Newbie question - Extend It! ( Programming in VS2005 & 2008, ASP.Net 2.0 )

Forum General DotNetN... Extend It! ( Pr... Newbie question

4/1/2006 3:32 AM

	Robert Mayer
10 posts

Newbie question

I'm an experienced ASP.NET developer who has just recently discovered DNN. It seems like a great tool for cranking out portals and fairly generic sites whose needs are primarily centered around content management.

What I'm most interested to know is how I can best utilize DNN as a framework for more complex, real-world web apps that are built upon custom databases and business rules. It seems to me that using the DNN framework would, at a minimum, provide the advantage of not having to code a lot of the mundane GUI, user security, et. al. features since they're already built.
I realize my question is very broad, so I don't necessarily expect a detailed reply here, but if someone could direct me to some good, concise documentation/tutorials addressing my needs, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm sure they're out there, but thought it would probably save me some time asking for directions here.

4/2/2006 1:12 PM

	cathal connolly
2757 posts
www.cathal.co.uk

Re: Newbie question

i would recommend that you download the documentation zip. It has a number of docs that cover the various framework aspects such as the optional module interfaces etc., that should give you a good background on the framework. I don't know of any good tutorials describing what you describe. I do know of a number of applications such as mass-email clients, IIS hosting control panels, and LOB applications that extend DNN substantially, but few of these release any details to protect their intellectual property.

Cathal

4/3/2006 8:47 AM

	Jeff Martin
61 posts
www.jeffmartin.com

Re: Newbie question

We have used DNN as a basis for our realworld app at www.homefree.com . It provided a great launching point. User and Role administration as well as CMS basics already in the application.

We have made a large suite of custom modules (user controls) that do most of our custom functionality. These are produced just as fast or faster than standard ASP.NET pages or controls. All the database tables behind the controls are custom and we have our own business rules. I think Cathal is right in that just going through the documentation is a good start.

I think you will find that if you dive in and make a quickie module and implement it, things fall together really quickly.

Jeff Martin
MCSD C#
My Site

4/3/2006 12:46 PM

	Robert Mayer
10 posts

Re: Newbie question

jmartin wrote

We have used DNN as a basis for our realworld app at www.homefree.com . It provided a great launching point. User and Role administration as well as CMS basics already in the application.

I think you will find that if you dive in and make a quickie module and implement it, things fall together really quickly.

Thanks, Jeff. This is the kind of info I was seeking. I haven't yet looked at the custom module documentation, but my first impression was that this was just for making extensions to the generic functionality of DNN.

Another quick question - is there any problem coding these custom modules in C# as opposed to VB.NET like the DNN framework uses? I suppose if these modules (user controls?) are pre-compiled before being plugged in to DNN, then source language would be a non-issue.

4/3/2006 3:39 PM

	Jeff Martin
61 posts
www.jeffmartin.com

Re: Newbie question

Yes, C# runs great - that is what we use for our custom modules.

The user controls was in parentheses because modules are just that. PortalModuleBase inherits from UserControl and all DNN modules inherit from the PortalModuleBase.

You can build your modules with any functionality you could put into a user control. (ie, an infinate possibility)

Jeff Martin
MCSD C#
My Site

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