I am the project manager for our companies web sites, currently we have 4 web sites available to our distributors, all of which are "replicating" (we trap an error and then based on trap we fill in certain contact type fields with the distributors information). We became excited about DNN because using "modules" we could alleviate the "maintenance" work load on our programmers.
Our idea was to have a Host , with multiple portals all sharing the same store using style sheets that would give all of our sites a similar look. The problem I am finding is that no one seems to be building modules that will share databases across portals. I did find a module that maybe able to help us so that our customers can move from one portal to another without having to log in, but it seemed that there information still had to reside in each portals user table.
Our programmers tell us that they can accomplish this but it would mean re-writing the core, which would make it very difficult to take advantage of any future upgrades.
Lastly , for a group that fairly consistently makes claims that this modules and application can be used by non-programming people the documentation that would indeed make that possible is severely lacking. If we move ahead with DNN I will be creating this type of documentation for our non-programming administrators. I will post it.
Those of you working on documentation, may I suggest adding the following 2 sections -
A. What does the module do , what is its purpose., ie Iframe, repository (what is it).
B. What are some practicable applications (real world) of this module? Then detail the application out in tutorials
Lastly , most business are wanting a web presence for reasons of sales, so many of the modules I have purchases promote their ability to help with ecommerce, but then their examples are how to set up a feedback form, real lame.
If anyone feels that DNN could be the answer we are looking for and can point me to stores or information on how to share databases over multiple portals (without changing core code) I would really appreciate it. I have already spent several hundred dollars on modules, so I am not against purchasing them if they will resolve these issues.
Thank you very much for your attention
Mark