Content Management Systems

Home

About Us

Services

Support

Knowledge Base

You are here : Services » Content Management Systems

Monday, December 02, 2024

Dot Net Nuke (DNN)

What Is DotNetNuke?

DotNetNuke is an open-source Web Application Framework ideal for creating and deploying projects such as commercial websites, corporate intranets and extranets, online publishing portals, and custom vertical applications.

DotNetNuke is provided as open-source software, licensed under a BSD agreement. In general, this license grants the general public permission to obtain the software free-of-charge. It also allows individuals to do whatever they wish with the application framework, both commercially and non-commercially, with the simple requirement of giving credit back to the DotNetNuke project community.

DotNetNuke is built on a Microsoft ASP.NET (VB.NET) platform, and is easily installed and hosted. Net Doctors is fully setup to design and host your DNN site.

Key Features: Overall Design

Easy to install and to host. Built on up-to-date Microsoft ASP.NET technology, and runs on various database platforms.

Fully extensible and scalable. Suitable for a variety of projects -- from the smallest website to the largest corporate deployment. Internet or Intranet sites can be developed entirely with built-in DotNetNuke features, or can be augmented through third-party private assembly tools.

Clearly licensed under a BSD-style license. Software can be completely incorporated, modified, and adapted to personal/business use without having to worry about legalities.

Constantly evolving through real world trial. Open source nature of DotNetNuke allows programmers and webmasters to read, redistribute, and modify the source code, essentially evolving the software at a rapid pace. End-user suggestions result in quick improvements and enhancements to the software.

Simply efficient and manageable. DotNetNuke can support multiple portals off of one install. Divides administrative options between host level and individual portal level. Allows administrators to manage any number of sites, each with their own look and identity, all off of one hosting account.

Priority on security. Emphasis placed on validation, encryption, “bug” tracking and potential threats.

Fully customizable. Changes can be made to portals at all levels – from basic stylesheet elements like font type, color, and bullet points, to overall site appearance. New skins and module containers can be easily applied to the site with no repercussion on content.

Fully localized. Built-in multi-language localization features allow administrators worldwide to easily use and adapt DotNetNuke software for their own use.

User-friendly interface. Well-researched interface makes it easy for users to manage all aspects of their projects. Site wizards, help icons, and an inutuitive user interface allow universal ease-of-operation.

How Does DotNetNuke Help Me Manage Content and Design?

Site Settings. All aspects of the site can be managed through the site setting page: title of site, search engine description and submission, user welcome messages, logo, background, and skins.

Stylesheets. Installation includes built-in stylesheet designed to provide portal with basic and uniform appearance. This stylesheet can be easily configured to alter certain portal elements such as font type, color, bullet points, and background color.

Site Skins. “Skinning” provides users with a manageable way to separate application logic/content from its visual presentation. By applying a “skin,” administrators can completely change the look of their portal without the need to reorganize content – all at the click of a button. Skins can be easily designed, and are widely available through third-party vendors as free offerings or custom-built purchases.

Modules. These modular pieces of code give some form of specific functionality to the user, and are grouped together in units to form complete web pages. These modules can be easily added, edited, deleted, restored, moved around on a page, or transferred to other pages. DotNetNuke installation includes over 25 free modules. These are: Account LogIn, Announcements, Banners, Contacts, Discussion, Documents, Events List/Calendar, FAQs, Feedback, IFrame, Image, Links, News Feed (RSS), Search Input, Search Results, Service Directory, Survey, Text/HTML, User Accounts, User Defined Table, Users Online, Weblog Calendar, Weblog Recent List, Weblog Referrals List, Weblogs, and XML/XSL. A wide variety of modules, with their own purpose and functionality, are available through DotNetNuke community members and many third-party vendors.

File Management. This powerful tool allows administrators the ability to upload files directly from their computer to their portal. Any uploaded file becomes instantly available to be used on the portal, or listed in a module that handles documents or file downloads.

Recycle Bin. Allows users to restore any content, modules, or pages that have been deleted. The deleted item is restored to the location it was deletd from.

Drag and Drop Functionality. Containers and modules are easily moved within pages by mouse, using drag and drop feature.

Banner Advertising. Revenue can be generated and managed through the use of banner advertisements. Through the Vendors tab, administrators can easily; add vendors and their profile information; upload banners and determine their placement; define number of impressions, cost per impression, or length of ad campaign; track ad views and click-thrus; and define affiliate referrals.

How Does DotNetNuke Make Managing Security, Membership, and Roles Easy?

Single Installation, Multiple Portals. DotNetNuke has been enhanced to provide support for multiple portals using a single database. This allows the software to be installed on a web server and support multiple websites through a single hosting account. This is ideal for administrators who wish to provide subhosting services to their membership, or for companies who wish to have unique websites created for each department.

Host and Administrator Accounts. Due to DNN's support for multiple portals, the designation between Host and Administrator is important.

-Logging in to a DNN site as Host allows the user to manage settings related to site hosting and e-commerce, including; the monthly hosting fee; hosting disk space; and demo period/expiry date. The Host has access to a list of all hosted portals, their individual hosting information, and has the ability to edit, modify, or delete a specific portal. Net Doctors uses this level of access to setup and maintain your website

-Logging in to a DNN site as Administrator allows the user to manage settings related to their own individual portal. The Administrator may edit, modify, or delete settings specific to their own portal, but has no access to other DNN portals operating under the same host. This is the access level that most of our site owners use to do their maintance.

Security Roles and Protected Content. DotNetNuke allows administrators to define and assign roles for different user groups, such as: registered users, subscribers, content providers, affiliates, media, etc.

-Administrators can then grant access and editing rights for each group. When a user logs in to the portal, they may access or edit only the information they are permitted to. These rights can be assigned to the entire portal, a single page of the portal, or even to an individual module on a specific page. Individual users may belong to more than one group, therefore may have access and editing rights to various secure areas of the portal.

-By instituting separate password protected areas throughout a portal, administrators can control who can access each area in the portal, whether they be staff, membership, resellers, or buyers.

Site Log. The site log can help administrators analyze both their portal users and those coming to view the portal. This tool generates reports such as: detailed site log, page popularity, page views by day, page views by days of week, page views by hour, page views by month, user frequency, user registration by country, user registration by date.

Manage Vendors and Affiliates: Allows administrators to store contact information, advertising materials (banners, button ads), and statistical data on portal vendors and affiliates. Manages start and end dates for ad campaigns, tracks impressions, and calculates cost per impression (CPM).

Bulk Email: The Bulk Email program installed with DotNetNuke lets administrators compose an email message, choose which users or group is to receive the message, and send the item.

Newsletter: As with the Bulk Email tool, the Newsletter module allows administrators to send a newsletter to a targeted group of users or membership. However, the Newsletter is created and sent as an HTML document, and archived for future use.

Powerful Modules: Several of the thirty “core” modules included in the installation of DotNetNuke are especially useful for managing membership. On a working portal, the Users Online module displays a variety of membership information, such as: membership details and people online (members & visitors.) The Feedback module allows users and visitors to send messages to the administrator of the portal. User Accounts permits registered users to add, edit, or update their user account details. The Survey module allows users to complete online surveys. The Contacts module can render contact information for a group of people, such as a group or team.