DotNetNuke

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DotNetNuke
Image:Dotnetnuke-logo.gif
Developer: DotNetNuke® Corporation [1][2]
Latest release: 4.4.1 / 01-24-2007
OS: ASP.NET / Microsoft Windows
Use: web application framework[3]
License: BSD style license[4]
Website: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/

DotNetNuke is an open source [5] web application framework [6] written in VB.NET for the ASP.NET framework. The application's content management system is extensible and customizable through the use of skins and modules, and it can be used to create, deploy, and manage intranet, extranet, and web sites.

Contents

[edit] Introduction

The DotNetNuke® application originally evolved out of another project, called the IBuySpy Workshop. [7] The IBuySpy Workshop application had been created by Shaun Walker [8] as an enhancement to the IBuySpy Portal starter kit.[9] Microsoft had earlier released the IBuySpy Portal as a sample application for the .NET Framework.

Shaun Walker ( the original creator ) has implied that the name DotNetNuke® was coined by combining the term .NET with the word "nuke" which had been popular with pre-existing frameworks such as PHP-Nuke and PostNuke.[10] The term DotNetNuke® and DNN® are registered trademarks of DotNetNuke Corporation in the United States and Canada.[11]

In September of 2006, four members of the project's board of directors formed a corporation to oversee the development of the project. The new DotNetNuke® Corporation was co-founded by Shaun Walker[12], Joe Brinkman[13], Nik Kalyani[14] and Scott Willhite[15] and replaced Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc. as the corporate entity behind the project. [16] Subsequently, the DotNetNuke Corporation announced that it would be represented by Mark F. Radcliffe[17] from the firm of DLA Piper[18].

As of late October 2006, the DotNetNuke application had seen 23 releases since April 24th, 2004, and is currently in its fourth edition.[19] Version 4.0 or later requires version 2.0 of the ASP.NET Framework, but earlier versions will run on ASP.NET 1.1.[20]test data

[edit] Features

A single DotNetNuke installation can serve multiple websites, each with its own look and feel and its own user community. The latest versions have multilingual support.

[edit] Extensibility

DotNetNuke has a basic core which can be extended using pluggable modules and providers that enable additional functionality; the look and feel of individual sites can be customized using skins.

[edit] Modules

About a dozen basic modules are included with the core DotNetNuke distribution, and further modules can be downloaded from the DotNetNuke website including e-commerce systems, photo galleries, blogs, forums, wiki and mailing list options. Additional third party modules are provided by both the open source community and proprietary commercial developers.

Modules can be installed easily and automatically by uploading them through the administration pages.

[edit] Skins

DotNetNuke has a skinning architecture which provides a clear separation between design and content, enabling a web designer to develop skins without requiring any specialist knowledge of development in ASP.NET: only a knowledge of HTML and an understanding of how to prepare and package the skins themselves is required. Skins consist of basic HTML files with placeholders for content, menus and other functionality, along with support files such as images, stylesheets and Javascript, packaged in a Zip file.

Skins can be produced in the ASP.NET user control (*.ascx) file format, which makes it easier for users who are used to working with Microsoft Visual Studio* to produce their own design using a combination of Cascading Style Sheet documents and User Controls. JPEG and GIF images can also be used.

Like modules, skins can be uploaded and automatically installed through the administration pages.

Since version 4.4, skin developers have been able to specify skin-level DOCTYPE's to allow them to develop skins that follow accessibility and xhtml standards. [21]

The DotNetNuke skin system was designed to allow users to create their own skins without modifying the main page (Default.aspx) which controls every page in the site.

  • Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition is free, and available for download from the Microsoft Website.

[edit] Criticisms

There is in general a lack of support for cross-platform, free software runtimes such as Mono.

[edit] External links

[edit] References