After working through a few new websites on DNN 5.x, the need for pages to be put in to Groups (similar to users in roles) seems to me to be a highly desirable enhancement to the core. Now that Admin and Host pages are "just" pages, there are quite a few situations where you get undesirable side effects. The most common one of course is when you apply a module to All Pages and it shows up on all the Admin/Host pages too. The workarounds are simple and logical enough, but they are time consuming and/or require changes that feel like hacks. Imagine instead by default we have page Groups (same pattern as user roles) like All, Admin, Host, and Standard (meaning not Admin or Host). In module settings, in the place where we normally hit a checkbox to put the module on All Pages, we simply select which groups and most commonly we would choose "Standard". All naming and logic is of course to be determined by smarter people than me!
The simple* addition of being able to assign a page "type" or put pages in a "group" or "role" would provide a number of feature and enhancement possibilities to existing modules. For banners/advertising it would be a dream to be able to use a core feature like this to control where banners appear. Advanced ideas would become possible too, imagine being able to suppress a Pane's output on some pages and not others? This could allow dynamically written Skins to change their layout without having to create another 98% similar .ascx file. Imagine cool modules that allow their formatting and output to be conditionally based on the current page's group? For large sites with many sections, imagine having a page's [x] include in menu be conditional to page groups?
I think it is important to suggest up front that this concept follow the same pattern as user/roles and allow pages to be put in multiple groups.
I tried to search but did not find any releated previous posts. I assume there probably are and if someone could provide a link, I would appreciate the reading opportunity. I am interested to see what others think of this idea, thanks - Jeremy
* seemingly? [grin]