Hi and WOW... just where to start with DNN, it's big!!!

I have downloaded and installed DNN Community and spent the last 2 days trolling for examples and tutorials. I found an excellent 'Products' module tutorial which really has me interested. My background is in asp.net development so I'm hoping the learning curve can be dimished somewhat. While I realise there is a wealth of information out there I am struggling to understand the correct approach I should/can take to develop a 'web application' as opposed to a 'web site' (if this is possible, and Im sure it is). Here are a few questions I have;

1. Is DNN the right tool for web application development?
2. Should I be developing the functionality of the app as indavidual modules?
3. Can the menu options be context sensitive in relation to the page being viewed?
4. Is it possible to use an application database along side the dnn database?

These will probably set me off with all kinds of other questions but I will look for answers before asking, promise :)

i would just like to say thank-you for reading and for any information you can provide. DNN looks like an exciting tool, something I have known about for years but never really looked in to. It may be the solution I have been looking for!!

Adrian

Hey Tom, thanks for the warm welcome.

With regard to (3) may be an example might explain: If I have an application that has the standard menu (along the top) it would containt links/sub links to other pages within the application. One of those links might take the user to an Admin area. In the admin area I would want to make the available menu options different.
I guess the question should be 'Is the main menu configurable such that options can be added/hidden from code?'

On the subject of module development, should a module only contain one view, edit and settings page. What happens if the workflow is little more complicated than the standard CRUD operations. Can more pages be added to the module?

Also, how do I share BL/DL between modules. Do they all get a reference to the same DLL's. Does that mean that there would be multiple instances of the same DLL in numerous module folders?

So much to learn, so little time. I've got a few books coming in the next couple of days and a lot of reading to do over the weekend!!

Im going to be looking at the portal side of things now and try to get a grip on how they work. My fundemental question is what is a portal and how do they relate to a website. I have an idea, obviously, but not in the context of DNN. What we need to be able to do is give customers there own website to administer so that they can add/edit pages etc, where all the websites hang off from a single portal which we would administer.

Thanks again for your response.

Regards

Adrian