I am part of a team of .NET developers and we're trying to use the DNN platform as a way to have a website template so that we will not have to spend weeks or months building core functionality, such as authentication, permissions, navigation, etc. However, I'm very confused as to how the platform works as well as how it's installed. I'v spent many hours researching online at http://www.dnnsoftware.com/ as well as other sites, which only added to my confusion. Here are some specific questions which are still unanswered:
- Do we install the source code or not? http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/how-to-install-the-source-package-of-dotnetnuke says that it's not recommended to install source code. On the other hand, http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/packages says that we should use the source code if we are developers (which we are).
- If we don't use source code, how do we write code which will be used to add functionality, style, or business logic to our site? Where exactly do we put this code?
- I keep on seeing the term "module" being thrown around. What in the world is a module?? Is it a separate .csproj file? Is it a .cs file saved as part of the website? If so, how would we incorporate it without the source code?
- Like any other application, we need to be able to maintain full control of builds and deployments. With this, we can see history of what we did, roll back changes if necessary, etc. Currently, for our other projects, we build with TeamCity and deploy with OctopusDeploy. Where does that fit into working with DNN without source? I also know that DNN is set up as a web site project not a web application project (see here http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forums/threadid/338902/scope/posts/threadpage/1) and web site projects is a technology not really being maintained by the newer versions of Visual Studio, and may be harder to deploy as well. Assuming I DON'T want to convert (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2009/10/29/converting-a-web-site-project-to-a-web-application-project.aspx), how would I build/deploy the web site project?
-
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2009/10/29/converting-a-web-site-project-to-a-web-application-project.aspx seems to state that it's not recommended to remove dependencies from DNN and replace them with other ones. If that's really true, it makes the whole platform seem very fragile and makes me wonder if I'm using the wrong tool altogether. Was DNN really meant for developers or not? (And if not, what was then intended use?)
Start here->
http://www.christoc.com/Tutorials/All-Tutorials/aid/1
1) Don't touch the DNN source, trust me, it isn't worth the headache
2) You add functionality, override style, etc, through the use of Extension (modules and skins)
3) A separate CSProj (check out my templates http://www.christoc.com/Tutorials/All-Tutorials/aid/2
4) You will deploy by taking the ZIP file from each extension and either uploading through the host/extension page, or taking the ZIp file and putting it into /install/module/ in the root of your deployment target, then have a process call /install/install.aspx?mode=installresources
5) DNN is for sure meant for developers, but it is a framework, build on the framework, don't go in and start jacking the framework itself.
Menu
636
