This chapter introduces the DotNetNuke project that is going to be developed throughout the book. The concept behind... more

This chapter introduces the DotNetNuke project that is going to be developed throughout the book. The concept behind mbrdesigncorp.com (a fictitious name) and this entire book is to provide a well-rounded education of DotNetNuke (DNN) and teach you how to use DNN thoroughly for your own website development. It provides you with the tools to make your everyday use of DNN much more efficient and successful. While following along, keep in mind that this website, like any other DNN website, can easily be modified to meet the needs of your own real-world requirements. As the focus of this book is directed at showing you how to leverage the power of DNN’s extensive feature set, the book goes into great detail showing how to take advantage of DNN’s functionality, thereby giving you a strong foundation for using it to develop your own feature-rich, professional website solutions.

Throughout this book, you?ll be working with the DotNetNuke ASP.NET framework, first learning to install it on your web server, then creating the visual architecture for your site with DotNetNuke skins, and working with DotNetNuke?s breadcrumb navigation in your website design. From there you?ll work with DotNetNuke modules which are pluggable components that implement much of the DotNetNuke functionality. You?ll also work with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to consistently design the look and the layout of your pages. And you?ll work with DotNetNuke?s roles-based security putting it to work to control user access with security roles and permissions.

This book follows a “Problem-Design-Solution” approach in each chapter: The Problem section explains the business requirements for the information designed in that specific chapter, the Design section is used to develop our roadmap for meeting those requirements, and the Solution section is where we write our code to implement the design. This is unlike traditional computer books because the focus is not on teaching basic concepts, but rather showing you how to apply your knowledge to solve real-world business requirements. If you are new to DNN, then this book will give you a good jumpstart to get immediate results. If you are a beginner-to-intermediate user and generally familiar with the basic concepts of web development with DNN and you want to learn more about the DNN framework, then let’s move forward!

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DotNetNuke is different from the traditional website. Understanding these differences is key to understanding what DotNetNuke... more

DotNetNuke is different from the traditional website. Understanding these differences is key to understanding what DotNetNuke is, how and why it should be used for professional business website solutions, and if it is right for a given set of specific business needs. This book walks you through the steps of developing a professional website in order to demonstrate these differences. This chapter demonstrates many of the varied installation options available on local computers and web servers, thus allowing you to follow along with the examples provided in this book. After successfully completing the examples in this chapter, you will be able to install DotNetNuke to your local computer or a web server.

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The first step in creating a new DNN website is to develop the overall look and feel, or specifically, the... more

The first step in creating a new DNN website is to develop the overall look and feel, or specifically, the skin. The skin typically consists of the site’s overall layout, use of graphics, and cascading style sheets (CSS) to define the global styles throughout. This visual architecture defines how the site is presented from the user’s perspective. First, you establish the user experience you want visitors to have, and then you use the DNN framework to facilitate that user experience. The basic considerations that affect the user’s experience are the menu/navigation, use of images, and page structure in terms of content. The menu must be intuitive and should be augmented by navigation hints such as a site map or breadcrumbs on the interior pages that remind users where they are at any given time, relative to the site as a whole. Breadcrumbs refer to a set of small links on the page whose location is defined at the skin level. These links form a trail that enables users to navigate to pages by clicking the link for a page displayed by the breadcrumb.

The good news is that DNN skins can be built using simple HTML and CSS most developers are familiar with. However, before you write any code, you should consider all the options made possible by DNN’s skinning engine so you can understand and take advantage of the many attributes that can be implemented as part of a skin. This chapter examines the overall visual layout of a website and explains, in detail, how you can take advantage of arguably the best skinning engine available on any platform. When creating DNN skins, you will find very few limitations because the code is based on HTML and CSS. In fact, with a little out-of-the-box thinking, you’ll see that you can customize almost every aspect of your DNN skin. This chapter lays down the ground rules of designing for DNN, which will be used as the basis to create the look and feel for the sample MBR Design website referenced throughout the book.

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As you learned in the previous chapter, creating a website design for DNN is very similar to creating a traditional website... more

As you learned in the previous chapter, creating a website design for DNN is very similar to creating a traditional website design, while adding some special components that turns a static, lifeless web page into an intuitive, dynamic environment. Indeed, a feature-rich, dynamic environment takes the ability to edit and maintain a website to a whole new level. This type of web environment is becoming the standard type of website experience expected by many website owners today. While the final destination is entirely different, the path to prepare a finished website design for DNN remains the same. You start with an image editor such as Photoshop to develop a design/proof of concept. Then, you slice up the design to create the necessary individual images for use in HTML files and export them for coding in an HTML editor. Finally, you use an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver to create HTML-based code that represents the necessary files in a given skin package. This process requires various skills, but it is a process that can be learned efficiently with a little knowledge of Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

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Much of the last chapter was spent in the trenches so to speak, organizing, preparing, and coding all of the necessary files... more

Much of the last chapter was spent in the trenches so to speak, organizing, preparing, and coding all of the necessary files required for the MBR Design skins. However, let’s not get too excited—not yet anyway. There’s more to do before the skins can be applied—they need to be packaged. Packaging is the process of grouping all HTML-based skin and container files into a single “skinname.zip” file that can easily be uploaded and installed on a DNN instance.

There are a couple of reasons for packaging HTML-based skin and container files. First, a Zip file is required by DNN for installation. As I explained in Chapter 4, when an HTML-based DNN skin package is installed, DNN parses the files and generates ASCX files on-the-fly. These ASCX files are the files DNN uses to display the front-end of a DNN website. If you are working with ASCX skin files instead of HTML files, it is possible to simply upload ASCX-based skin and container files via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) because ASCX files don’t have to be parsed by DNN before they become usable. However, because you are using HTML-based skin and container files, and because it is a requirement, you need to package them.

The second reason for packaging HTML-based skin and container files is something I’ll emphasize throughout this book—proper organization! In Chapter 4, I explained the importance of organizing design components in Photoshop using layers and layer sets, but why stop there? When properly packaged and installed, skin and container files are nicely grouped together when applying them to pages and containers, respectively, on a DNN website. It is possible to package individual skins/containers and install them separately as skinname.zip/containername.zip. But, as you will see, packaging all skins and containers together makes it easier for users to apply them within a DNN website. It also separates them from other skins and containers that may be installed on the same DNN website.

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To this point you've done a lot of the heavy lifting required to prepare your website solution for content—and now all of... more

To this point you've done a lot of the heavy lifting required to prepare your website solution for content—and now all of your hard work is about to pay off as we embark on the next stage of development—adding and editing pages required for the website.

The previous chapter discussed the power of changing the look and feel of an entire DNN website in minutes. Perhaps even more powerful is the capability to add and manipulate the page options and structure within your website easily at any time. As you will see, the capability of DNN to change a site’s page structure without “breaking” references to links or content provides a compelling, intuitive, and efficient way to easily edit and maintain a website’s hierarchy.

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So far, you've spent a lot of time readying your website solution for what I’m going to affectionately refer to as the meat... more

So far, you've spent a lot of time readying your website solution for what I’m going to affectionately refer to as the meat and potatoes of the entire solution. Of course, I’m talking about the concept of modules, which is how content is added to a DNN website. Modules are pluggable components that present some type of functionality to the user. It is helpful to think of modules as “chunks” of content that are addressed independently within a DNN website. Typically, several modules are grouped together to create a web page and they can easily be added, edited, deleted, moved within a page, or transferred to another page. Each module also has its own settings that can be configured, depending on the functionality it delivers. In order to add content to a DNN page you must first insert an “empty” module into a content pane. Then, you configure its settings and add content to the module, or vice versa. You can define, to a certain degree, how a module behaves and how it is displayed, but a lot has to do with how it has been coded and the features it may contain.

DNN provides several unique core modules out-of-the-box, each with its own specific functionality, such as a text editor, discussion board, feedback form, and document manager, just to name a few. Alternatively, custom modules can be created to add additional functionality to a DNN website. However, in this chapter, you learn how to implement some of the core modules built into DNN as you build and apply content to the MBR Design website.

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Now that you’ve become more familiar with the DNN interface and adding content to the MBR Design website using a variety... more

Now that you’ve become more familiar with the DNN interface and adding content to the MBR Design website using a variety of modules, you’re probably wondering, “How can I customize the look and feel of content, modules, skins, or even the overall DNN environment?” Cascading style sheets (CSS) is the answer.

CSS is used to format the layout of web pages and gives both website designers and developers a great deal of control over web page presentation. Designers and developers use CSS to define colors, fonts, layout, and other aspects of web pages. It is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (HTML) from document presentation (CSS). This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control of presentation characteristics, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content. CSS can also allow the same page and content to be presented in different styles. CSS specifies a priority scheme to determine which style rules apply if more than one rule matches against a particular element, hence the term “cascading.” With “cascading,” priorities or weights are calculated and assigned to rules, so that the presentation results are predictable.

CSS addresses many of the problems of HTML. Some of the older tags, especially the notorious <FONT> tag, clutter web page source code and make for inflexible sites. With CSS, style information is centralized, leading to increased power and flexibility. This helps web designers and developers create a uniform look and feel across the pages on their DNN website. Instead of defining the style of each table and each block of text within a page, commonly used styles need only be defined once in a CSS document (typically the skin.css file). Once a specific style is defined in CSS, any page that references the CSS file can use it. Plus, CSS makes it easy to change styles globally. For example, a web developer may want to increase the default Normal text size from 10pt to 12pt for all the pages on a DNN website. Because the site references the skin.css style sheet, the text size only needs to be changed in the skin.css file so all pages show the larger text.

While CSS is great for creating text styles, it is also helpful for formatting other aspects of the MBR Design web page layout as well. For example, CSS can be used to define the cell padding of table cells; the style, thickness, and color of a table's border; and the padding around content panes, images, or other objects. CSS gives web designers and developers more exact control over how web pages will look than standard HTML. This is why most web pages today incorporate CSS. The MBR Design website is no exception.

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One of the most important functions of the DNN framework to understand is roles-based security. Why? Because you have the... more

One of the most important functions of the DNN framework to understand is roles-based security. Why? Because you have the ability to manage access to privileged content through the use of Security Roles, giving you the power to secure your content by defining permissions at the page level and at the module level. This makes it possible for some users to have access to standard content that is available to the general public, while other users have access to content that isn’t available to just anyone that comes to your website.

When users register on your site, they are automatically added to the Registered Users role, which gives them access to all general content. However, after they register, they can be granted access to more secure content or website functionality by an administrator.

Sound complicated? Fortunately, just like many of the other features of DNN you’ve discovered throughout this book, it isn’t rocket science. True, having this kind of control over your members of your website is one of the most powerful features of the DNN framework, but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. As you will soon see, DNN provides very flexible options for configuring secure areas within your website. And if you take a systematic approach to setting up the permission levels for your site, applying them to different registered users is relatively painless.

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Throughout this book I’ve offered real-world examples from my experience using DNN every day for the last four to five years... more

Throughout this book I’ve offered real-world examples from my experience using DNN every day for the last four to five years. The methods contained in this book are by no means the be-all and end-all of designing and implementing sites with DNN. But taking advantage of the experience I have shared should give you a jumpstart at building your own professional DNN website solutions.

In this book, I have taken a systematic approach to detailing many techniques that have helped me become successful with DNN. My goal was to offer you real-world examples, while presenting key aspects of DNN that will help you in your day-to-day usage of the application. Ultimately, I hope the information in this book enables you to “hit the ground running” and considerably reduce the amount of time required for you to implement your own DNN solutions.

I want to finish with a chapter that provides you with additional techniques and resources that will help to make your DNN website implementations successful. The tips in this chapter, cover a wide range of topics and are offered in no particular order. At the end of the chapter, I provide some excellent resources that will offer a lot of value to your DNN endeavors. Therefore, without further ado . . . let’s bring on the tips!

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