Why use DNN other than because it is .NET?


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Tim Tim

Posted: 7/2/2010
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I'm just wondering why anyone would use Dot Net Nuke when it has such an aweful interface and is so difficult to use. Is it because it is .NET based and fast? I can't think of any other reason why anyone would use this unless they were forced to from some unfortunate set of circumstances.
 
BarryZ

Posted: 7/5/2010
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Goto www.secunia.com and lookup your favorite CMS.

BarryZ

 
Dan

Posted: 7/5/2010
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(Just remember Tim - you asked...)

DotNetNuke (no spaces) isn't actually so difficult to use, and the main goal of the user interface is to make it easier (which, many people find it succeeds at so well).

So: Why would anyone use it?

1) From a "software architecture" standpoint, DotNetNuke is very well designed (I could go on about this, since I actually teach software development at the post-secondary level, but I'll pass on that right now). Solid architecture means better scalability, better maintenance, bug catching, security, etc.

2) From a software developer's perspective, DotNetNuke is highly extensible, allowing developers to make
a) skins,
b) skin objects,
c) "widgets" for skins and modules,
d) modules (aka plug-ins),
e) providers (authentication, UI elements such as the Rich Text Editor, etc),
f) Language packs ('cause most of the world does not read English)

3) DotNetNuke has a highly evolved level of support for Internationalization (languages).

4) It does much, much more than a simple "blog" or "website" does. It is a CMS (Content Management System) Framework. It comes with 25 different modules out-of-the-box. You can buy or build your own modules (over 8000 available on SnowCovered.com).

5) It has a large community of support. At almost 800,000 people, that's quite significant. Compare that to Joomla's numbers (which I could only find on their Forums) which are just over half of DotNetNuke's.

6) It's fast (for its size). Yes, that's true. But remember, most of what makes a web app fast is how well it's configured for its content & environment, and much of that configuration has to do with the web server. For a good example of a host that knows how to configure for speed, see PowerDNN.com. (BTW, any CMS framework can be *made* to run slow, through either ignorance or poor hardware/network setup. Usually it's just due to not knowing how to make websites fase.)

7) It's free. It's open source. Has all of the benefits of open source. You can develop modules with it using free software tools (like Visual Studio Express). Free. Yes, Free.

8) It's got the support of a Corporation, so if you want to go with professional level support for mission critical applications of it, then you can buy that. Overall, it's a whole lot cheaper than hiring someone full-time just to manage your website.

9) It is popular. It is used by individuals, small organizations/businesses, governments, Fortune 500 companies, etc. The interest it has been gaining can be seen by those who think it worth while to pay to go to a DotNetNuke conference (see this link from 2.5 years ago in 2007: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Blogs/tabid/825/EntryId/1655/Who-Uses-DotNetNuke.aspx)

10) It was mentioned in the Garner 2010 Cool Vendor award. (That means something, by the way.)


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Of course, you are free to disagree. You can dislike something for any number of reasons. Your own personal experiences of it can be the reason (and reason enough for you), while others have experiences that make them like it. And you can rant about it, if it makes you feel better.

But if your goal is *really* one of wanting to help people (or yourself) to pick a good system for their use, then you'll find that there are many great systems out there (Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Google Sites, and yes, DotNetNuke).
 
Tim Tim

Posted: 7/8/2010
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Yes, there are some interesting things such as the two user type accounts and it is free but leaning very much on the commercial side.

When trying to find documentation for DNN, the user is led to a page were they must pay for the documentation. I ended up finding the free documentation using a Google search and found that the Quick & Easy Administration Guide was only 185 pages!

On the Wordpress website I was able to find lots of plugins and documentation with relative ease and very few clicks. On DNN everything is akward and difficult to find, like the Microsoft website.

The administrative interface is poor compared to Wordpress when you consider the number of clicks it takes to do a particular task such as installing a theme or other things.

Hosting cost for IIS type websites is also generally more expensive than regular Linux hosting.

As far as ease of access and getting tasks done as quickly as possible, I would still have to put Wordpress 1st, Joomla 2nd and would put DNN down the list somewhere.

I guess for some it works, but not for me.
 
BobF

Posted: 7/19/2010
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Interesting coming from a DNN background. I found WordPress poor in terms of user interface, fairly easy to use. Hugely frustrating to get some of the more technical stuff up and running compared to DNN, eg photo gallery completely give up on !!!! Jomula spent 30mins attempting to find my way around then gave up. Not a good thing for someone who is also a programmer by profession.

Everyone is different though guess l have found DNN easier. Do agree themes are easier for WordPress :-) Never read the manual for DNN maybe l should have ;-)
 
Quintin

Posted: 7/29/2010
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i will start by saying i use DNN every day and i like it. it does what i need but there are SOME things that are not so great.

unless you want a very cheap looking site you wouldnt use any out of the box modules - they are all very dusty and under developed, barely touched since earlier versions. any developer worth their salt will develop their own modules and manage their own styles. what makes DNN so good is that you can develop modules that are completely seperate of DNN and they will still run. they simply use a standard .net user control and are truly portable from DNN to any other well designed .net website base. 1 or 2 lines of code will get a user control running in DNN. that means that you can deploy a DNN site and leave the framework as is while writing your own software as you like conforming to your own desires - very easy for beginners to start programming.

I wouldnt call the interface of DNN very pretty or easy, it is dated. develop a portal for a client, hand over the admin password so they can add pages etc and you will be restoring the database from a backup 2 weeks later. it needs a custom toolbox that can allow non admins to add and edit pages.

i also wouldnt call DNN fast without clarifying it. DotNetNuke is inherantly slow being built to do so much more that it really needs to. Its speed issues come from the loading time of the libraries after they timout from the web server cache. this is just as much a .NET problem as it is a DNN one. once libraries are cached it is reasonably fast. Some have called it bloatware in the past and in some cases they werent wrong. however DNN now comes with the ability to load a 'lite' version without deploying all of the front end modules making it load libraries faster but only slightly. for DNN you need a powerful server, moreso than what most hosts will provide you. There is also some decent tools available to help speed up the load time they keep requesting pages thus not allowing libraries to timeout from cache.

the documentation makes me angry. they make it very hard to find the free docs and even then they are all old. the instructions have barely been amended from version to version and there is still some very old and incorrect information in the docs. namely the skinning guide and module developers guide.

the solpartmenu is and always has been a total joke - it barely works and if you try to skin a solpart based on the skinning guide then.... well... i warned you.

HOWEVER, if you use DNN as a base framework to manage pages and databases, to give you a base that already has the ability to be compartmentalised into portals and allows clients to upload and manage files via the browser, then it will be great.

it is perfect for my tool 300dollarsites.com.au - i had to rewrite the toolbox to not allow admins to change site details while still being able to create pages but its not bad.

Quintin Humphreys

 
SiteBuilder

Posted: 8/13/2010
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I went with DNN after extensive research into Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, etc. IT was on my radar initially because of the .NET aspect but I'm also good with PHP or Linux so I after my initial cut of research I was favoring Joomla. What tipped DNN for me was just how easy it is to put up multiple websites under a single installation. My contract right now is to put up over 350 websites within a year. The domain names have already been purchased and the key to pushing out these websites is getting content up and going quickly and little else. With DNN you can use one installation to run pretty much an unlimited number of websites. Artisteer is a great combination because it allows you to build a skin quick. The combination of Artisteer and DNN are great because DNN can have a new unique website going so much faster than any other credible CMS I've worked with. One database, one configuration in IIS, and simple backups. With Joomla, multiple websites is just not built in out of the box. There are modules that can somewhat make up for that, but because it's not part of the core many of the other nice things you would download will break with multiple websites. With DNN you can pretty much be sure that any module will handle multiple portals.

Besides Artisteer the only paid module I got was Ventrian news articles. Handles everything for adding content and making new websites.
 
Chris

Posted: 9/15/2010
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Can someone who's used Artisteer and DNN for a while comment on how much they modify a DNN skin after creating it in Artisteer? That is, do you pretty much just create and go? Or do you do additional tweaks afterwards manually (in VisualStudio or whatever)?
 
Jeff

Posted: 11/9/2010
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Quote Chris:

Can someone who's used Artisteer and DNN for a while comment on how much they modify a DNN skin after creating it in Artisteer? That is, do you pretty much just create and go? Or do you do additional tweaks afterwards manually (in VisualStudio or whatever)?


Quite a bit of modification, but that might be the case in any environment. Artisteer does not do a great job with DNN specifics, I usually replace the menu and alter almost all the graphics, but it's a quick way to get a basic layout and color scheme together. Most of my modifications are cut and paste of code, but some are fairly involved, depending on the site.

Jeff

 
TheRune

Posted: 11/12/2010
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I'm actually using artisteer skins pretty much out of the box. When something needs to be changed in the exported skin, it's usually some specific detail like the links in the footer or placement of the breadcrumbs. Most are minor details, some of which could have a quick and easy fix in the release of artisteer 3 :)

As for the documentation of DotNetNuke, I have a little something to add here too :) DotNetNuke have evolved yet again because of all the attention the documentation has been given, and are offering free training tutorials on the essential parts of DotNetNuke - that is: installation, administration (basically setting up and using DNN), skinning, module development. Here's the link for ya:

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Training/tabid/1299/Default.aspx

/TheRune