Is DotNetNuke documentation really largely void or is it only available in the commercial editions?

Question

I have a difficulty with a statement on the DotNetNuke pages about the documentation only being available when you pay $2000 or more for a professional or higher license. The forums are flooded with questions, many duplicated, many unanswered, despite the hard work of the DNN community to keep up with demand.

I've tried the books, but they didn't provide the answers I looked for either and while the enthusiasm of the writers is clear, the verbose printing of large boiler plate examples and the lack of information or coverage of newly introduced keywords did not give me the deeper understanding that I longed for as a module developer.

On one hand I'm feeling about DotNetNuke as a great place to be in, but on the other hand, every time I need that one-liner of information on a method, I end up looking for it for ages, and stepping through the code and reverse engineering is then my best friend.

I'm curious, why is a product that's been around for so long, so poorly documented on the count of the API? After all, there's a rather large commercial company behind it and it thrives by the product's expandability. Am I correct in understanding that you only get this documentation if you pay dearly? Or do module development companies have special access?

Answer 1

I am posting a second answer here as with the revised question there is an entirely different way to look at things.

With regards to the DotNetNuke professional edition user manual, I think it is very important that you understand exactly what the manual is. It is NOT a developers guide, or API documentation, it is User Interface documentation. How to add a page, how to add a module to a page, how to install a skin, things of that nature. Yes, that book is a "PE Feature", right wrong or indifferent though, it isn't going to help a developer with the understanding of the DotNetNuke platform.

I think this is an important distinction as really the PE feature set is driven towards business implementations, not necessarily developer implementation. The whole movement to improve developer documentation and developer functionality is being driven by the community and not necessarily the PE customers.

There are other reasons for this as well, PE comes with a few modules that were recently acquired by DotNetNuke corporation, those modules must have documentation as well, which I'm guessing is another part of the UI document that is referenced by your link within the post.

As for the forums, yes, I agree they can be frustrating. It is one of the reasons that the forums on my site (http://www.mitchelsellers.com) are frequented as they get a bit better exposure. Another item that might be great for the community is my recently proposed DotNetNuke StackExchange site. If you haven't done so already, I'd go out and show your support!

Overall though I do feel your pain, I've been an active member in the DotNetNuke community for over 4 years now, and it can be tough at times, but in the end, it always is worth it.