I thought I would take a quick moment to post one final update regarding the progress on my Professional DotNetNuke Module Programming book. Tonight I have finished writing the two most complicated sections of the book, the Dedication and Acknowledgments. I can't believe how hard it was to write those two small pieces of the book.
The good news is that this milestone essentially marks the 100% complete mark in the process on my side. Author Review has been completed on all but one chapter, and I will have that finished tomorrow. Once I am done with that, the folks with Wrox Press will take it from there and get the book ready for production. Last week I talked with the managing editor and the updated cover art to include my picture should be going out soon, and as soon as I have a firm publication date I will let everyone know!
As I have mentioned before, thank you all for the support and feedback during this process, it has been a true learning experience for me!
Posted by Mitchel on Monday, November 17, 2008
Tom Kraak is doing a great job with Live Blogging over at Seablick.com, however, I thought it would be good to put a quick blog post up here about important items that I noted from both the Microsoft Keynote and the DotNetNuke keynotes that have happened this morning.
Microsoft Keynote
The morning started with a keynote address from Scott Guthrie which I believe revealed a number of awesome new things that are either available now, or coming with VS 2010. Some people have said that these items were already announced at PDC, but I had not heard of them. The quick summary is below.
Dynamic Data (Scaffold)
Starting with .NET 3.5 SP 1 there is a dynamic data feature that can be used with ASP.NET to create a dynamic data scaffold, similar to that of what can be done with SubSonic and other ORM tools. Allowing for input and output items to be created by the system. Great new item.
Charting Components for Windows and Web
They also announced that free charting components are now available, allowing 2 and 3 dimensional charting for both Windows and Web Applications. This can be downloaded via http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mschart. For those of us looking for charting functionaliy, this is an amazing product, free of charge, and from what I can tell, VERY full featured. The download includes 200+ samples as well to get used to the process.
Markup Snippets in VS 2010
One of the big things announced with the VS 2010 demo was the ability to have snippets in the markup side of web forms, and they provided a very dramatic example of the exact time and keystroke savings, and I have to say it was AMAZING!
VS 2010 Interface Goodies
Many various VS 2010 goodies were discussed, including the ability to view two code files at once, that the new UI will be built on WPF, as well as full support for multiple monitors, actually being able to open items on other monitors! All great additions for developers.
DotNetNuke Keynote
After the Microsoft keynote, Shaun Walker was up for the DotNetNuke Keynote. Shaun started with a quick overview and sharing of stats regarding the progress that has been made over the past year. Then the discussion turned to the future, and the key features and enhancements within DNN 5.
Some of the key DNN 5.0 features that were highlighted were the use of jQuery to highlight the targeted pane when adding modules from the control panel. The other big ticket items were the improvements in Page Management and the biggest one of all the ability to set Deny Permission and permissions on admin modules. The discussion on DNN 5.0 ended with the announcement that DNN 5.0 RC 2 will be available for public review this afternoon, NOTE: NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PRODUCTION USE!!!!!!
After the discussion of DNN 5, Exact Target discussed a specific implementation of DNN.
Lastly we came to the "powerful" moment of the keynote. The discussion of DotNetNuke Corporations Target Areas as well as a new offering. I'll start with the key areas, as Identified by Shaun.
First, the "Vision" of DotNetNuke Corporation is "DotNetNuke will be the most deployed. most valuable and most cost effective web application platform in the world". After this, he identified 4 areas of focus that the corporation will work on.
Stewardship
When discussing the Corporations role in stweardship, Shaun identified the following key points.
- Nuture Growth
- Encourage and Facilitate participation
- Staty faithful to open source ideals
Strength
- Improve financial and business strength
- Developing strategic partnerships
- Grow team with smart, talented people
Opportunity
- Create more opportunity for vendors
- Increase commercial ecosystem reach
- Support customer success by innovation
Confidence
- Improve support for business customers
- Focus on superior product quality
- Increase trust in company and platform
After discussing these values he progressed into "Step One" of the implementation plan for this. Which was to re-brand the current DotNetNuke offering as "DotNetNuke Community Edition". Then, create a new commercial offering called "DotNetNuke Professiona", which is going to benefit businesses by taking the base and adding the following.
- Support
- Stability
- Security
- Scalability
This could be done by creating a certified release, and unlimited support for that release. Additional benefits will be coming as well, all on a yearly basis, as service by DotNetNuke corporation. This will be made available in Q1 2009. They say that doing this will result in more additions to the community edition.
This is all for my update for now, feel free to share feedback below! I'll be posting more updates during the week.
Posted by Mitchel on Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Recently working with a client of mine we discovered a bug in DotNetNuke 4.9.0 that has been reported to the DotNetNuke corporation, but will not be resoled until another relese is completed. This bug affects the installation of ANY Authentication provider and is only an issue on DotNetNuke 4.9.0 installations. The bug will manifest itself as a JavaScript error when trying to install the provider.
The fix is quite simple, while still logged in as host navigate to "Host" -> "Host Settings". From here expand the "Other Settings" section and uncheck the box for "Enable AJAX". Click "Update Settings" to apply the changes, then click "Restart Application" to ensure that the change has been made.
Now you can install your authentication provider. Once the installation is complete, simply re-enable Ajax and everything is back to normal! I hope this helps those of you looking to install authentication providers on 4.9.0.
Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, November 06, 2008
With OpenForce North America just a little over 3 days away I can feel the excitement building Bill Walker today announced the OpenForce Social event, which I think is going to really be a fun event, especially being ONLY for OpenForce attendees. I know as of right now i have meetings scheduled with 5 people outside of the regular conference time. If you are going, be sure to stop by booth 606 to say hello, or introduce yourself at the Social Event, or e-mail me and setup a time to meet if you want a bit more time.
Last year was a good event, but this year is really shaping up to top last years event by providing more community events and focus. Post a comment if you are going, I'll be sure to try and find you to say hello as well!
For those not attending, I'll be trying to blog as much as I can during the course of the event!
Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, November 06, 2008
A while I provided an update and even asked for a bit of community input regarding the content to be included in my soon to be released book "Professional DotNetNuke 5 Module Programming". I have to first of all thank all members of the community that provided feedback and suggestions as to what you wanted to see covered in the book. I took all comments very seriously and did my best to ensure that the book can tailor to the needs of the greatest common denominator.
With that in mind today I reached what I consider to be a major milestone in the book writing process, the 100% submission mark. As of this morning, the first draft of all chapters, appendix items, and code samples have been submitted. It has been a very long process, in the works since early July if I recall correctly, but finally I can start to see a book that is going to be very helpful to the entire development community. Now that the book's content has been defined, I thought I would share the final, at least for now, table of contents. The following is a listing of chapters and appendix items included in the book.
Chapters
- Introduction to DotNetNuke and Resources
- Creating the Development Environment
- Underneath the Hood of DotNetNuke
- Guestbook Module Requirements
- Starting the Module Creation Process
- Investigating DotNetNuke Components
- Creating the Module Backend
- Creating the Localized Module Interface
- Packaging, Installing, and Debugging the Module
- Implementing Optional DotNetNuke Interfaces
- DotNetNuke Scheduled Tasks
- DotNetNuke User Controls
- Module Navigation and Communication
- Third-Party Components and Controls
- DotNetNuke, Modules, Ajax, and jQuery
- Creating DotNetNuke SKin Objects
- Creating DotNetNuke Authentication Providers
- DotNetNuke Development Best Practices
Appendix Items
- Community Resources
- Additional Web.config Options
- Distributing Your Module
- DotNetNuke Manifest (.dnn) File Explained
- Working with User, Tab, Portal, and Module Classes
I'll be sure to post more updates both here and on my blog when the book gets closer to release!
Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, November 06, 2008
Finally getting the opportunity to get back to SQL Server 2005 development, and coming to the conclusion that NOT all of my projects have to support SQL Server 2000 I started looking all of those "fun" new items that we all really wanted. This article is going to go through a scenario that demonstrates how to use Common Table Expressions, Rank() and Partition to get results for a very common data scenario. We will present this information with an introduction to the problem, scripts to setup the problem in a test environment, and lastly the implementation, with a review/summary at the end.
Read more...
Posted by Mitchel on Saturday, November 01, 2008
After struggling with an issue when installing a custom authentication provider that no-one could seem to help with, I finally found the resolution. I had a <basepath>desktopmodules/myfolder</basepath> declaration inside the script area.....well DNN packages need the /'s to be \'s.
After asking around for almost 2 weeks, that was the end fix to a long running error, so I thought I'd put this out there as a helpful reminder for all of us! The good news, a new version of my Custom Authentication Provider will be released now! :)
Posted by Mitchel on Friday, October 31, 2008
The other day I was reading Antonio Chagoury's blog and came across one of his recent postings "Just In Case You're Not Keeping Tabs" ahd it got me thinking. I just got done filling out a few forms where I needed to list my community involvement, and much like Antonio I had a hard time sitting down and really coming up with the list of everything that I do on a volunteer basis. So I though I'd do something similar to what Antonio did and post my list here. I know I'm missing items, so if you know of something I'm leaving out, let me know!
Read more...
Posted by Mitchel on Thursday, October 23, 2008
As I mentioned yesterday I am starting to put the finishing touches on my "Professional DotNetNuke 5 Module Programming" book. In talking with the publisher last night I found out that I need to get a bit more content into the book, so I have added a few development topics that I feel are very valuable, however, I wanted to reach out to the development community and ask, what else is needed? Below is a listing of the current Table of Contents.
Chapters
- Introduction to DotNetNuke and Resources
- Creating the Development Environment
- Underneath the DotNetNuke Hood
- Guestbook Module Requirements
- Starting the Module Creation Process
- Investigating DotNetNuke Components
- Creating the Module backend
- Creating the Localized Module Interface
- Packaging, Installing, and Debugging the Module
- Implementing Optional DotNetNuke Interfaces
- DotNetNuke Scheduled Tasks
- DotNetNuke User Controls
- Module Navigation and Communication
- Third-Party Components and Tools
- DotNetNuke, Modules and Ajax
- Creating DotNetNuke Skin Objects
- Creating DotNetNuke Authentication Providers
Appendix Items
- Community Resources
- Additional Web.Config Options
- Distributing your Module
- Additional .dnn Manifest Options
Please feel free to provide any input on this table of contents, and list any suggested additions below, all options will be considered. Please note that I am looking to finalize this soon, so please post your comments early!
Update
I will be posting an updated final TOC soon, but for now, if you want to pre-order here is a link to Amazon. Professional DotNetNuke Module Programming
Posted by Mitchel on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
As we start winding down to the end of the year and the upcoming OpenForce 2008 event, I thought I would take a few moments to give everyone an update on some of the things I have in the works, and a few fun new announcements.
Announcements & Updates
The past few months have been very busy times, and for a while I disappeared from the community while trying to arrage a few things, and to get over a really bad cold that took me out of commission for over a week. So with this hiatus, I thought I would share some updates on progress that has been made since my last update on this blog.
Product Support Website
Late last week IowaComputerGurus launched a new Product Support website. This site was launched to create a formal roadmap and issue tracking system for the various products we provide. Historically new feature requests were submitted via the forums and I simply kept track of the items in the works. Well, the projects have all outgrown that process and this should help keep a solid process behind the madness. So take this opportunity to submit your feature requests today!
Open Force 2008 Giveaways and Discounts
I am also proud to announce that not only is IowaComputerGurus an exhibitor in booth 606 but we have also provided two items to be given away at the community event that will take place during the conference. One of these items is 10 hours of custom module development services, a $950 value!
In addition to the product giveaway items, we will be extending 10% discount coupons to attendees for use with our Technical Support plans. We have a proven track record of providing quality, responsive, technical support for DotNetNuke site administrators and development teams and want to pass a conference discount on to attendees. (If you are not going and are still interested in the discount, send me an e-mail)
Book Update
I am also proud to announce that as of last night there are only two remaining chapters to be written for the Professional DotNetNuke 5 Module Programming book. Those chapters should be completed by next Monday and the book will continue to move through the production process. I hope to see a release of the book close to the current target release date.
Microsoft MVP Nomination
The last announcement comes from an e-mail that I received from Microsoft a few weeks ago. I have received a Microsoft MVP nomination, I will find out for sure if I receive the award on January 1st. I have to say that even receving this nomination is something that I am proud of.
Upcoming Items
Will all the above in mind, it is time to put the eyes on the future. What is coming up, and what can you expect to see here on this site?
Articles
Well, right now I have a listing of over 20 topics that I will be writing about in the near future, but the following is a quick hit listing of items to expect in the very near future.
- Final review of Active Forums 4.0
- Installing DotNetNuke on Mosso's Cloud Computing Service
- Advantages of using VS 2008 for DotNetNuke WAP Module Development
- Fun new items in DNN 5.0
- Why using ObjectQualifier can cause you pain?
- How to add helpful information to the Visual Studio Debugger
- Multi-view DNN Controls? How to do it without Isolation
Modules
Recently a few community members have been donating time to help crate documentation for the free modules. This has created some free time for me to focus on new releases and some much needed enhancements to existing modules. However, the most promising upcoming item of all is the DNN Quiz module. it has been my long promised module, and finally it will become a reality! The module has been tested in one format, and only needs slight modifications before I can release it to the general public!
Videos
Lastly after almost a year hiatus I have secured video capture software and will start to record and publish video tutorials to go alongside the text based articles.
Comments/Feedback
As always feedback from the readers of this blog and the greater community is always appreciated. If you have any comments, suggestions, or requests please be sure to let me know via one of the many available communication systems.
Posted by Mitchel on Monday, October 20, 2008
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