So after a lot of hiccups, I can finally say that I have a version of the new feedback module ready for testing.. There has been quite a few bumps along the way including

a) my decision to use the ajax control toolkit -  since I'd started developing against version 4.6.2 initially which was working fine with the core implementation of AJAX, I'd thought I'd be all peachy when I try and move everything to a newer version of the core (ie 4.8.0)... However when I did this, I found out that something had changed in the core implementation of AJAX from 4.6.2 to 4.8.0 which was preventing me from loading my controls in Page_Init like I had been doing in the past. I spent a good 3-4 weeks trying to figure it out and ask core team members for help without any success. Finally I figured out a workaround using javascript which worked out groovy. b) trying to prepare for my MCPD Upgrade exams  - my full time job mandated that I get my MCSD.NET certifications upgraded to MCPD EA ASAP and I spent a few weeks trying to prepare/take the exams....

After about two months of testing and re-submitting of the feedback module to the release tracker for approval, I can finally say that I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. With the very rigorous testing which both Sebastian and Matthias have put the new feedback module through, I am hoping that this is going to be a much better module than it's predecessor.  A big thank you goes to both of them for guiding me along the way and ensuring that I was able to "fix" a lot of the legacy issues that I had inherited from the 3x version of the module. Some of the things which I've learnt as part of the release process which might be helpful to others down the road include

Make sure to clean up gemini issues as pertains to your module - A big shout out goes to Alex for being the Gemini Watch dog on this and ensuring that all t's are crossed and i's are dotted.... Make sure you update your release notes to match the Gemini Issues. Double check and triple check your SQL scripts - Since...

Its now been a couple of weeks since version 4.4.1 of the feedback module has been released and with the exception of some bugs, I would say that overall, the release process went fine (unless others have some input on this). I will start working on 4.4.2 very shortly here (hopefully start getting the feature set ready by mid week ) and then start figuring out what needs to be done in 4.4.2. I know I've received some requests from the core which include better administrative functionality (ie allowing others besides the site admin to moderate feedback posts) which will get added to 4.4.2. This past week (March 19th) was also the birth of my baby boy :). I am now a proud dad and it's an exciting period for me personally. My wife and I have been eagerly waiting for this day and it is NOT easy to say the least. I'm still trying to figure out things like how to be able to function (workwise) after staying up all night holding your crying 1 week old baby...

I've also received some feedback on the open tickets...

We were so close to releasing the module this past weekend but have hit on another roadblock which will prevent us from releasing the module as expected. As many might be aware from following the module, I have introduced captcha capabilities in the new version which will prevent bots from submitting feedbacks on your site that uses the feedback module. This captcha feature was taken straight from the core and is basically the same implementation as what the core has done when you sign in or register to create an account on a dnn site. What is happening with the feedback module is that when the captcha capabilities are turned on with a child portal, it is automatically logging the user out of the website (even if he/she is logged in). The only user that does not see this problem is the Host account. This obviously is a problem for the module in general and I am trying today to determine the root cause for this occuring. With working with other team members/core members, I was also informed that captcha is...

Reasons to retire the Firebird DataProvider Project

I am happy to announce that I have recently taken over the management of the Feedback module.
As I'm sure a lot of you are already aware, I have been actively supporting the DNN community over the past few years (authoring the oracle data provider for DotNetNuke and also leading the effort to create the firebird version of DotNetNuke). Towards this end, it is indeed a pleasure to be asked to support in other areas of DotNetNuke and hopefully help in the growth of this wonderful open source project.

With regards to the feedback module, it is one which has not seen any changes for quite some time. The latest available version (3.2.1) was released well over 6 months ago and there has been little or no updates to this module since then.
I am going to make an effort to keep this module up to date and hopefully with my more active participation in the forums, will be able to make this module more useful to the users of this module.

As part of the role of managing the Feedback Module, I have recently made some major changes to the module which will be available for release shortly. List of Changes

Converted module to VS 2005 (to be released as version 04.04.01). Corrected references to obsolete DNN core functions which were in the 3.2.1 version. Moved Categories from the Lists table to a table controlled by the Feedback Module (Feedback_Lists) Created interface to manage Categories via new Feedback_Lists table and modified references to Feedback_Categories (hard coded list in version 3.2.1) Validation on Email field and group validation on the submit button so that the form does not throw an error when dropped on a page that has other modules with form submission capabilities. The validation on the email field is similar to what the core has implemented with the email field (User Registration) - it checks for null values and also the regular expression check to make sure it's an email address (i.e....

Lots of stuff has been happening in the past few weeks/months which had resulted in my inability to complete this as expected. I had to step away to complete a project in China and am still trying to catch up with the work here before I left for China.
I am hoping that with the help of Greg, we can get this wrapped up very shortly and be able to put out a 3.2.3 and or 4.2.3 version very soon. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as we have more updates regarding the Firebird DP.

Sanjay

It is exciting to be officially part of the DotNetNuke community. I've been an avid follower of DotNetNuke from the 2x days and have followed it as it has come a long way from its initial concept by Shaun Walker.I was introduced to Firebird® last year by another client of ours who was interested in using it in an embedded device to run a small inventory tracking application. A couple of months later, I decided to see whether I could get DotNetNuke running on it. Due to various other commitments I couldn't follow through with this till late last year when Michael Washington and a couple of other guys decided to give it a shot. We started doing the initial conversion of the scripts and I helped write most of the provider classes using the Oracle one I had written earlier for reference.

We can finally see the end of the tunnel and with the help of two new volunteers (Greg Leonardo and Layton), we're in the process of going through the steps of getting a stable release of the firebird data provider.In addition...