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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Do you want to develop Web sites without the help of a programmer? Lucky for you there's DotNetNuke, a content management system that allows you to build and maintain dynamic Web sites just by using a Web browser. DotNetNuke For Dummies helps you get down to business and shows you how to create a user-friendly Web site. You'll find out how you can build and manage a flexible, versatile site with all the advantages an open-source application offers, use convenient modules, build a community, and save some money at the same time. This plain-English guide lets you discover how to: * Install, run, and troubleshoot DotNetNuke * Change and customize portal settings * Add and manage pages on your site * Make your site look professional * Deliver contents with Text/HTML * Add news feeds, online surveys, and banners * Interact with visitors through blogging, feedback comments, and forums * Create an e-business * Customize the look of your site with exciting components This book features cool new modules that will meet every Web site's need, both commercial and personal. With DotNetNuke For Dummies, you'll get up to speed with this wonderful online tool and create your own corner of the World Wide Web!
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Seitenzahl: 495
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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DotNetNuke For Dummies
by Lorraine Young, Philip Beadle, Scott Willhite, and Chris Paterra
DotNetNuke For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. DotNetNuke is a trademark of Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006927772
ISBN: 978-0-471-79843-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Authors
Lorraine Young is a founding member of the DotNetNuke Core Team and a member of the DNN Help Project team. Lorraine began her IT career in 1999 when she cofounded a Web development company with her coauthor and husband, Philip Beadle. When the company decided to use DNN exclusively for Web site development, Lorraine undertook the task of writing a user manual for her clients and then decided to share it with the DNN community in a bid to expose DNN to a wider audience. Lorraine continues to provide free user help by writing the DNN online help as well as through her personal Web site, www.dnnangel.com. She holds a bachelor of arts in professional writing and literature and a post-graduate degree in orientation and mobility for visually impaired adults and children. Lorraine lives in Melbourne, Australia and works as an independent consultant.
Philip Beadle is a founding member of the DotNetNuke Core Team, a member of the DNN Help Project team, and a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD). He began his IT career in 1997 developing risk analysis software for the Australian oil and gas industry. In 1999, he founded a Web development company that focused on solutions using the application of the DNN framework. He is currently employed by Readify (www.readify.net) as a consultant. Philip runs a personal Web site for .NET developers at www.philipbeadle.net and blogs regularly on an environmentally focused Web site (www.hitechandgreen.com), which he initiated in 2006.
Scott Willhite is the COO of DotNetNuke Corporation. Scott’s technology pedigree is distinguished, including a bachelor of science in computer science and MBA in information systems management from Baylor University. Scott has 20 years of technology experience as senior manager and technical architect for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), CTO and VP of Technology for 10x Labs, and program director for Safeco’s Office of the CIO. He’s architected, developed, and managed systems built on technologies ranging from COBOL to Java and .NET, solving all kinds of real-world business problems in industries from banking, insurance, utilities, and healthcare to faith-based applications. Among other things, he oversees the Projects initiatives at DotNetNuke, cultivating BSD licensed (unencumbered) practical applications of Microsoft technology and programming for the world. Scott currently resides in Seattle, Washington with his lovely wife Allison and son Kyle (the first and best loves of his life) and a host of crazy pets, neighbors, and friends that he wouldn’t trade for gold.
Chris Paterra is a founding member of the DotNetNuke Core Team who works for a .NET development shop in Atlanta, Georgia as lead architect. He is the project leader of the popular Forum and Gallery modules for DotNetNuke and also aids in the agile development of the DotNetNuke Core project itself. He has written magazine articles on managing the projects, coauthored the DotNetNuke Professional Portals 4.x, and is currently writing a book titled Professional DotNetNuke Modules. His community involvement has earned him the Microsoft MVP award in ASP.NET for 2007.
Dedication
To our loving parents and everyone who has generously given a moment of their time to support and grow the DNN community. Nice work, team!
Authors’ Acknowledgments
This book has been a team effort right from the beginning — and what a fun team it’s been. Thanks to Scott Willhite for envisioning this book and working with Wiley to bring it into existence. Thanks to Lorraine for stepping forward to produce the lion’s share of the book and to Philip and Chris for joining in along the way when we needed a helping hand.
It’s also been a fabulous experience working with the patient and supportive team at Wiley, including Katie Feltman, Linda Morris, and the entire Composition Services group. Three cheers to you all!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Linda Morris
Acquisitions Editor: Katie Feltman
Copy Editor: Linda Morris
Technical Editor: Steve Fabian
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny, Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone
Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle
Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot
Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Carl Byers, Stacie Brooks, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Laura Pence, Alicia B. South
Proofreaders: Aptara, Todd Lothery
Indexer: Aptara
Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Contents
Title
Introduction
Foolish Assumptions
How To Use This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
A Note on the Different Versions of DNN
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Part I : Drawing from the DotNetNuke Power Source
Chapter 1: Maximize Your Web Potential
DotNetNuke Is More than Web Publishing
DNN Is Community
DNN Is Content
DNN Is Collaboration
Plug in to Open Source
Finding Help Only a Hyperlink Away
Chapter 2: Installing DotNetNuke
Making Decisions about Your DNN Installation
Getting DotNetNuke to Your Server
Setting Up IIS for DotNetNuke
Setting Up the Database
Preinstallation Configuration
DotNetNuke Automated Installation
Installing DotNetNuke with Control Panels
Troubleshooting Your Installation
Chapter 3: Set It and Forget It: Default Portal Settings
Changing Settings to Adapt to Your Needs
Installing Modules and Assigning Them to Portals
Setting Global Preferences for New Portals
Lighting Up a New Portal (Or Two, or Three)
Part II : Putting the Power of DotNetNuke to Work
Chapter 4: Getting Your Site Started on the Right Foot
Setting Defaults for a Web Site
Getting Your Users into Roles
Adding and Managing Pages on Your Web Site
Adding Content to a Page
Managing Web Site Files
Making Your Site Look Good
Chapter 5: Delivering Content Right Out of the Box
Doing Almost Anything with Text/HTML
Keeping Users Informed with FAQs
Getting Around with Links
Letting Everyone Know with Announcements
Listing Your Contacts
Downloading with Documents
Sneaking a Peek with IFrame
Showing Pictures, Movies, and More with the Media Module
Chapter 6: Adding Bells and Whistles to Your Site
Keeping Track of Dates with the Events Module
Subscribing to News Feeds
Going Ad Hoc with the User Defined Table Module
Sharing Spreadsheets and Data with XML/XSL
Creating online surveys
Leveraging Partnerships with Banners
Seeing Who Is at Home with UsersOnline
Part III : Jumping to Light Speed with DotNetNuke
Chapter 7: Getting Interactive with DotNetNuke
Getting to Know the Feedback Modules
Getting Familiar with This Blogging Business
Setting Options for the Most Recent Blog Entries Module
Blog Settings for All Bloggers: Advanced Settings for Your Blog
Getting to Know Forums
Going Public with Newsletters
Chapter 8: Collaborating and Selling with DNN
Showcase and Share with the Repository Module
Setting Up the Repository
Changing the Function of the Repository
Working with Repository Files
Selling Stuff with a Store
Laying Out Your Store
Choosing a Payment Provider
Configuring the Store Admin Module
Adding Products to the Store
Approving and Editing Product Reviews
Deleting a Product Review
Shopping ’til You Drop
Collaborating with Wiki
Creating a Wiki Site
Getting to Know Your Wiki
Editing Wiki Pages
Linking to New or Existing Wiki Pages
Performing Maintenance on Your Wiki
Exporting and Importing Wiki Web Sites
Part IV : Getting Under the Hood
Chapter 9: Standard Stuff You Can Customize
Finding Things with Search Input and Search Results
Inviting Authentication with Account Login
Personalizing with User Account
Personalizing Your E-Mail Notifications
Changing Your Terms of Use Policy
Changing Your Default Language
Chapter 10: Keeping Tabs with the Site Log and Log Viewer
Getting to Know Your Site Log
See What’s Happening with the Log Viewer
Checking Out the Recycle Bin
Checking on Scheduled Tasks
Chapter 11: Customizing the Look of Your Site with Components
Discovering Providers
Working with HTTP Modules
Getting to Know Skin Objects
Replacing the Standard DNN Editor with the telerik r.a.d.editor
Replacing the Standard DNN Editor with the FCKeditor Provider
Enabling Friendly URLs
Replacing Standard DNN Navigation with a telerik Skin Object
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 12: Ten Commercial Modules Worth a Look
Building Forms with Enterprise Forms
Managing Images with the DNN Photo Gallery
Skinning Shortcuts with the ZLDnn-Module Wrapper
Online Chat and Support with SWIRL (AJAX-Based Chat)
Designing Pages with the Aggregator 3.1
ActiveForums
Streamlining Content Approval with Content Manager
Distributing Podcasts with the Podcaster Module
Interacting with Page Options
Managing Online Issues Ticketing with Help Desk
Chapter 13: Ten Free (Or Really Cheap) Modules You Shouldn’t Pass Up
GoMap
GoogleSearch
MMLinks
Daily Comic
Multi Page Content
TemplatePrint Skin Object
Weather
Child Links
YAP Email Manager 1.03
Power Downloads
Chapter 14: Ten Fun Things for Your Forum Users
Maintaining Their Profiles
Subscribing to Favorite Forums and Getting Notification of Posts
Ranking Your Most Active Users
Giving Users Additional Avatars
Enabling Time Zones Specific to Each User
Letting Users Rate Their Favorite Posts
Displaying the Poster’s Location
Displaying a Forum Group on a Different Page
: Further Reading
Introduction
Welcome to the world of DotNetNuke!
DotNetNuke is not just a great piece of free (yes, free!) software: It’s your key to a vibrant and ever-changing community of software users, designers, and developers. How deeply you choose to get involved with the DotNetNuke world is up to you. If you opt for little involvement, you can simply download the code or find a hosting provider who can set you up with a domain and hosting where you can build your DotNetNuke Web site. In fact, you may never visit the official DotNetNuke Web site! Alternatively, if you do catch the DotNetNuke bug, you may find yourself taking the red pill along with many other excited and dedicated community members and seeing just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
DotNetNuke (DNN) is a Content Management System (CMS) that enables you to build and maintain dynamic Web sites by using a Web browser. It’s a powerful tool that can meet most business or personal Web site needs, as well as being customizable to suit specific requirements. DNN is supported by a dedicated and ever-growing community of computer users who are constantly improving the product, creating complementary add-ons and services, as well as offering their time and support to you and other DNN users.
Because it’s an open-source project, there is always a lot going on in the DotNetNuke world. Companies and individuals offer help and advice, free resources are available on the DotNetNuke Web site, and helpful blogs, Web sites, and movies are everywhere!
So with so much help everywhere, why are we writing this book?
First, this book has been written to provide you with a simple entry path into using DNN. This book helps you to get familiar with the fundamental concepts of DNN, guides you through the basics of building a Web site, and points you to other Web sites where you can find more information.
Second, this book aims to plug you in to the wider world of DNN where an ever-growing range of free and commercial resources including content, content management, Web site design, and hosting services are available to enhance your DNN experience.
Foolish Assumptions
On the whole, we wrote this book for beginners who may have never built a Web site before. In this book, we do assume readers know how to find files on their own computers and have used a Web site browser to surf the Internet at least a few times.
The book does, however, include a couple of chapters in which we do assume readers know a lot more about technology. These chapters are included to give the children in your household some light reading material, but they can be a bit more challenging for adults. The information contained in these chapters is not required to build a Web site. Chapter 2 and Chapter 11 assume readers have an understanding of computer system administration such as Internet Information Server (IIS) and Internet protocols such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP). These chapters are for readers who have existing technical knowledge in these areas and want to find out how to apply it to DNN.
How To Use This Book
This book is developed to assist with the building and maintaining of Web sites by using DNN. If you read the book from start to finish, it walks you through the full DNN journey beginning with downloading the free software, installing it on your Web service, configuring the basic settings, adding pages and content to your Web site, tweaking settings, and exploring the wider DotNetNuke community. However, we realize that your own personal DNN journey may be quite different from this depending upon whether you set up your own DNN, buy it installed from a hosting company, or are provided with a DNN Web site by your company’s IT department. As such, you don’t need to read the book from start to finish, but begin wherever you pick up the baton.
We recommend that readers who are being introduced to DNN for the first time read Chapter 1, which outlines the fundamentals, introduces common terminology, and provides an understanding of the way the DNN community operates. From there, you are free to pick and mix your chapters as you need!
Conventions Used in This Book
To help you get the most out of this book, we follow a few simple typographical conventions. Text that you have to type appears in boldface. Programming code or URLs appear in a monospaced font. Clickable links are underlined.
A Note on the Different Versions of DNN
This book will be useful for readers with any DNN 3 or DNN 4 version.
Versions of DotNetNuke change rapidly. Typically, three new versions of DNN are released each year. Each new version typically contains new features, improvements to security and speed as well as takes advantage of new features in the Microsoft .NET platform.
The numbering of versions works like this: The first version of DNN was called Version 1 and is written as DNN (01.00.00). Each time a major change is made to a version, the number changes like this: DNN (1.01.00), DNN (1.02.00), DNN (1.03.00), and so on. Each time a minor change is made to a version, the number changes like this: DNN (1.00.01), DNN (1.00.02), DNN (1.00.03), and so on. Sometimes minor versioning skips a few numbers, say, from DNN (1.00.01) to DNN (1.00.03). This happens when minor version changes are made but not released for download to the public.
This book uses the fourth major release of DNN Version 4, which is DNN (04.04.00). This is the latest version available at the time of writing. Readers with an earlier or a later version of DNN will find small variations on how tasks are performed as well as different features.
How This Book Is Organized
Whether you are planning to use DNN to build a personal Web site, a single business Web site, or to manage multiple Web sites, this book guides you through all the steps required to set up and create one or more dynamic Web sites by using DNN.
Part I: Drawing from the DotNetNuke Power Source
This section is about getting started with DNN and is written for a mixed audience.
Chapter 1 covers all the definitions and the basic foundational concepts to understand DotNetNuke. It also explains a little bit about open source and why that aspect of DNN is important to a user right now. We recommend that everyone read this chapter.
Chapter 2 covers installing DNN on a Web server for more advanced readers who intend to download the DNN software and install it themselves.
Chapter 3 covers how to configure the general settings of DNN before you begin building your Web site. If you have purchased a single Web site from a hosting company, you don’t need to read this chapter.
Part II: Putting the Power of DotNetNuke to Work
This section covers the building of the Web site. It covers the main activities of the portal Administrator, including how to create pages and add content to the Web site as well as how to create registered Web site users and control which users can see which information. The section is written sequentially, with each chapter covering a slightly more complex task or tool. Mastering this Part means that you are a skilled DNN Administrator.
Part III: Jumping to Light Speed with DotNetNuke
This section kicks Web site administration up a notch. It covers the more advanced content modules that enable your Web site users to interact with the Web site by submitting their feedback, participating in forums, subscribing to newsletters and more.
Part IV: Getting Under the Hood
This section is for readers who want to delve deeper into customizing, personalizing, and improving the experience of users. It explains how to customize the wording of automated e-mail messages sent out by DNN, how to enable users to change the language of certain information, and ways to customize the registration and login experience.
This section also demonstrates how to undertake routine maintenance and support activities for your Web site.
Part V: The Part of Tens
This section has three lists of ten. The first two lists are a sampler platter of the numerous content modules that you can add to your Web site. One lists really cheap or free modules and the other lists modules that cost a bit more money. The third list is a supplement to the Forum module and lists ten fun things for forum users.
Icons Used in This Book
This icon means that we’re mentioning some really nifty point or idea that you may want to keep in mind as you use DNN.
This icon lets you know something you’ll want to keep in mind. If you forget it later, that’s fine, but if you remember it, it will make your DotNetNuke life a little easier.
If you skip all the other icons, pay attention to this one. Why? Because ignoring it could cause something really, really bad or embarrassing to happen, like when you were sitting in your second-grade classroom waiting for the teacher to call on you to answer a question, and you noticed that you still had your pajama shirt on. We don’t want that to happen to you!
This icon shows up when thing get a bit technical. You may need to seek the assistance of a .NET developer or someone with knowledge of Web site hosting.
Part I
Drawing from the DotNetNuke Power Source
In This Part . . .
This Part is about getting started with DNN. Chapter 1 covers all the definitions and the basic foundational concepts for understanding DotNetNuke. It also explains a little bit about open source and why that aspect of DNN is important. Everyone should read Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 covers installing DNN on a Web server for advanced readers who intend to download the DNN software and install it themselves. Chapter 3 covers how to configure the general settings of DNN before you begin building your Web site. If you’ve purchased a single Web site from a hosting company, you don’t need to read Chapter 3.
Chapter 1
Maximize Your Web Potential
In This Chapter
Discovering member and security roles
Getting to know content modules and design
Collaborating with DotNetNuke: Permissions and special roles
Finding help is only a hyperlink away!
DotNetNuke revolutionizes common notions of consumer-oriented Web publishing by putting enormous power, affordably, into the hands of regular people. Whereas most tools for creating Web sites just let you type a little text and change a few colors and graphics, DotNetNuke makes it possible for anyone to secure private information, host interactive content, and transact real business.
One of the great things about the Internet is that it levels the playing field when it comes to competing with the big boys. Whether you are a private individual, a sole proprietor, or a small business owner, an interactive Web site that engages your audience can project an image of professionalism previously achievable only by a much larger company. However, the inverse of that statement is also true: Many Web sites of large companies, even international conglomerates, are so woefully sleep-inducing that nobody will remember where they are, much less care to return to them.
If the Internet is teaching us one thing, it’s that value is vastly increased through interaction. That means that your Web site should not only share your own information, but make it possible for others who share interest in that information to expand upon it, comment on it, rate it, add to it, subscribe to it, e-mail it, and so on.
The good news is DotNetNuke.
Don’t worry; despite its name, DotNetNuke won’t blow up! Most computer geeks can glean a bit of understanding from the name DotNetNuke. However, for those of us with jobs that involve actually interacting with customers, selling goods and services, or otherwise getting out of a cubicle once in a while, don’t worry, there is some rhyme and reason to it!
In its earliest incarnation, now many generations past, DotNetNuke had many features in common with some open-source applications that ran on the Linux platform. The most popular of those had names that included the term “Nuke” prefaced by some acronym or word describing aspects of the technology the solution was based on (for example, phpNuke, PostNuke, and so on). Internet applications that run on a Microsoft platform utilize a technology called .NET (pronounced “dot net”). Hence, the name DotNetNuke was born.
DotNetNuke Is More than Web Publishing
DNN offers online editing rather than push-publishing, which means it allows you to create and manage Web pages and their content by using a Web site browser. Instead of building a Web site by creating Web site pages on your computer and then uploading these pages to a Web site server, DNN allows you to build and maintain your Web site live on the Internet — simply by logging in to the Web site and adding your changes.
Throughout this book, we refer to Web sites as portals, and when you are logged in as the host user, you’ll see that DNN refers to Web sites as portals too. The terms portal and Web site are interchangeable.
DotNetNuke is a Content Management System (CMS). The online encyclopedia Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) defines a CMS as “a computer software system used to assist its users in the process of content management. A CMS facilitates the organization, control, and publication of a large body of documents and other content, such as images and multimedia resources.” Sounds right to us!
The main benefits of a CMS are that it helps you organize your content and gives you ideas of what you should add to your Web site. It’s kind of like the difference between having built-in cupboards versus a stack of cardboard boxes. If you have a pile of boxes, everything is just crammed in together and that’s that — you need time, intuition, and luck to find those red socks again. But if you have custom-built cupboards, you’re likely to remember to store them in the sock drawer. With the assistance of a good CMS, you quickly find how to organize your content effectively and, more important, your Web site visitors can easily find information.
The tag line for DotNetNuke is “It’s community, It’s content, It’s collaboration, it’s the vibe of the thing,” which defines the key concepts of DNN.
DNN Is Community
Historically, Web sites were viewed by many people as an easy way to access company information such as contact details or product information. A visitor would come to a Web site, look around and then leave again — a bit like an armchair tourist. However, as Web sites evolve, it has become clear that their power and popularity lie not in the “look, but don’t touch” sphere of brochure Web sites, but with Web sites that connect people who have common interests and that enable people to share their thoughts and wares with each other.
At the time of writing, the latest community Web site to take the world by storm was http://youtube.com. YouTube members can upload and share their videos worldwide, view thousands of videos, join interest groups, vote for favorite videos, and more. YouTube enables everyone to be a movie star, and the Web site offers free content and a devoted community. The good news is that DNN enables you to build a Web site just like this — with lots of members who can communicate, join groups, upload movies or photos or documents, write content, and much more.
Of course, YouTube is just one example of a large and popular community — it doesn’t necessarily reflect the kind of community you want to have accessing your DNN Web site. Perhaps you want to build a community that is restricted to the staff of your company, customers of your business, or just your family. All of this is possible with DNN because you control who can join your community, what information they can access, and how they interact with the Web site. When you manage a DNN Web site, you really are the king of your domain. You can even choose to be the only member of your Web site if you like: Be a lone ranger!
Registered users: Members and non-members of your Web site
Access to different areas of a DNN Web site can be controlled through membership and roles. This is one of the key concepts behind DNN. Two basic categories of people can access your DNN Web site:
Non-members (also referred to as visitors or unauthenticated users) who can only look around the publicly accessible areas of your Web site.
Members (also referred to as registered users, or authenticated users, or users) who have logged in to the Web site and can access member-only areas and tools. Members can manage their own details such as password, name, and contact details.
Authentication refers to whether a person is logged in to the Web site or not. If a person is logged in, they are called an authenticated user; if they are not logged in, they are called an unauthenticated user. An unauthenticated user may actually be a member, but, until they log in, DNN doesn’t know who they are and just treats them like a stranger.
Security roles: Sorting your members into groups
After a person has become a registered user (member) of your DNN Web site, they can then access a wide range of member-only pages and content. They can join chat groups, post to members forums, subscribe to services, manage a photo gallery, share files, or any number of other things that you choose to let them do. You have full control over which members can do which things on your Web site through the creation of security roles (also referred to as roles), which permit or restrict access to view, add, edit, and delete content on your Web site.
A role is a member’s group that you create on your Web site. You can create as many roles as you like. After you have created these roles, you add members to one or more of these roles, or you can set up your Web site to allow members to add themselves. For example, you might create two roles on your Web site, one called Friends and one called Travel Buddies. Because Sam and Grace are your friends, you add them to the Friends role. Sam is also a Travel Buddy, so you can add him to that role as well. This means that when Grace logs in to your Web, site she can not only see the publicly available pages of your Web site, but also any special pages and content that is restricted to the security role called Friends, such as your Events diary. However, when Sam logs in to your Web site, he not only can see your Events diary for the Friends role, but he can also browse through your holiday photo gallery, which is available to members of the Travel Buddies role.
Roles are not only used to control access to different areas of your Web site, but they also control what members can do in each area. Using the preceding example, say you change your mind and decide you want to allow members of both the Friends and Travel Buddies roles to view your holiday photo gallery. You have also decided that you want to let your Travel Buddies add their own holiday snapshots to the gallery. Not a problem! You just need to check and uncheck a couple of check boxes, and then your Travel Buddies will be able to add their own snapshots, as shown in Figure 1-1. Yes, it’s really that easy!
To find out more on how to register members and add members to roles, see Chapter 4.
Figure 1-1: The Security Roles page, where you can view, add, and edit your Web site roles.
DNN Is Content
After you create your DNN Web site, you need to add something for visitors to look at or do. Web sites consist of one of more pages with either static or interactive content on each page. In DNN, Web pages are called pages and the content on those pages is maintained through building blocks called modules.
DNN Web pages
A DNN Web site consists of as many pages as you like. A page in DNN consists of a skin that controls the look and feel of the page and modules that display the content of the page. Skins and modules are covered in the next two sections, “DNN modules,” and “A designer’s delight.” To add a new page, simply click the Add button on the left side of the Control Panel shown in Figure 1-2 and fill out the form. Your new page is now added to your Web site and you can now add modules to it to complete the page.
One of the best features of a DNN Web site is that when you add a new page, it is automatically added to the navigation menu of the Web site. If you have ever built a Web site before, you may have had the experience of the wasted time that occurs when you add a new page to a Web site and then need to also change the navigation menu on each Web page to include the new page. This manual system can cause people to avoid changing their Web site, which leads to a stagnant and boring Web site. Not so with DNN. You can add, edit, hide, and delete pages at any time and the dynamic navigation menu is always up-to-date.
Figure 1-2: The Control Panel is displayed to all Admin-istrators as well as members of any role that has been given access to edit a page.
DNN modules
The content of a DNN Web site is displayed on each page by using modules. A module is a discrete piece of functionality that you can add to a page to show content. For example, if you want to show a list of documents on your Web site, you simply select the Documents module from the drop-down list in the center of the Control Panel (refer to Figure 1-2) and click the Add button next to it. This adds the module to your page in the pane you have selected and you can now add documents to your Web site.
After a module has been added to your page, it can then be configured by Administrators and, where they have been given the necessary role access, by members. DNN ships with 27 ready-to-use modules (some of which work together to achieve a single goal). Many more are available from the DotNetNuke Marketplace (http://marketplace.dotnetnuke.com/) and from independent third-party vendors. Many of these modules are for sale, and most vendors also have some free modules or free versions of their commercial modules. Each module is designed to manage a particular type of content or address a particular business need. There is a module for displaying movies or images (the Media module), a module for displaying a list of hyperlinks (the Links module), and a module that enables people to e-mail comments (the Feedback form).
The layout of your Web site is designed by adding one or more modules to a page. By combining different modules, you can create an endless number of unique pages. Modules are great because they are not tied down to a page. You can move a module to a new position on the page, move it to a new page, display it on all pages, copy it onto another page, or delete it from a page altogether and then add it back to another page later by retrieving it from the Recycle Bin.
Another benefit of modules is that they display information attractively and consistently on your Web site pages. For example, DNN comes with a Documents module that displays a list of documents. Say you want to allow all of your staff members to add new documents to your Web site. If you give your staff access to add documents to the Documents module, they can complete a simple form, click Update, and then the document is displayed on the Web site in a uniform manner. Your staff doesn’t need to worry about how it will look and they don’t need to know anything about how to build Web pages. The task is simple and the result is consistent and professional.
Not only is it very easy to discover how to add new documents or announcements to a module, but it’s also very simple to edit existing items in the module. If the module is one that has many items in it, such as the Documents module, you can edit an existing document record by clicking the edit icon next to the record, as shown in Figure 1-3.
If the module is one that only has one record, such as the Text/HTML module, all you have to do is mouse over the Module menu and click Edit Text, as shown in Figure 1-3 on the right.
Figure 1-3: The Documents module on the left displays a list of documents in a consis-tent and professional format. The Text/HTML module on the right shows how easy it is to edit the content of a module with one item.
A designer’s delight
One of the central purposes of a good Content Management System is to keep the design of the Web site separate from the content that is added to the Web site. Achieving this separation enables the content to be changed at any time without modifying the design; likewise, you can modify the design without affecting the content. DNN is an absolute winner on this front.
If you have ever collaborated on a document, you know how difficult it can be to keep a standard look and feel. One person makes a heading large, another uses Styles to control the headings, and yet another person makes the headings bold. By the end of the process, the document can look like a dog’s breakfast and any sense of professionalism or corporate branding has left the building. For this reason, separating the design from the content is the right way to go. If people cannot fiddle with the design, they will simply add their information and get back to their work. There are many examples of Web sites on the Internet that look cheap and tacky because they don’t have a consistent design across the Web site.
Design in DNN is called skinning. When you want to add a design to your DNN Web site, you simply slip a new skin onto it, and voilà! A skin sets the layout of the page, controls the colors of the page, and controls the standard colors and sizes of text and headings on the page, as shown in Figure 1-4. A skin is made up of an HTML file, a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), some images, and maybe a configuration file. When these files are packaged up into a skin, which comes as a compressed .ZIP file, you can install these skins onto your Web site with a few clicks. A skin package has two main elements: One or more page skins and one or more module containers. A page skin is the design for the whole page, and the module container is the design for a single module.
Figure 1-4: This image shows a DNN Web site page with different module containers set on each module.
DNN skinning is completely mix and match. You can have the same page and module container design across all pages and modules on the Web site, you can have the same page design with different module container designs for each module, or you can have a different skin for every page of your Web site. It’s all up to you! Because design is separate from content, you can change your design at any time. For example, if your Web site is celebrating its anniversary, you can change the module container design on the Home page to a special anniversary design, or you might like to change the design for the whole Web site. All of this is possible with only a few clicks. Here are some other features of skins:
Skins have one or more panes that modules can be added to.
When you are logged in as the administrator, you can view the layout of the skin, which is displayed as a gray dotted line table with the name of each pane displayed at the top of each pane, as shown in Figure 1-5.
The names of the panes show up in the drop-down list of Panes in the Control Panel, as shown in the center of Figure 1-2.
Figure 1-5: This skin has five panes available to add modules to; however, only two panes have modules added to them.
DNN Is Collaboration
In the “DNN Is Community” section earlier in this chapter, we discuss the concept of allowing members to join your Web site to create a community and how, by adding those members to one or more roles, you can control access to pages and modules.
Here’s how to set permissions to a page:
1.Log in to your Web site.
See “Logging in to your DNN Web site” later in this chapter.
2.Click the Settings button or link in the Page Functions area of the Control Panel.
This opens the settings page for this page, which is called Page Management.
3.Select or deselect any role in either the View Page or Edit Page columns of the Permissions section, as shown in Figure 1-6.
This is how easy it is to change access to pages of your Web site. Note that you cannot remove the Administrator permission; otherwise, you won’t be able to manage your whole Web site.
4.Click the Update link.
These new permissions are now set. See Chapter 3 for more details on working with pages and modules.
Figure 1-6: Every page and module has a Settings page that enables you to maintain which roles are able to view or edit the page or module.
Special roles: Administrator and host roles
Roles not only control what visitors and members can see and do on your Web site, roles also provide members with access to do more powerful things on your Web site such as add new pages, manage communities, change the design of a page, or even manage the whole Web site. Roles can either provide members with just a little bit of access or a whole lot of power— and it’s all up to you!
One of the special roles on your Web site is the Administrator (also known as the Portal Administrator, Site Administrator, or Admin). Most of this book is written from the perspective of the Administrator, so chances are that if you are reading this book, you may well have administration rights to a DNN Web site. Administrators have full access and absolute power to build and modify all pages of a DNN Web site. DNN Web sites are created with only one Administrator, who is then able to assign more members to the Administrator role if they choose.
As you can see in Figure 1-7, DNN offers lots of tools to help you manage all aspects of your Web site. These tools are explained in detail throughout this book, but here’s a quick explanation of what each of the tools allows you to do:
Site Settings: Here you can do things like change the title of your site, enter keywords and a description for search engines, change your skins, and set your default time zone.
Pages: Pages lets you manage your navigation menu by moving pages around. You can also access any of your pages directly from here.
Security Roles: Add, edit, and delete your user groups here. You can set whether your users can subscribe to a role and you can set the cost for a subscription.
User Accounts: Here you can add, edit, and delete users on your site. You can also access the profiles of your users, manage their passwords, and look after which security roles they are members of.
Vendors: DNN has a cool system for allowing you to manage advertising on your site. You do this by managing your vendors, banners, and affiliates here.
Site Log: DNN records heaps of information about who is using your Web site, when they are using it, what pages they got to, and what sort of browser they are using. You can access 12 reports about the use of your site here.
Newsletters: Part of managing a Web site is keeping in contact with your members. Newsletters allows you to easily send e-mails to your members with a few clicks.
File Manager: Content is what your site’s about! The File Manager gives you a familiar way to manage files and folders on your Web site.
Recycle Bin: Whoops, didn’t mean to delete that? The Recycle Bin will save the day and allow you to restore modules and pages.
Log Viewer: Want to know what’s going on behind the scenes on your site? The Log Viewer records 47 different events that occur on your site.
Skins: Upload new designs to your site and easily apply them on the Skins page.
Languages: You can change the words that describe anything on a DNN site here. If you want to change the word Cell on the registration form to Mobile Phone, this is where you do it.
Authentication: If you are using DNN in an intranet, this is where you can set up Windows Authentication.
Figure 1-7: When you log in to your DNN Web site as the Admin-istrator, you can see all the tools that enable you to build and maintain your Web site.
If an Administrator is the queen of her Web site domain, the superuser or host is the mistress of all domains. There is only one Host Account for the whole of your DNN installation and, like the Admin, the host can add new superusers. The host can build whole new Web sites within the one DNN installation, manage files that can be shared across all Web sites, and can control what types of content and files are available on a Web site.
Figure 1-8 shows the extra tools available to superusers. These tools are explained in detail throughout this book, but here’s a quick explanation of what each of the tools allows you to do:
Host Settings: See Chapter 3 for a rundown on the host settings.
Portal: Add new Web sites to your DNN installation and manage existing sites here.
Module Definitions: See what modules are currently installed and what version they are here. You can also install new modules and get new versions of modules here.
File Manager: This is the very similar to the File Manager in the Admin menu, except these files are for the superuser.
Vendors: Here you can manage vendors just like under the Admin menu, except these vendors are available to every portal in your installation.
SQL: If you know how to write SQL, you can execute it here. Be careful with SQL: It’s a very powerful tool and, used wrongly, can break DNN.
Schedule: DNN has some tasks that run in the background that look after the database for you. Here you can see how they are going by checking the History of the item.
Languages: This is a more powerful version of the Languages tool under Admin.
Search Admin: Manage how you want the DNN search to work and show its results.
Lists: Many parts of DNN use lists to give you options. Here you can look after those lists of information.
Superusers Accounts: This is a separate list of users who have access to every feature of DNN, including the host menu tools.
Skins: Manage the skins that are available to all sites in your installa-tion here.
Figure 1-8: When you log in to your DNN Web site as the host, you can see more of the tools that enable you to build and maintain all the sites in your installation.
Logging in to your DNN Web site
If you have a DNN Web site already installed, you can log in now and see how the look of the Web site changes based upon your role access.
1.Click the Login link.
This link is usually located at the top of every page, usually on the right side.
2.Enter your username into the User Name text box.
The out-of-the-box username for the Web site Administrator is Admin. Unless you have been given a different username, this is what you will enter here.
3.Enter your password into the Password text box.
The out-of-the-box password for the Web site Administrator is dnnadmin. Unless you have been given a different username, this is what you will enter here.
4.Click the Login button.
You are now logged in as the Administrator of your Web site. As the Administrator, you can build and maintain all pages, all content, and all settings for this Web site.
After you are logged in, you will see that the page has changed significantly. At the top of the page is now an Admin bar, which has frequently used tools to add pages and content. Also on the page you find small upside down triangles that display popup menus when you mouse over them. The popup menu details the features of the module. You will also see dotted lines around the panes of the skin and the names of those panes.
If you don’t see these things but you know that you are logged in because the words Admin Account are visible, click the Preview button on the top left of the page to turn off Preview mode. The Preview button hides these things so you can see what the page would look like if you weren’t logged in. This feature is very helpful during construction of your site.
Changing your login credentials
The first time you log in to your DNN Web site by using the default logins, you should change your password to prevent others from logging in to your Web site and adding or deleting your work. Here’s how:
1.Log in to your Web site.
2.Click the Admin Account link.
This is located wherever the Login link was before you logged in. This displays the user account for the Web site Administrator.
3.Enter your e-mail address into the E-mail Address field.
This enables you to receive any e-mail notifications from the DNN system, such as when you request a password reminder.
4.Click the Update link.
5.Click the Manage Password link.
6.Enter your current password into the Current Password field.
7.Enter a new password into the New Password and the Confirm Password fields.
Note that passwords are case-sensitive.
8.Click the Change Password link.
Your new password is now set.
If you get an error that says the e-mail couldn’t be sent, go to the site and host settings pages and update the SMTP details and the e-mail addresses. See Chapter 3 for more on for this.
If you also have access to the host role, you will need to change the e-mail address and password for this account too. Follow the same steps as in the preceding list. The default host login username is host and the default password is dnnhost.
DNN serves applications, not just online brochures
With all this power to have members on your Web site, to provide different levels of access to the Web site based on roles, and to distribute the maintenance of content and the building of the Web site among many people, it’s no surprise that the power of DotNetNuke goes well beyond the ability to build a five-page Web site that give basic information about your business. Depending on your goals, you can use DNN for a multitude of purposes, ranging from simple static text to robust Web-based business applications. DotNetNuke Web sites don’t just sit there: They do stuff!
DNN out of the box delivers most of the functionality required to build and maintain a dynamic Web site, but you are not limited by this initial offering. As well as being able to purchase modules from third-party vendors and the DNN market place, you can also enlist the services of a DotNetNuke developer to build you a module custom designed to suit your needs. This could be a module that interacts with your existing business systems, provides an online quotation system for your products, or anything else you want. If you can dream it, DNN can deliver it!
DNN is used for many large Web sites across the world for all sorts of businesses, including national sporting Web sites (www.bigpondsport.com), transportation Web sites (http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au), corporate Web sites (www.readify.net), and small to medium businesses (www.wafex.com.au). From these examples, you can see that DNN can deliver all kinds of information to all kinds of businesses — no matter how large or small.
DNN gives you N for the price of 1
DNN is not just a tool that enables you to build a fabulous Web site — it is a tool that enables you to build 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30, or even 100 completely different and unique Web sites!
For developers, this means you can manage multiple portals on a single codebase, with a single IP address. For those of you with an interest in running an online Web site design business, this means you install DNN just once and build all of your customers their own Web site by using the same instance of DNN. And for those of you who have more modest aspirations, it means you can host your family Web site and your small business Web site from the same installation. Any user can create new Web sites quickly and cheaply. You can create templates from existing Web sites and use them to stamp out new Web sites. You can even export the content from a module on one Web site into a module on another Web site.
Members are unique for each portal. Joining one Web site doesn’t give you access to log in to another Web site in the same installation. All settings are unique from one Web site to the next.
Plug in to Open Source
Open source means that the code used to build an application is freely available to be distributed and modified as desired within the limitations of the license. Anyone can go to the DNN Web site, download the code, and use it to build their Web site without having to ever pay one cent back to the DNN Corporation. Amazing, huh?
The philosophy behind open source is that when a large group of people come together and develop and freely share their ideas, knowledge, skills, and time with each other, the quality of the application as well as the rate at which it develops and evolves is exponentially faster than any other method of doing so. It’s like having thousands of free developers working on your application day and night.
Unlike with a commercial application, which you buy or have developed for your business, the culture of open source is one of sharing, helping, and community.
DNN is developed and tested all year-round; however, the code is generally released to the public three times each year. That means that three times every year, thousands and thousands of hours of development work are neatly packaged up and available for you to download — all for free!
One common myth about open source is that it isn’t secure because anyone can look at the code. People who are new to open source often have fears surrounding the security of the code. How can a Web site be safe from hackers if they can readily look through the code and find its weaknesses? Probably the most honest answer is that nothing is ever 100% secure! However, open source has many advantages over closed-source projects. Because the philosophy of open source is one of sharing and caring, it isn’t typically a place where hackers go to make mischief. Instead, the golden orbs of hacking are closed proprietary code, or perhaps unethical global businesses. Hackers are generally supportive of open source and the philosophy that it represents. A hacker who is proud that she has found a security leak is more likely to use that information to help secure DNN, rather than hack into millions of DNN Web sites. Another advantage here is that the DNN community openly shares information, including any limitations. Unlike buying software from a business that wants to keep their limitations quiet for fear of losing profits, the DNN community is all about improving its wares for the greater good.
To find out more about open source, the Berkley System Distribution (BSD) license that DNN uses, some of the benefits for choosing open source, and a business case study of open source, see http://opensource.org/index.php.
Yes, it’s free!
There are a number of different open-source licenses in existence, but DNN uses the BSD license, which is one of the most liberal licenses around. Essentially, the BSD license enables you to modify and redistribute DNN at no cost. How is it free? It is made possible by the generous license and a synergy of contributors.
Making the switch to thinking in an open-source mindset can be confusing for many businesses, especially Web development companies that ask themselves, “If it’s free, how can we make money?” The answer is through building and maintaining Web sites for your customers as per usual; however, by choosing DNN, you are able to save an enormous amount of time by not having to develop it all from scratch. Instead, you have a robust and well-tested platform that you can use straight out of the box and that grows and improves at an incredible rate. After you have used DNN and understand its full potential, you’re more likely to ask, “How did we ever make money without it?”
A second question businesses may ask is “Do I have to tell my customers?” And the answer to this is “No, not unless you want to.” Using DNN to manage your Web sites can be your own little secret if you like. The copyright is in the code, not in any visible portion of your site. The truth is that most people who run a business don’t care from where or how you get the answers they need — so long as you get them!
Watch out for “resellers”! DNN is free, so you don’t need to buy it. You need to buy hosting and you may need to buy designs or custom-built modules, but you don’t need to buy a license to use the code.
