DNN Platform (formerly DotNetNuke) is a
web content management system
A web content management system (WCM or WCMS) is a software content management system (CMS) specifically for web content. It provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools that help users with little knowledge of web programm ...
and
web application framework
A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build an ...
based on the
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...
. It is
open source and part of the
.Net Foundation
The .NET Foundation is an organization incorporated on March 31, 2014, by Microsoft to improve open-source software development and collaboration around the .NET Framework. It was launched at the annual Build 2014 conference held by Microsoft. T ...
.
DNN is written in
C#, though it existed for many years as a
VB.NET
Visual Basic, originally called Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), is a multi-paradigm, object-oriented programming language, implemented on .NET, Mono, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft launched VB.NET in 2002 as the successor to its original Visua ...
project. It is distributed under an
MIT license
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...
.
Editions
DNN Platform (formerly "DotNetNuke Community Edition"
content management system) is open source software distributed under an
MIT License
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...
that is intended to allow management of websites without much technical knowledge, and to be extensible through a large number of third-party apps to provide functionality not included in the
DNN core modules.
Skins can be used to change the visual appearance of a website using DNN.
There are two commercial editions of the software with increased functionality (compared to DNN Platform) and technical support. The DotNetNuke Professional Edition was introduced in February 2009 with version 4.9. In July 2013, DotNetNuke Professional Edition was renamed Evoq Content. In addition, DotNetNuke Enterprise Edition was renamed Evoq Content: Enterprise. Evoq version 9.0 was released in December 2016.
Architecture
![DNNstack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/DNNstack.png)
DotNetNuke uses a three-tier architecture model with a core framework providing support to the extensible modular structure.
While traditionally DNN focused on providing server side functionality, recent projects strive to enhance client side experiences - along with the rest of the industry. In recent years DNN migrated from using exclusively
Web Forms to also allowing
Model View Controller
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
and
Single-page application
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application or website that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current web page with new data from the web server, instead of the default method of a web browser loading entire new pages. ...
architectures. In the future, DNN faces the challenge of moving from
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is an open-source, server-side web-application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, applications and services. The name s ...
4.6 to the cross-platform free and open source
.NET.
DNN can be extended using 3rd-party modules and providers that add functionality at the server or client side. The appearance of individual pages and sites can be customized using skins.
Modules
![DNNmodules](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/DNNmodules.png)
The default functionality of DNN can be expanded by adding third-party modules, either from an existing module store, from 3rd party authors, or through
in-house development of custom functionality. The DNN framework provides basic functionality such as
security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...
, user administration, and
content management
Content management (CM) is a set of processes and technologies that supports the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...
, while modules are used to tailor the web site for specific deployment needs.
A set of primary modules are included with the core DNN distribution. These modules provide the functionality required to create an e-commerce system, an intranet, a public web site or a custom web application. They are maintained by a volunteer team community. In 2015 and 2016 most projects were moved from the DotNetNuke Community Forge to GitHub.
Web pages have skins which define regions of a page (plus their appearance) where page editors can place modules (or extensions) made available by site administrators. Pages and modules can inherit or set custom access permissions that define which groups of users can view or edit each item.
Module can be created in various ways: compiled modules use the Web Application Project model and are written in C# or VB.NET, dynamic modules use the Web Site Project model, and
Razor
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since bef ...
modules which use a C# or VB.NET scripting language.
Skins
A skinning architecture provides a
separation of presentation and content
Separation of content and presentation (or separation of content and style) is the separation of concerns design principle as applied to the authoring and presentation of content. Under this principle, visual and design aspects (presentation and s ...
, enabling a web designer to develop skins without requiring any specialist knowledge of development in ASP.NET: only knowledge of
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaSc ...
and an understanding of how to prepare and package the skins themselves is required. Skins consist of basic HTML files with placeholders (
tokens) for content, menus and other functionality, along with support files such as images,
style sheets and
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
, packaged in a
ZIP file
ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is th ...
.
Like modules, skins, can be uploaded and automatically installed through the administration pages. If the compiled skin does not contain an ASP.NET user control file, then the DNN skinning engine builds one based on various tokens included in the HTML file which refer to various sections, placeholders and/or modules of a DNN-produced page. Modern skins incorporate CSS3 and HTML5 with many authors' skins supporting
Responsive web design, various
JavaScript libraries A JavaScript library is a library of pre-written JavaScript code that allows for easier development of JavaScript-based applications, especially for AJAX and other web-centric technologies.
Libraries
With the expanded demands for JavaScript, an e ...
. With no credentialing, a skin's quality may vary, but often trial periods are available to evaluate functionality.
Hosting
DNN 7.0 and above has a minimum requirement of Windows 7,
SQL Server 2008, and
.NET 4.0 and
IIS 7+. These product's latest versions are supported. As of version 6.0, DNN can also be installed in an
Azure cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
environment. Numerous web hosting companies offer DNN as an offering, and a 1 step installation process is available through Microsoft. However DNN's requirement for an IIS medium trust environment has prevented broader adoption among some mainstream hosting companies.
Developer ecosystem community
DNN is supported by a community of enthusiasts notably in North America and Europe, with yearly physical events taking place on these continents. The project is managed through Github. The community shares information about the DNN Platform, how and by whom it is managed, events and discuss issues on the DNN Community Website.
API reference documents and guidance on how to create modules and skins can be found on the DNN Documentation Website.
Project history
The DotNetNuke application originally evolved out of another project, the IBuySpy Portal which was a reference application created in 2001 by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
to showcase the new
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is an open-source, server-side web-application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, applications and services. The name s ...
software development framework.
Shaun Walker added significant enhancements to the IBuySpy Portal and released a new version branded as the IBuySpy Workshop on December 24, 2002. The early releases of the IBuySpy Workshop application were developed solely by Walker and distributed by his consulting company, Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc. In March 2003, Shaun Walker announced a rebranding of the
open source application to DotNetNuke. The name "DotNetNuke" was coined by Walker by combining the term
.NET with the word "nuke", which had been popular with pre-existing frameworks such as
PHP-Nuke and
PostNuke. Walker
registered trademark
The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or wor ...
s for the terms DotNetNuke and DNN in both the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and Canada. At this point Walker formed a Core Team of software developers to help him develop and promote new versions of the open source project.
In September 2006, Shaun Walker invited 3 members of the Core Team, Joe Brinkman, Nik Kalyani, and Scott Willhite, to form DotNetNuke Corporation to oversee management and development of the project, as well as offer professional services to the community.
On November 25, 2008, DotNetNuke Corporation announced that it had secured
Series A financing from
Sierra Ventures
Sierra Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in San Mateo, California. It is focused on early stage emerging technology companies.
History
The firm was founded by Peter Wendell in 1982 in Menlo Park, California. Early investments ...
and
August Capital
August Capital, legally August Capital Master Management Company, LLC, is a venture capital firm founded by David Marquardt and John Johnston in 1995. It is focused on information technology and is based in Menlo Park, California.
Company
Aug ...
and hired
Navin Nagiah as
CEO; and in February 2009 it released DotNetNuke Professional Edition, targeted at business and enterprise customers. In February 2010, DotNetNuke closed a round of
Series B financing from Sierra Ventures, August Capital, and
Pelion Venture Partners.
In August 2009 DotNetNuke Corporation launched a partnership program aimed at providing support to
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
and development companies using DotNetNuke. They also announced the acquisition of Snowcovered, an
online market for DotNetNuke modules,
skins, services, and related products.
In October 2009, the
Open Source CMS Market Share Report concluded that DotNetNuke was the leading .NET-based open source web content management system.
In 2013, the company was renamed
DNN Corporation and the commercial DotNetNuke editions were rebranded as Evoq.
In 2017 the company was acquired by ESW Capital
and stewardship of DNN Platform (as the open source Community Edition was now called) was transferred to a team of community experts. This project was subsequently brought under the umbrella of the .Net Foundation with DNN Corp solely focusing on their commercial Evoq platform.
Content management
DNN provides basic content-management out of the box, but is usually accompanied with one of many (mostly open-source) content management extensions.
Overview
Basic content editing features
File management
See also
*
List of content management systems
Content management systems (CMS) are used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation. Many of them are built on top of separate content management frameworks. The list is limited to notable services.
Open source software
:''T ...
(CMS)
References
External links
DNN Community.- The DNN Community Website. About DNN Platform and its Open Source community.
DNN Corp.- The DNN Corp Site. About "Evoq" a commercial product base on DNN Platform.
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Free content management systems