Hi,

In scanning this site and others, I've read much about the benefits of using DNN to build a brand new, database-driven website. However, I have a different need that I haven't seen specifically addressed anywhere.

I've inherited a live ASP.NET 3.5/SQL Server 2000 site designed/built with Dreamweaver/Visual Studio. This site is data-driven, but although the text is pulled from the database, my predecessor didn't get around to building the CMS. Per the Functional Requirements that I inherited, she planned on building a CMS from scratch, limited to web based forms to be used for the sole purpose of allowing non-technical end users to add/update text (with little or no training needed) to be displayed in predefined areas of the site (e.g., "Company News" --> one field for the headline and another field for text limited to a specified number of characters). 

Will the Community version of DNN allow me to easily develop (relatively speaking) a CMS, limited to providing web-based, non-technical, user-friendly forms to enter content (primarily text) into previously defined, existing database fields?  (In short, I need the CMS to be a function of the existing site/database, not vice versa).

If yes, can anyone point me to a article or tutorial that can give me more detailed information about using DNN with an existing web application and database structure?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I fear, the answer is no - DNN is designed to run the whole site and you may add functions using modules, but implementing DNN as a part of the site just to perform data input is not a valid idea, especially due to DNN doing "edit in place" - i.e. not like some other CMS in a designated area. Your best chance is setting up a new site, style it appropriately, add modules as you need and import all content from existing site, you may trash afterwards. If you need to get an idea about how DNN looks and feels for admins and editors, go to demo.dotnetnuke.com and create a test portal.

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Cheers from Germany,
Sebastian Leupold

   

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