👉 Overview
👀 What ?
DotNetNuke (DNN) is a free, open-source Content Management System (CMS) built on the Microsoft ASP.NET (VB.NET) framework. It is designed for managing and developing interactive and dynamic websites, web applications, and intranets.
🧐 Why ?
The growing need for robust, scalable and customizable CMSs for web development has made DotNetNuke a go-to solution for many developers and organizations. It provides a powerful platform for managing websites, with features like multi-language localization, social media integration, and a rich-text editor, among others. Plus, being an open-source framework, it benefits from the contributions of a large community of developers worldwide.
⛏️ How ?
To use DNN, one needs to first install it on a server with Microsoft IIS web server, .NET framework, and SQL Server database. Once installed, one can access the DNN framework through a web browser and start building or managing websites. The platform provides an intuitive interface for creating pages, adding content, and customizing the website's appearance. In addition, DNN supports third-party modules and skins, allowing further customization and functionality enhancement.
⏳ When ?
DotNetNuke was first released in late 2002 as an open-source software. Since then, it has been widely adopted by developers and organizations around the world, and has seen several major updates and improvements. The latest version, DNN 9, was released in 2017.
⚙️ Technical Explanations
At its core, DNN is based on a three-tier architecture model with the data layer, the business logic layer, and the presentation layer. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. This decoupling of business logic from the user interface makes DNN a highly modular system, where each module can be developed and maintained independently. DNN uses ASP.NET's Web Forms for building the user interface and supports both VB.NET and C# languages for server-side programming. It also supports a variety of databases, but primarily uses Microsoft SQL Server.