Looking for Feedback 

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

  1. Introduction to DotNetNuke and Resources
  2. Creating the Development Environment
  3. Underneath the DotNetNuke Hood
  4. Guestbook Module Requirements
  5. Starting the Module Creation Process
  6. Investigating DotNetNuke Components
  7. Creating the Module backend
  8. Creating the Localized Module Interface
  9. Packaging, Installing, and Debugging the Module
  10. Implementing Optional DotNetNuke Interfaces
  11. DotNetNuke Scheduled Tasks
  12. DotNetNuke User Controls
  13. Module Navigation and Communication
  14. Third-Party Components and Tools
  15. DotNetNuke, Modules and Ajax
  16. Creating DotNetNuke Skin Objects
  17. Creating DotNetNuke Authentication Providers

Appendix Items

  1. Community Resources
  2. Additional Web.Config Options
  3. Distributing your Module
  4. 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
Tags: DotNetNuke, Book Updates
 

Comments

Some of these I veer into probably what an ASP.NET book covers, and a lot you have already covered, but nevertheless I think out loud here...

Dotnetnuke and silverlight (and flash maybe).

Common gotchas (for everything) - no doubt covered.

How to contribute your code (open source means you should contribute if you can).

Should I use ASP.NET 2,3 or 3.5, and howto?

Linq and DNN, should I use and howto?

Using SQL 2008 and DNN (any differences with previous versions). What should I be looking out for if I'm looking for backwards compatiblity? How to debug SQL effectively.

Performance

How to sell your module, or give it away free. Classic models of promoting your module business.

Thanks!

By Alex Shirley on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 8:34 AM

Oh and methods of checking if your module is secure.

By Alex Shirley on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 8:46 AM

I would think that you could make separate chapters out of Packaging, Installing and Debugging the module. You could easily expand on each topic there and would have created 2 new chapters in the book.

IMHO.

Thanks

By Mark Gordon on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:15 AM

Alex,

Thank you for the list! I have most of those covered in one way or another. I'll look at things a bit more and see if I can expand on it a bit.

The world of LINQ and DNN is changing a bit with that new provider, were I'm not confident enough at this time to tackle that in the book, as much as I'd love to.

Mark,

I'll have to talk that into consideration, however from the development side, which this is geared towards, I'm not sure if I could expand that out that far. But I'll re-visit it.

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:26 AM

It would be helpful to know the target audience for this book. Are you aiming it at experienced developers and new to DotNetNuke, inexperienced developers but experienced with DotNetNuke, or something else?

The audience makes all the difference in the world, and should make quite a difference in your approach, coverage, etc.

By Joe Craig on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 5:01 PM

Joe,

Good point, the expectation is someone familiar with ASP.NET but not necessarily DotNetNuke.

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 5:12 PM

More from a user than a developer perspective ...

Module integration into the DNN URL link structure...
Perhaps also refining the DNN URL link structure for better "easier" SEO...

By Brett on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 2:15 AM

Looks like I good overall book Mitchell.

No doubt you'll cover best practices throughout the book but it might help to have a Best Practices summary somewhere that developers can use as a final checklist before deploying their module.

By Richard Edwards on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 3:47 AM

Brett,

Great idea! I going to add a bit to the end of the navigation chapter to cover that ones.

Richard,

That sounds like a GREAT way to finish off the book! Thank you!

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 3:48 AM

A chapter on unit testing DNN modules would be a nice addition, since it appears that unit testing will be supported in v5. It will promote a good development practice and will be a good influence on your readers who look up to you as an expert to follow by example.

I see that Jim Bonnie will be giving a talk on unit testing at OpenForce'08 (http://www.devconnections.com/openforce/default.asp?c=1&s=126). Unfortunately, I'm unable to attend.

By Craig Boland on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 2:12 PM
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