You may have heard about different content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. Similarly, DNN, formerly DotNetNuke, is open source means it can be accessed and edited freely without needing any permission from anyone. However, the only difference between DNN and other CMSs is that it is Microsoft based (ASP.NET).
If you love using a content management system, and looking to know more about DNN and how it reached to this level from almost nothing, then keep on reading!
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
If you know what a content management system is – good. If you don’t know, then simply put, it is a tool used to publish, store, and upload all of the elements that exist on a website. These elements can include text, photos, videos, data, forms, documents, etc.
The content management system is the back-end of the website. A user needs to sign in with a username and password to access the back-end of the website and make/save changes. The changes will then appear on the front-end of the website.
Webmasters using a CMS don’t necessarily need to know any code or programming language in order to publish or modify website content. With a CMS, minimal knowledge of HTML isn’t required. However, basic knowledge or understanding is helpful.
What is DotNetNuke (DNN)?
Simply put, DotNetNuke or DNN is a Microsoft-based (ASP.NET) Content Management System that is straightforward and easy to learn and use. This amazing platform makes it easy for users to edit content easily and efficiently. It is designed to be adaptable to all sizes and types of businesses. Whether you sell your products online or not, DNN helps you manage all your content.
DNN provides a consistent and user-friendly interface experience across all administrative fields. All its dashboards are recognizable, similar, and easy-to-navigate, allowing users and managers to update, edit, or create content without getting confused.
Another excellent feature that DNN provides to its users is that they aren’t redirected continuously to new pages as they modify their content. Instead, the content editor window pops right on the page you are editing, allowing managers and users to view the live updated content right next to the window that they are making different changes in.
With the help of DNN, you can also assign certain roles to certain users. For example, if you have a website where only certain users can access certain data, such as newsletter, resource tab, or association – you can assign those users with greater access to these pages on your websites, and vice versa.
History of DotNetNuke
Back then in 2002, a guy named Shaun Walker introduced something special and incredible unto the world that changed how Microsoft approached Open Source. Shaun released a content management system tool called IBuySpy Workshop that was a fork of IBuySpy Portal released in 2001.
Later on, in March 2003, Shaun’s IBuySpy Workshop became DotNetNuke, which is now known as DNN. Shaun coined the term DotNetNuke by combining the term ‘.Net’ with the word ‘nuke’, which had already been popular with pre-existing frameworks such as PostNuke and PHP-Nuke.
Shaun Walker registered trademarks for the terms DNN and DotNetNuke in both Canada and the United States.
Since the DNN, the landscape of open source in the world of Microsoft has been completely changed. Now, the source code for ASP.NET is available to everyone and thousands of developers work on .Net projects every day from all around the world.
All the early releases of Shaun’s IBuySpy Workshop were developed solely by him and distributed by his consulting company, Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc.
After registering his brand name, Walker formed a Core Team of software developers to help him out in developing and promoting new versions of the open-source project. In September 2006, Shaun invited three head members of the Core Team, Joe Brinkman, Scott Willhite, and Nik Kalyani, to form DNN Corporation to supervise management and development of the open-source project, as well as offer professional services to the DNN community.
On November 25, 2008, DotNetNuke secured Series A financing from Sierra Ventures and August Capital – and they also hired Navin Nagiah as DNN’s CEO. In February 2009, the Professional Edition of DNN was released that targeted at business and enterprise customers. Later in February 2010, DNN closed a round of Series B financing from Sierra Ventures, August Capital, as well as Pelion Venture Partners.
In August 2009, DNN Corporation that was run under the supervision of Walker and the members of the Core Team launched a partnership program aimed at providing better support to web design and development companies that were using DNN. The DNN Corporation also acquired Snowcovered that year, which is an online market that develops DNN modules, skins, services, and other related products.
After all the hard work and progress from 2002, in October 2009, a report by the Open Source CMS Market Share concluded that DNN was the leading .NET-based open-source web content management system.
After ten years, the company was renamed “DNN Corporation” from “DotNetNuke” in 2013, and in 2017, the company was acquired by ESW Capital.
Modules of DotNetNuke
In the DNN world, modules have two different meanings. First, a module can be referred to as installable software that you can add to your DotNetNuke-based website to enhance its functionality. The other definition of modules is associated with the building blocks of a DNN web page. These are the discrete units on a webpage that represent visual content to the end-user.
A DNN web page is made up of several modules. For instance, a video gallery is a module, a slideshow is a module, and a calendar is also a module. All these modules exist in a DNN web page side by side with all the different types of content that together make a web page.
Other content management systems, including Joomla and WordPress, refer to modules as extensions or plugins.
Following are the various editions of DNN:
- DNN Platform – Open source (free to use).
- Evoq Basic
- Evoq Content
- Evoq Engage
Final Verdict
Starting its journey from 2002 to the current date, DotNetNuke has been improved a lot in terms of functionality and features. Users and managers who like their content to be well managed, rely on DNN for their website data management.
We hope that you like our article. Don’t forget to share it with your friends who like working on different content management systems.