our site. I think MasterPages are a great way to go (and perhaps that they should be supported in DNN), but recreating my site templates wouldn't be the biggest deal. The problem is, even after I create a DotNetNuke Skin that looks and functions like our website, I'm not going to be able to use that skin to style non-DNN portions of our website, right?

For example, We've got an existing set of pages for employees used to schedule training events for example. The site must identify the employee using Active Directory, then must reference the application's database which had details about the training events they need and the one's they have scheduled. Administrators of the training system can create new events. Events appear and disappear depending on the dates they are scheduled, and so on. The page is fine as it is, and I'm sure I can plunk it in to a virtual directory under the DNN root and it would work fine, but how can I get it to work together with DNN?

I assume there is no way for me to implement a DNN skin from within a home-grown ASP.NET page. I imagine that I also can't get such pages to work together with DNN's indexing/search feature. So is there just no way for me to have a nicely integrated solution?

Sharing Controls

This one is more question and less observation. Can I share controls between plain old vanilla-ASPX and DNN?

When I reviewed Microsoft SharePoint, it seemed clear that it wouldn't let me. They use MasterPages and User Controls, but both have so many required parameters and content placeholders created by SharePoint designer, they are not meant to be used outside of it's own environment. so will it be an easy task for me to create an ASCX control and use it in our applications and in DNN without a hitch?

For example, can I create a header control that is shared by my DNN skin and our business apps' MasterPages? And could I get fancy with this user control - adding data from the DDN site such as breadcrumbs or the authenticated user information? If so, that would help to bridge the gap.

APIs (Web Methods?)

I think it's clear that what I am looking for is an API to allow me to build my own solutions where integration is difficult. A set of Web Methods that allow me to interact with DNN would probably be best.

For instance, a method that returns the authenticated user information given a particular HttpContext would be nice. Or something that would give me a list of all the Lists in the system. Or something that would allow me to add one...

Help!

I really want to know if there are things present in DNN or another CMS that allow me to get past the difficulties I have mentioned, or if people think I am looking at things the wrong way. Is my philosophy on CMSs totally out of bounds? I hope the gurus here can lead me in the right direction.

Thanks very much,

Jason Simone

I'll play Devil's advocate and go the other way.  While you can convert current apps to DNN, you can also find other CMS options that would integrate better with your current site, though likely as a commercial app.  You may find this comes out better than using DNN, you can't really tell until you take a serious look at each option.  Look at ADXStudio, possibly Umbraco and possible Community Server.  All are extensible with standard ASP.NET code.  FWIW, I went through this process for eight months and decided converting to DNN was the way for us to go, in spite of having a budget that would cover the other options.  But the same may not be true for you.

Jeff