Jamie Mcshan wrote
< rant >
It seems like every time I have a question, I check the forums and someone has already asked It (as it should be) yet they go unanswered. This thread has been viewed over 200 times, so I know I am not the only one wanting the answer, even if it's “no you can't”. I just launched dotnetnuke as our corporate Intranet, but it seems like so many simple things, (like this) aren't available or if they are I can't find information on how to do it. Wondering if I picked the wrong portal....
< /rant >
Hi, Jamie-
First, I want to say "thanks" for keeping your rant tasteful. Many times I've seen newcomers get somewhat abusive with "what's up with DNN?!?" rants. I thought your rant was very appropriate in tone -- it'd be great if everyone could express their frustrations as evenly as you did.
Regarding unanswered forum posts, yes that certainly happens. I must point out, though, that if you click through the most recent forum entries ("All Public Forums") you can click through many, many days and see only a handful of "unanswered". I know this because this is how I monitor the forums on a nearly daily basis. A few unanswered per day is not too bad considering the forums are a totally "at-will" venture.
Also note that, just because you find an unanswered post, it does not mean that the question has not been answered. In the case of "
How do I extend rights to admin module 'x' to a non-admin" the question has been asked and answered many times in the forums. If you don't immediately find the answer to a question, try asking the question in other ways. And don't rely on the forum search -- Google is way better at indexing these posts. If you want to search the DNN forums, Timo Breumelhof has provided a simple interface to leverage Google search for these forums at:
http://www.searchdotnetnuke.com/
I've very rarely not been answered in some fashion in several years of using the forums. I see a LOT of forum participation by project team members on a daily basis. My DNN Forums experience has been very positve -- I hope that overall you'll have a similar good experience if you continue with DNN.
Regarding info on DNN.... Heh...it's no
SharePoint in terms of available info. There
are some good resources, though, and it's getting much better than it used to be. Mitchel Sellers' new book "
Professional DNN Module Programming" is the book I wish I'd had several years ago when starting out with DNN. If you're not a programmer but simply wish to
use the DNN platform, a membership to
http://www.dnncreative.com can't be beat in terms of broad knowledge and how-tos (including third-party modules). There are a number of info-rich blogs you've probably already turned up in Google search results from
Michael Washington,
Joe Brinkman, etc. I even began posting minor DNN tips
in my own blog after I found myself (and others) repeating certain answers over and over in these forums.
Hope that helps!
-mamlin