DotNetNuke(R) Websites Problem Design Solution
DotNetNuke (DNN) is a flexible, powerful, open-source framework supported by major web site hosts and boasting a rapidly growing community of ambitious developers. This valuable resource demonstrates how you can take advantage of the many terrific features of the DNN core framework as you design and implement your own professional, real-world DNN web site. Tracy Wittenkeller, President and Founder of one of the best-known DNN solution providers, walks you through a complete project from start to finish and guides you through the development of a modern, sophisticated DNN site.
The self-contained chapters first present a problem to be addressed then segue into an explanation of what is necessary to solve each problem. After you've established how to solve the problem, you'll use hands-on practices and code to execute the solution. In the end, you'll discover how to maximize the depth and power of DNN's core feature set and become more proficient in your every-day use of the frameworkand you may even be surprised by the ease at which professional-level functionality can be implemented with DNN.
What you will learn from this book
Various problems you may encounter when building a DNN web siteand solutions for handling them
Out-of-the-box techniques for DNN skin design and deployment
Methods to make content implementation simple and consistent throughout your DNN web site
How to take advantage of key core DNN functions and features and get more out of the Text/HTML, Media, Announcements, Links, Survey, and FAQ modules than you ever thought possible
Who this book is for
This book is forbeginning-to-intermediate-level DNN users who want to create a great-looking DNN web site and use DNN's built-in functions to their fullest potential. The knowledge gained from this book will allow users to implement DNN web site solutions more efficiently and profitably than ever before.
"Tracy Wittenkeller's in-depth experience and product knowledge provide the reader with a killer combination of solutions for the DotNetNuke software platform as well as general content management principles."
--from the foreword by Shaun Walker, President/Chief Architect, DotNetNuke Corporation
The objective of this book is to enlighten you in the ways of DotNetNuke by showing you how to design and implement a professional, real-world DNN website solution, while taking the opportunity to outline and detail many of the terrific features of the DNN framework. While describing in detail how to take full advantage of just some of DNN's feature set, the book explains explain most of the problems you'll face when building your website, and offers one or more solutions for solving them. In the end, the result will be a great deal of knowledge surrounding a key set of features that includes a myriad of functions you may not have thought were possible from an open source application framework. Many beginning to intermediate users will be surprised, by the depth and power of DNN and the ease at which professional-level, modern functionality can be implemented. More advanced users may already be utilizing DNN in similar ways but should also find the information contained in this book to be helpful and insightful.
This book is basically a large case study that starts with a foundation and works its way through to completion with a series of designs and solutions for each incremental step along the way. What sets the Problem-Design-Solution series apart from other Wrox series is the structure of the book and the start-to-finish approach to many aspects of a completed project. Specifically, this book leads the reader through the development of a complete modern, sophisticated, highly functional, and professional DNN business website solution including many of DNN's key built-in modules/functionality:
Account login/registration, roles, and permissions
Announcements
FAQ
Media
Links
Survey
Text/HTML
From an administrative point of view, the following features and problems are also covered:
Full DNN Administration to manage many aspects of the website solution
Skin deployment
Content deployment
The implementation of each of these features provides the opportunity to present various processes of creating, designing, and developing our DNN website solution such as the following:
Skin and containers/site layout
CSS customizations
Security: site membership, roles, and profile management
Detailed content implementation: working with pages and modules
This book covers DNN's key built-in features and demonstrates how to get the most out of them to create a complete, professional website solution. All of the features are explained and presented in detail to make you aware of all of the options that are possible. At the end of the book you will have learned many of the best practices for using DNN and will have acquired a well-rounded foundation to use it comfortably on a day-to-day basis, allowing you to gain proficiency and efficiency in developing more professional and profitable DNN website solutions.
This book provides the foundation to build a complete, professional DNN website solution based on a key set of built-in features. All chapters are self-contained components within the overall solution, build on the chapters before it, and are structured in three sections:
Problem: This section defines the problem or problems to be addressed in the chapter: Which key DNN features should you take advantage of and why are these features important? What restrictions or other factors need to be taken into account?
Design: After the problem is defined adequately, this section describes what features are needed to solve the problem. This will give you a broad idea of how the solution will work or how the solution to the problem will be accomplished.
Solution: After preparing what is going to be accomplished and why (and how it solves the problem defined earlier), we will produce and discuss the code, page, and module configurations, and so on, and any other material that will realize the design and solve the problem laid out at the beginning of the chapter. Just as the coverage of this book as a whole is weighted toward solution, so is each chapter. This is where you will get hands-on practice and create the code.
This book is intended to be read from cover to cover, so that you start from scratch and finish with a complete website solution. However, the book follows a modular structure, so every chapter is quite self-contained and implements DNN features that, if necessary, can be "turned on or off" at any time.
This book is "not" for advanced programmers who use DNN at the core level to create modules or extend the project. This book "is" intended for beginning-to-intermediate users, as well as some advanced users, who want to learn:
How to create a great-looking DNN website and how to customize it with CSS
How to use DNN's built-in functions and modules to implement a complete professional, content-driven business website solution while providing the necessary core skills that will help you become proficient in your day-to-day usage of the framework
While the book does not explain every last detail of the DNN technology, it does concentrate on functionality that is found "under the surface" while walking you through many processes and details that will allow you to take advantage of the DNN framework.
