With this CMS I needed a little help to get it set up on my local box. The person who helped me set up also gave me a very quick run down of how Dot Net Nuke (DNN) worked and some of the features. This post took a little longer then I wanted it to, mainly because I’ve been working on my deck, so I have not been able to geek out like I want to. That being said, I have been playing with the DNN framework lately and there are some thing I like and some that I don’t.
Let’s go over the things I enjoy about DNN. First, and probably the most important, DNN community edition is FREE. That is right, you get this really nice community edition free all you have to pay for is the hosting and domain name registration – which you would have to do any way. They provide you with a basic layout, a place for your header, footer and 4 areas in the middle or content area. DNN offers a variety Modules that can be added and easily modified. User registration is built in along with user roles. As an Administrator you have the power to grant individuals the rights to modify any single page on the website.
Now for want I don’t like. It seems extremely difficult to create a website on your local machine and deploy to a hosting service. With DNN you create a single instance of the application and can build multiply “portals”. What happens when the “portal” is the single application that you want to give to your customer.