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6/17/2010 5:42 PM

Alverant

Joined: 6/17/2010

Posts: 5

Disappointed ??

I'm looking over the community version of DNN and honestly, I'm less than impressed. First I was told it was written in C# instead it's VB.NET. Also it looks like there's no development area, no place to test your changes. Everything you do is live. Sure you could install a second version on your local computer, but how would you deploy the code changes if they're in the database (and as such would have different auto-incremented numbers and such)?

I have an existing site my company would like a CMS for. We already have information in a database with its own tables, sprocs, etc. For example we have a page showing summaries for the latest 15 company news stories. Click on a link and you see the whole article. There is also an archive page sorting all articles by month along with a search function. Would DNN help with that would I have to create a secondary CMS to handle the database information? Would I have to write my own custom module and/or write a separate page? If so, then why bother with DNN at all?

How about email forms? We want viewers to be able to sign up for news letters. The process involves some complicated code in the code behind section. Can I do that? Another page we only want people to see if we first get their email address.

My impression so far is that DNN is good for sites that are content heavy but aren't that complicated. I don't know if my expectations were too high or I haven't explored enough to discover ways to do what I want to do. That's why I added the question marks. I may be wrong in my initial impression. In some ways you've made a fine product, but I'm not 100% it's what we need. If anyone thinks I'm wrong. I'm willing to listen.

8/26/2010 2:12 PM

Alverant

Joined: 6/17/2010

Posts: 5

Re: Disappointed ??

bump

I posted this over 2 months ago and not a single person responded. My company really wants to go with buying a CMS in the near future. If no one can answer my basic questions about DNN now, what would happen if we buy your software and have a question?

8/26/2010 5:00 PM

Ken Grierson

Joined: 7/18/2009

Posts: 613

Re: Disappointed ??

There is a C# Developer Beta of the Framework on Codeplex:
http://dnnc.codeplex.com/

The supported Editions of DotNetNuke are and always have been written in VB.Net simply because it was the best fit at the time the product was originally launched in Dec. 2002.

DNN allows you to configure a number of security settings specifically Roles and Groups and assign Users a signular Role or into a Role Group.

If you are considering DNN for business and require indemnification you will need to consider DNN Professional instead of DNN Community.

If you stay with the Community version your support channel is the forums here.
If you purchase Professional then you have varying levels of access to our Corporate Support Team

Ken Grierson
DotNetNuke Corporation
Test Lead

8/26/2010 6:36 PM

Sebastian Leupold

www.dnnwerk.de
Joined: 3/8/2004

Posts: 46212

Re: Disappointed ??

Hi Alverant,
welcome to the DotNetNuke community. Please be aware that these forums are mainly serviced by volunteers who love to use and support free DotNetNuke Community Edition - and most of the time you will get a quick and profound answer on your questions.
DotNetNuke is separating between program functionality (usually encapsulated in modules with database access) and content, placed inside those modules.There are a number of modules bundled with DNN, not all are installed by default, you may login as Superuser ("host") and use "install available extensions" in Host :: Extensions menu item to make them available. those include Announcements (including archive), Form and Lists, Feedback, ... Newsletters are built in, intended to be used with public roles (e.g. default "subscribers").
Besides, there are thousands of modules on Snowcovered.com of different levels, another great source is www.ventrian.com (check out NewsArticles and SimpleGallery), and a number of free extensions are available on codeplex.com as well - anything else may be developed by yourself - in this sense, anything is possible as long as you are able to develop it ;).
DotNetNuke is written in VB (though there is a c# port as well, provided by a community contributor), however you may write your extensions in any .Net language, templates for modules and skins are provided in c# as well (see starterkit and on codeplex.com). check out free developers guide and tutorials on www.adefwebserver.com/dotnetnukehelp.
You usually develop modules locally on your machine using a dev DNN installation and use the builtin packaging wizard to create a module package, you deploy onto your production sites. Modules may store its data inside the DNN database or in an external db.
Be aware, DotNetNuke is a platform, it is up to you to create the best sites out of it!

Cheers from Germany,
Sebastian Leupold

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