Why DotNetNuke?
Our DotNetNuke Strategy
We feel that the majority of our clients will receive the most value for their development dollars by leveraging a pre-existing portal development platform called DotNetNuke instead of writing everything from scratch. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. This will allow us to simply “configure” many of your requirements and save your development budget for the truly custom features. In the end you will have a fully scalable, database driven website built on Microsoft best practices that will have significantly more capabilities than your original requirements call for. It is not uncommon that 80% of a project disappears when we reevaluate it in the context of DotNetNuke. This combined with our hybrid team approach gives us an unmatched ability to deliver quality systems at an exceptionally low price.
What is DotNetNuke? (also referred to as DNN)
Web Application Framework
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 free of charge 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.
DotNetNuke is built on a Microsoft ASP.NET / SQL Server platform, and is easily installed and hosted. With a growing community of over 600,000 users, and a dedicated base of programming professionals, support for DotNetNuke is always close at hand.
What Are The Key Features Of DotNetNuke?
Once the software is properly downloaded and installed, DNN users can immediately go about managing all aspects of their new Internet or intranet site. That is because the DotNetNuke application provides all of the key features and tools required to operate and maintain a site, as well as giving the administrator complete control of the content, layout, membership, and security of the site.
Within minutes downloading DotNetNuke, it is conceivable that a person with no programming skill could be piecing together a completely original, dynamic web portal. They could be creating new pages of content, using pre-built content types (modules) like announcements, discussions, events, FAQs, feedback forms, and images. They could be creating membership roles, sending bulk emails, and defining secure sections for registered site users only. They could even be setting up banner advertising and customizing the site’s appearance.
DotNetNuke Features:
· Easy to install and to host. Built on up-to-date Microsoft ASP.NET technology, and runs on various database platforms. In addition, many hosting companies offer free installation of the DotNetNuke application with their plans.
· 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 tools. DotNetNuke has built-in support for web farms making it highly scalable.
· 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 (completely independent websites) off of one install. It divides administrative options between host level and individual portal level. DotNetNuke 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 and no involvement by programmers. Say after a year, you want a totally new look and feel to your site. Within 2 minutes you can upload a new skin and now you have a new site. Plus there is a very healthy market of professional graphic artist 3rd party skin developers. Skin packs containing 20 or so variations typically cost around $80.
· 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 intuitive user interface allow universal ease-of-operation.
· Easy to access community support. With a dedicated core programming team, over 600,000 registered users, and a growing legion of third-party DotNetNuke developers, DotNetNuke hosters, and resellers, community support is always close-at-hand. An extensive array of third party modules and skins can be found at www.SnowCovered.com.
Free Modules Included in every DotNetNuke installation
· DNN Module :: Announcements - The announcements module is a basic module used for displaying news items on your site.
· DNN Module :: Blog - The Blog module is actually a collection of related modules which comprise all the working parts of a Blog.
· DNN Module :: Chat – All of the standard features of a general purpose chat application.
· DNN Module :: Contacts - This allows users to store a list of contacts and relevant related information.
· DNN Module :: Documents - This module presents a list of files within DotNetNuke for download by end users. Documents can be stored within a DotNetNuke portal, or accessed from an external website or portal. Access to documents can be secured using the core role-based security from within DotNetNuke, including "secure storage".
· DNN Module :: Events - The DotNetNuke Events Module is a module which produces a display of upcoming events as a list in chronological order or in calendar format. Events may have additional information and links can be set to automatically expire on a particular date, or re-occur by any specified number of days, weeks, months or years.
· DNN Module :: FAQ - The FAQ module allows you to create a list of questions & answers. All questions are hyperlink buttons and will expand when clicked on. Only one answer is displayed at any given time.
· DNN Module :: Feedback - The Feedback Module is one that comes with the core DNN framework and can be used to get feedback from users about something on your website. In its most generic form, it can be used to provide a means by which a user on your website can ask you a question about anything.
· DNN Module :: Forum - The gives the ability for people to start threads and reply to other people's threads. Depending on the permissions of community members as defined by the board's administrator, they can post replies to existing threads and start new threads as they wish. A forum administrator has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum. These moderator privileges are often able to be delegated to other forum members.
· DNN Module :: Gallery - A module to display galleries of images.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Help - This allows you to define a fully featured searchable help library.
· DotNetNuke Module :: IFrame - The IFrame is a browser feature which allows you to display content from another web site or web page within a frame. This is really handy when doing simple integration wth other sites.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Links - The links module is designed to display user links in several different formats and styles.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Map - This module, using the Google Maps API, provides the ability to pump any custom data into the Google Map in a number of unique ways.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Media - This module will support all kinds of media, for instance; Flash, QuickTime, RealPlayer, Windows Media, various Audio formats, etc., and of course Images.
· DotNetNuke Module :: News - The DotNetNuke News Project, also referred to as the ‘News Feeds (RSS)’ module, allows for the display of a ‘news feed’ on a DNN page.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Reports - The Reports module provides a simple, but flexible, view on data from your DotNetNuke Database. Site administrators can develop Reports by building a SQL Query and visualizing it with one of the Visualizers built-in to the module or a 3rd-party Visualizer.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Repository - The Repository Module can be used to store a collection of files, images, links or text. In addition to storing basic object information, the Repository also allows you to store detailed meta information about each object.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Store - The DNN Store out of the box allows you to sell products using either Authorize.Net or PayPal. Features include categories, products (list and details), mini cart (with integrated controls), full shopping cart (including multiple ship/bill to addresses/recipients), reviews (including a review admin for approving reviews), order history (customer and admin viewable), and provider based gateways.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Survey - Allows you to build custom customer surveys.
· DotNetNuke Module :: User Defined Table - This allows the creation of a list of records with fields, that can be specified by the page admin.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Users Online - This module presents information about the users in your portal.
· DotNetNuke Module :: Wiki - A module that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content. A collaborative technology for organizing information on Web sites.
· DotNetNuke Module :: XML - Allows you a DotNetNuke site to take advantage of various XML files.
· Provider :: Active Directory (Currently under development)
· Provider :: FCKeditor™ - A fully featured, web based rich text editor.
DotNetNuke Development Strategy
Since you are starting with a preexisting platform, your strategy of development should be a bit different than standard development. At every juncture of the project you should be asking the question “Do I really need to write custom code for this?” Your strategy should be the following:
1. Does the functionality you seek already exist in DotNetNuke? For example, let’s say you want a customizable FAQ page. If so, then just turn on the FAQ feature.
2. Does the functionality you seek already exist in a 3 rd party module? (many found at www.SnowCovered.com) For example, let’s say you want a fully featured ecommerce system (like Smith Shopping Cart). Just purchase the module, install it, and then configure it. All without programming. This strategy will save you many thousands of dollars and result in a much better website.
3. If the functionality you seek is so unique that it doesn’t exist elsewhere then proceed with a traditional ASP.Net development process within the context of DotNetNuke.
Demonstration
Interested in seeing a demo of DotNetNuke in action? Watch a product overview video on DotNetNuke here. The video is slightly out of date because it is based on version 3.0. DotNetNuke had been significantly enhanced in the last couple of years but this video will still give you an excellent overview. The video is approximately 23 minutes.
If you would like to see an actual site we produced with DotNetNuke please browse to www.NGSP.com. National Geographic School Publishing merged with Hampton Brown School Publishing and chose Keene Systems as the company to develop their new website. The site manages over 16,000 products, and a sales force scattered all over the US.
Recent DotNetNuke Projects:
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center – Hanover, New Hampshire - www.DHMC.org
Keene Systems Partnerered with Clinformatics to create a DotNetNuke based International Perfusion Registry (www.IcebpRegistry.com/ICEBPDNN) to share useful and actionable clinical information regarding the practice of cardiopulmonary bypass. We created numerous DotNetNuke modules to manage statistics on patient’s heart procedures.
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center – Manchester, New Hampshire - www.DHMC.org
Developed a custom DotNetNuke system to manage information on patients in their Bariatric program, their weights, meeting dates treatments and complications. Created numerous DotNetNuke modules and used AJAX auto-complete controls to lookup patient data. A conversion program was also developed to extract data out of their legacy system.
- MedDepot, Inc. – Grand Prairie, Texas - www.MedDepotInc.com
MedDepot is a company that provides medical equipment to the hospice care industry. They work closely with the hospice care providers to rent, deliver and setup medical equipment for hospice patients. Keene Systems developed the architectural design for their new product tracking and order processing system that would tie into each driver’s mobile phone. The project is to be based on DotNetNuke, ASP.Net and SQL Server 2008. Keene Systems also produced their current website in DotNetNuke.
- Kamakura Corporation - Honolulu, Hawaii - www.Kamakuraco.com
Kamakura is a provider of financial risk management solutions, software and consulting. Keene Systems assisted with some development on their DotNetNuke website.
- PowerStone Solutions - Brandon, Mississippi - www.PowerStoneSolutions.com
Keene Systems built them a new DotNetNuke website to promote their Myco Portal product for managing employees & resources.
- Polk County Fire Services - Polk County, Florida - polkfire.polkfl.com
Keene Systems built a new real-time web user interface for their 911 emergency system. The DotNetNuke UI connected to their SQL Server back end..
- P.Wolfe Consultants - Manhattan, New York - www.PWolfe.com
P.Wolfe Consultants is a full service architectural firm in Manhattan specializing in permitting and compliance on large scale construction and renovation projects. Keene Systems developed an online permitting system that allowed their clients to fill in most of the information needed for NYCs strict permitting process. The site was based on DotNetNuke and integrated with Acrobat to fill in the city's building permit template.
- MassPrinting – Medford, MA - www.MassPrinting.com
Assisted Bridge Consulting in replacing MassPrinting’s website with a DotNetNuke site. By moving to DotNetNuke instead of custom programming, much of their development wish list simply went away because the functionality was already built into DotNetNuke.
- National Geographic School Publishing – Carmel, California
In early 2007, after the Merger of National Geographic School Publishing and Hampton Brown School Publishing they needed a new website and hired Keene Systems to deliver a solution. The site we developed www.NGSP.com , is based on ASP.Net, SQL Server & DotNetNuke. It manages more than 16,000 education products for grades pre-school through 12 and required dozens of custom DotNetNuke modules. There is extensive integration with their back end accounting system and support of their sales force. This is an ongoing project.
- R.O.D.S. Trucking - Plant City, Florida - www.rodstrucking.com
Developed a DotNetNuke based system to manage trucks, materials, drivers, deliveries, clients and projects. This required 15+ DotNetNuke modules. Also wrote a conversion application to extract and reapir data out of their existing MS Access system importing it into the new system.
- Rocket Ready - Arlington, Virginia - www.RocketReady.com
Rocket Ready had us develop a DotNetNuke site to manage restaurant menus called DineDaily. It consisted of 26 different DNN modules all written in C#.
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