Hi JC,

One quick note.  Once you get DNN installed, check before you install a demo version of Active Social (If you are planning to)  I saw a note this morning where the newest 5.4 version of DNN was causing issues with a few third party modules including Active Social.

If you want to do interactive work with drop-downs and such, I would suggest looking at Xmod Pro.  I use it for this type of work all the time.  You might also be able to use the built in Form and List module but I was using Xmod before this was available so I have never looked at it.  You can also develop your own modules in VB or C# but that will take more commitment and training.

You can definitely access any of the data on your own.  I setup a shopping cart site a few years ago with Catalook (a DNN module) and I wrote my own external routines to populate and keep the inventory up to date.

99 percent of the install problems seem to tie to permission problems.  Make sure you review the setup instructions in detail.  A good site for this type of help is Mitch Seller's site at http://www.mitchelsellers.com/.  Look through his blog, he has a number of install blogs as well as a wealth of other good information.  I purchased his book on developing applications for DNN and it was very useful.  His performance tips are also very worthwhile.

Bill