Posted by Tom on Thursday, December 18, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN User Group
Almost a year ago, Mary and I stepped through the user group wizard on dotnetnuke.com to gauge interest for a Connecticut DNN user group. And after a busy 2008, we are very excited to finally announce our CT DNN UG kick-off meeting to be held tonight, Thursday 12/18/2008 at 7 pm in Wallingford, 1 Barnes Park South.
I apologize for the very short notice here on the blog, but our goal is to hold monthly UG meetings on various DNN topics starting as soon as January 2009. The main purpose of this very first meeting is to get to know one another, bounce around ideas, and discuss the main objectives for the CT DNN UG.
If you are local or happen to be in the area, we would love to welcome you. Comment below with questions or call me at 203-687-6053.
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Posted by Tom on Saturday, November 08, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN Friday, DNN News, OpenForce 08
It seems it was just yesterday that I left Amsterdam after an eventful OpenForce 08 Europe. Now the “big show” is already upon us, which shapes up to be an exciting week for anybody with an inertest in and around DotNetNuke. Will OpenForce 08 mark the release on DNN5? What direction does DotNetNuke Corp plan to take the project? What announcements from community stakeholders can we expect? Those or similar questions are probably on many people’s mind as they make the trip to Vegas this weekend.
But before the fun begins, let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the community leading up to this year’s conference.
- Benjamin Hermann released a new version of his User Directory module and made an additional contribution to free and open source DNN extensions by moving his Workflow HTML module to Codeplex.
- Ian Robinson takes a quick look at the new Microsoft Web Application Installer and how it facilitates DNN installations.
- Are you using any of Mitchel Seller’s free and commercial modules? If so, help him out by submitting bugs and enhancement requests here.
- If you are stuck with GoDaddy for DNN web hosting, you may find some condolence with these tutorials by Ismet Dumlupinar.
- Robert Harriman released AutoWebSuite / BrokerWebSuite 4.1 with enhanced security, search, and formatting features.
- Packt Publishing announced the 2008 winners in the Best Other Open Source CMS category with DNN coming in third behind dotCMS and Plone. Shan Walker was also recognized as one of 2008 Open Source CMS Most Valued People. Congratulations!
- Chris Hammond started a lively discussion with his “minor rant” on what to look for when purchasing 3rd party DNN modules. It’s an interesting read and hits a similar nerve as Jeff did.
- Peter Donker released Document Exchange 5, the de facto standard for managing documents in DotNetNuke. Demo the module and get your free trial. A review of the module on my part is way overdue.
- Speaking of Peter Donker, he’s also the head of the Newsfeed project, which recently released version 4.00.1.
- Horacio Judeikin released his own version of DNN Search and Replace. Similar tools exist here and here … time to get a bigger belt!
- DNN Creative Magazine published issue number 38 with a focus on DotNetNuke site search as well as DNN SEO featuring an audio interview with yours truly. Listen here.
- A group of Europe based DNN enthusiasts formed a network of European DotNetNuke professionals. If you are based in the “old world,” I urge you to join the cause.
- Active Modules Inc. announced the release of two new editions of its well-known DNN message board: Active Forums Lite (free) and Active Forums Express ($49.95.) This offering is a great way for smaller communities and non-profits to enjoy all key features of Active Forums at a very low price point.
- And last but not least, the team around Antonio Chagoury released DNN Blog 3.05 including enhancements and new features in regards to social bookmarking, SEO, comments, gravatars, and more. Shortly after OpenForce I hope to take a closer look at the module as I’m excited about the renewed focus on SEO.
Now it’s off to OpenForce 08 in Las Vegas. And remember, besides the speaker sessions and everything else going in this famed town, you don’t want to miss OpenForce Social, an evening of fun and great prices.
And as always, in the unfortunate event that you can’t join the party, keep an eye on this blog for the latest from the show or follow me on Twitter. Or to hear a variety of voices reporting from the conference, subscribe to dotnetnukeblogs.com. Hope to see you at one of my talks or at our booth on the exhibitor floor.
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Posted by Tom on Thursday, October 16, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN News, OpenForce 08
Sorry for the untimely reporting, but right after OF Europe drew to a close I headed over to Germany to spend the rest of the week with family and friends. I even met up with Vasilis in Berlin. Then, as I settled back into the home office to prepare for the second leg of OpenForce 2008, we got swamped with consulting work. But hey, that’s how it goes.
Enough with the excuses though. OF Europe held just outside Amsterdam was a great time. We had an average of about 20 people in the room for speaker sessions and I would say about 50 people attending the opening keynote by Shaun Walker. This smaller setting greatly facilitated networking among attendees, speakers, and DNN core team members, which played into meeting my main goal of the conference: mingling with the European contingent of the DNN community.
Rather than commenting on every session individually, I singled out 2 talks, which I think are a good representation of the mix of established speakers such as Chris Hammond and new faces like Stefan Cullmann.
As you can imagine, Chris’ talk on “Friendly Urls and SEO Best Practices” was of special interest to me as it formed somewhat of a prelude to my session on DNN SEO in a few weeks in Las Vegas. The material was well researched and Chris’ experience as a presenter and speaker turned it into a fun hour of learning and collaboration.
Well known in German DNN circles, Stefan did very well in his first presentation in English as he introduced himself as the new team lead of the Forms & Lists project (formerly known as UDT.) This talk put Forms & Lists on the radar for me and based on the lively discussion in the room, it did so for many others.
In closing, I would like to thank the SDN Software Development Network for allowing the DNN community to be part of a well-run conference. Additionally, I would like to thank the Dutch DNN User Group as well as DNN Corp. for organizing and supporting these kinds of events. And last but not least, my gratitude goes out to the European DNN community as a whole as well as the following individuals in particular: Leigh Pointer, Peter Donker, Erik van Ballegoij, Sebastian Leupold, Lee Sykes, Timo Breumelhof, Peter Schotman, and Declan Ward for making the trip and their efforts behind the scenes. And yes, DNN will eventually support full content localization :)-
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Posted by Tom on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 to DotNetNuke, Reviews
Most introductions of technical books establish the ground rules for structure, techniques and methods used to convey the material and usually touch on intended audience and potential prerequisites. Easy read, right? Well, not so with DotNetNuke Websites Problem – Design – Solutions by Tracy Wittenkeller. The intro of the latest DNN book by Wrox, a division of Wiley Publishing, reads like a 2nd draft and brings a whole new meaning to the question of how many times one can refer to “website solution” in a matter of 3 pages without coming across as a broken record. Incoherent and choppy writing blurs the distinction between Design and Solution and left me wondering if Wrox editors ever laid eyes on these pages.
You may say “who cares about the introduction anyway,” but I would like to argue that the first few pages set the tone of what’s to come and therefore have a direct impact on reader’s motivation to further explore the material. And it’s not entirely about the introduction, that’s just what struck me first. It’s the degree of negligence and attention to detail that I’m struggling to comprehend.
But regardless, here is how the book fares overall.
The Good
- Presents a detailed walkthrough of using Adobe Photoshop for image slicing, preparation, and organization for the purpose of DNN skin development.
- Stresses the importance of proper skin and container file naming conventions.
- Features comprehensive coverage of FCKeditor in regards to CSS configuration and application.
- Shows how to take advantage of module layout templates to further customize module user interfaces.
- Devotes a whole chapter to “Customizing with CSS” and addresses common misconceptions in regards to default.css, portal.css, skin.css, and container.css.
The Bad
- Covers DNN basics already covered in numerous other books.
- Displays ignorance towards search engine optimization (SEO) and how it plays into a “professional website solution.” Not even the page title, description, and keyword fields are accurately covered.
- Disregards objectivity by making misleading statements such as “Data providers are available for several different database products, and more data providers are becoming available frequently."
The Ugly
- Degrades web standards as “buzz term” and expresses total disregard for semantic markup by advocating the use of html layout tables and spacer images.
Certain sections in the book lead me to believe that this is not the book Tracy set out to write. More often than not it seems that he was “pushed” into Wrox’s Problem – Design – Solution series simply because it was the right “marketing thing” to do at the time. I feel confident to say that Tracy must have realized that at the DNN 4.x stage, there is simply no need for another book detailing DotNetNuke installation, another skinning overview, another chapter on working with pages, and more of the same coverage of DNN’s role-based security model.
What I was looking forward to when I first read the abstract of Tracy’s upcoming book was a guide that goes beyond the DNN basics; a book that truly goes “under the surface” of DotNetNuke by showing how to fully take advantage of DNN’s rich feature set by “gluing” all relevant pieces together to arrive at a professional web presence for individuals and businesses alike. In my eyes, such a book would have been a logical follow up to Professional DotNetNuke 4, Beginning DotNetNuke Skinning and Design, and other books that laid the foundation for anyone interested in utilizing the DNN web application framework.
In no shape or form do I mean to discount Tracy Wittenkeller efforts and intentions to provide a valuable resource to the DNN community, but a combination of mediocre writing, subjective tone, and disrespect for modern web development principles moves DotNetNuke Websites Problem – Design – Solutions to the bottom of my bookshelf.
Have you read the book? If so, how does it rank in your DNN library?
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Posted by Tom on Friday, September 12, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN Friday, DNN News, OpenForce 08
After dogfooding RC1 for several weeks on dotnetnuke.com, DNN Corp. finally released 4.9.0 this past Wednesday. Besides addressing 3 security issues, DNN 4.9 includes a variety of bug fixes, enhancements, and even a new default skin. Jump over to Joe Brinkman's blog for more details on the latest DNN release. While I appreciate all the efforts going into 4.9, it also means that the long awaited Cambrian (DNN 5) release will most likely be delayed even further. To give credit where credit is due, the DNN team did manage to release beta 7 of DNN 5.0 a the end of August. With conference season fast approaching, the last quarter of 2008 certainly shapes up to be an interesting time for anyone active in the DotNetNuke community. More DNN news, happenings, and gossip next.
I don't know about you, but I have a whole weekend of DNN and module upgrades ahead of me. If you've jumped on DNN 4.9 already, please share your experience in the comments. Thanks.
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Posted by Jeff on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 to DotNetNuke, DNN Tips and Tricks
In an earlier post, I discussed the UltraVideoGallery module from Biz Modules Solutions. Out of the box, UVG has a well thought out layout and includes most of the functionality you’d expect to create your own YouTube clone.
Indeed, it may well include more functionality than you want! For example, the UVG_VideoList sub-module by default offers 5 tabs to sort videos:
We’ve elected to not use the “ratings” or “featured video” options of UVG for our site. We hand pick all videos to be included on the site, so they are all 5 star videos in our opinion. For the same reason, none of them should be “featured” over other videos and therefore wanted our tab layout to look like this:
Unfortunately, UVG does not offer an easy way to customize the tab layout within its admin panel. So, we reached out to Pengtsen at Biz Modules for a solution. His quick response scared me, because it requires editing some of the underlying UVG code. I do not like touching programming code and I am not eager to bull-in-the-china-shop my way through changing it.
But, I took a chance and followed Pengtsen’s directions exactly and unbelievably, it worked! So, if I can do it, anyone can. Here’s how:
- From an FTP client, navigate to the DesktopModules/UltraVideoGallery/ folder on your DNN install.
- Copy the ucOrderTypePicker.ascx file to your local computer.
- Make a backup copy of this file before editing it.
- Open the file in Notepad or any other text editor.
- Don’t freak out. You don’t have to understand what you see.
- Search for the name of the tab you want to remove by using the Find (usually Ctrl+F on your keyboard) command and entering the name of the tab with no spaces (RecentlyFeatured in our example.)
- Look for 3 lines of code just above the first mention of “ID=lnkRecentlyFeatured” as highlighted below:
- Insert visible="false" on all 3 lines as shown in the following image:
- Repeat steps 6 – 8 by searching for “TopRated” and enditing 3 lines of code just above the first mention of “ID=lnkTopRated.”
- Save this file with the same name and upload it to your DNN portal, overwriting the original file already there.
Now do a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5) in your browser and that’s it. Enjoy!
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