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Ultra Video Gallery Review Part 1

Posted by Jeff on Saturday, February 16, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN Module Reviews

This is my first ever DNN module review. In fact, I’ve probably reviewed less than 5 products of any kind in my life. So before we get started, I just want to point out that I’m not a “review-y” kind of guy. A thing has to be pretty special before I’ll take the time to spout off about it.

Today, that thing is Ultra Video Gallery from Biz Modules Solutions. It is, in my mind, the best DNN multimedia module ever written and perhaps the best DNN module ever written ... period.

I felt compelled to write about UVG because it directly relates to my 3 previous blog posts. To gain a true appreciation for my attitudes and point of view, you may want to take a few minutes to catch up on them:

  • In DNN Nation Needs to Wash its Walls, I spanked the DNN community for accepting atrocious standards of style and usability.

  • In Become a DNN Video Star, I ranted at the DNN community for failing to use enough video in website design.

  • In Are DNN Modules Underpriced?, I suggested that a pervasive "cheapness" in the DNN ecosystem is choking the growth of module developers and limiting DNN’s acceptance in the enterprise market.

Ultra Video Gallery is one of the few modules to rise above my tendency for sharp criticism. It is elegant in design, style, and functionality. UVG provides a much needed, native video solution for DotNetNuke. Finally, it brings all that to the table while being (in my eyes) grossly underpriced at $85.

So, what does it do? UVG essentially turns your DNN website into a mini-YouTube with an astonishingly deep feature-set built on a whopping 13 sub-modules! Rather than detail each and every feature, I suggest you take a moment to scroll through the feature highlights.

Module Installation

You DNN experts out there are going to laugh, but this is the first module I've ever attempted to install. I had to call my friends at Seablick Consulting for a little lesson on where and how that's even done! It is remarkably simple. Just look under Host > Module Definitions > Install New Module, upload a single .zip file, and all 13 submodules are immediately available for use. I even managed to upgrade UVG to a new build with the exact same process. No need to un-install and re-install. Simple.

Setup & Documentation

I was a little overwhelmed with the 13 submodules at first, but the superb UVG documentation made configuration and setup quite easy. The author provides step by step instructions and even offers suggested page layouts. This is some of the best software documentation I've ever seen.

Support

Biz Modules maintains an active community forum for technical support. As far as I can tell, Pengtsen personally answers every question (even the dumb ones from people like yours truly) within 24 hours. Pengtsen also seems to constantly take user feedback and add the best ideas into new product builds on the fly. I also traded several direct emails with support and always got a response within 24 hours ... and usually within 30 minutes!

Ultra Video Gallery in the Wild

To see this collection of tools in action, have a look at the video gallery in my soon-to-be-publicly-announced kettlebell fitness website. Amazingly, what you see here is pretty much how it looked right of the box. What little customization we performed was handled easily by the extensive array of tokens and HTML layout options in the modules’ settings.

UVG’s backend is simple, powerful, and well thought out. UVG offers most of the major YouTube features as well as the standard look and feel of any major video sharing site. Rather than re-invent the wheel, Biz Modules focused on making UVG easily understandable to all site visitors. Thoughtfully, users can rate and review videos, as well as upload their own for a true Web 2.0 experience.

I personally believe we’ve passed the peak of success for companies like YouTube, Veoh, and Revver. The novelty of easy access to videos of singing dogs and creepy Britney Spears apologists is fading. The popularity pendulum will certainly swing back to websites devoted to quality, niche content. People will want to spend time on a website full of articles, multimedia, and forum discussions rabidly devoted to a single topic. YouTube is simply becoming too wide, goofy, and tedious.

Ultra Video Gallery offers exciting potential to any entrepreneur with an intense niche passion. It could easily be the basis for an entire online business devoted to that niche. In part 2 of my review next week, I will propose some examples and ideas to spark your imagination. I'll also discuss some legal challenges you'll want to confront if you choose to implement Ultra Video Gallery.

Until then, just download the trail version and start exploring on your own!



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Comments

Comment By Exiton on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 4:18 PM

The ease of module installation and upgrade is the platform's developers merit, not the module's ones. Give credit where credit is due.

Comment By Jeff W on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 6:50 PM

Xarasho, spasibo. Pravilno govaritye.

Ya udobno govarit ob etom, no I am not a DNN expert, programmer, and barely even understand HTML... I always try to make that point when writing these articles.

Thank you for correcting me, I can see how the installation and upgrade process might be equally easy for any module if it's the standard way things are done in DNN. That credit should go to the DNN platform.

I stand by this being the best module I've ever worked with in DNN, however.

Spasibo,
Jeff

Comment By Tom Kraak on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:59 PM

I agree, ... only to a certain extend though.

DNN itself certainly has the infrastructure in place to streamline module installation, but that does not mean that all module developers take advantage of it.

For instance, I can think of at least a handful of modules that require uploading of multiple PAs (zip files) during installation.

Comment By Exiton on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 2:00 AM

I know of only 2 such modules. In both cases there are separate PAs not becouse the authors could not include them in the module, but becouse they chose not to. PAs represented different functionality: they contaned menu provider and API, that need to be updated much less often then the module itself.

Comment By Tom Kraak on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 9:33 AM

Agreed again. There are certainly scenarios where separate PAs do make sense.

Comment By Kevin on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 5:12 PM

The UMG module is a great module! My only problem, and a minor one at that, is the license and activation strategy used. If you want to use the module on a test server (where you can't always access it by using localhost) and want to move it to a production server, you have to contact the developer for him to transfer the license. In this day and age, waiting for someone to transfer your license between servers is antiquated. I mentioned this to Pengsten and he responded he was always available, even on vacation. I think he missed my point. If I have a maintenance window for a large client and we're doing an upgrade, I shouldn't have to wait for someone to transfer the license. Seems like making the transfer automatic would create a complete package.

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