Entries for 'Joe Brinkman'

Since the earliest days of DNN, users have had the ability to create user defined tables for storing structured content.  The original UDT module was eventually renamed to the Form & List module and continued to be enhanced for many years to provide greater control over the data definition and presentation.  Over the past couple of years there have been a few other Open Source modules that have tackled the job of providing structured content editing for DNN.  I have long believed that this is a fundamental requirement of any CMS and should be an out of the box capability for the platform.

I’m pleased to announce that DNN 8 will once again include the ability to create, edit and display structured content as a native capability of the platform.  DNN 8 CTP 5 for the first time includes both the Dynamic Content Type Manager and the Dynamic Content Viewer.  These two modules, along with an improved Content API, make up the new Dynamic Content Creator (DCC).

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DNN 8 is a major leap forward for DNN.  There are many new features like MVC and SPA module development support, OAuth2 server support, a new HTML Editor, the Dynamic Content Creator and a new default skin and template.  In addition to all of these new features, we are also updating the DNN architecture.  We are working to enable the creation of custom DNN distributions, to improve platform performance and to get rid of some outdated portions of the platform that are holding us back.

As we have progressed on DNN 8 development, we have been faced with some tough choices.  Some of the architectural and performance improvements that are needed will require us to break backwards compatibility.  In speaking with many community members on these issues, we have consistently heard the same message – do what is right to move the platform forward.  In most cases these changes will have no impact on your use of DNN. We are spending a lot of effort to ensure that the core platform features continue to work properly even after these changes.  We are also working with the Evoq team to ensure that the Evoq Content and Evoq Engage products provide a smooth upgrade for our commercial customers.

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The ideal way to move open source projects forward is by frequently issuing updated builds during the course of a release. The expectation is that community members install these builds, trial the new functionality, and report back on how things work and/or make fixes to the updated code. A successful beta program engages the user community in helping to improve the product by identifying issues early in the development cycle. Unfortunately, expectations don’t often match reality.

Today there is too much friction for users. It’s not that there haven’t been community members interested in the updated builds. Rather, they’ve been reluctant to reinstall the product each time a new build is made available. Upgrading a site can involve lengthy testing to ensure that custom modules continue to work properly and that the site skin didn’t break due to a CSS change in the platform. Fortunately, the requirement to reinstall the DNN Platform each time an interim build is released is now a thing of the past.

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Over the last month the DNN team has been hard at work on DNN 8.  DNN 8 is a big release with a lot of bug fixes, improvements and new features. Many of the DNN 8 changes involve improving the platform architecture to make it easier to maintain as well as providing greater control to users on what features get installed.  We are also working to make it easier to extend DNN in new and interesting ways.  In previous CTPs we introduced new module types, added additional security options for Web Services, started the process of separating admin functions into standalone modules, and introduced a brand new content management option. CTP 4 is focused on three main features: 1) OAuth server support 2) CKEditor as the default HTML Editor 3) Separation of admin modules.

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I am pleased to announce that DNN 7.4.2 Beta has been released.  DNN 7.4.2 is almost complete and we are just doing some cleanup and testing before our planned September release. We currently going through some performance testing and will likely include a couple more fixes before our final release.  In the meantime, we thought it would be good to give the community a chance to take a look at the 7.4.2 release and let us know if there are any show stopping issues we might have missed. 

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Since early spring, the DNN Platform team and the DNN community have been hard at work on DNN 8. In this major platform release we are looking to dramatically reshape how DNN is delivered and to provide great new capabilities that make it easier for site owners to build and maintain websites and applications. We are also providing new capabilities to make it easier for developers to leverage modern technologies to create DNN extensions.

I am happy to announce the release of DNN 8.0 CTP 3. This release is focused on delivering the new Dynamic Content Type Manager and incremental update support.

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I am pleased to announce that DNN Platform 7.4.1 is available for download.  In DNN 7.4.1, we focused on improving platform performance and resolving many issues related to multi-language PortalSettings.  In addition, we have resolved a few security issues and included a new Security Analyzer.

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Over the last 25 years since the World Wide Web was first created, the web has undergone dramatic change. Web pages started out as static documents with rudimentary styling and graphics. During the first decade of web development, frameworks like Active Server Pages and ColdFusion added server side programming to enable the development of rich web applications. JavaScript was added to enable simple browser interactions, but was generally considered too slow and limited for serious web application development.

Over the following decade, the web went through another major growth spurt as developers pushed JavaScript to its limits and beyond. Browsers continued to advance to drive client-side performance and capability. In addition, the development and refinement of AJAX techniques made it possible to deliver even richer browser experiences than were previously possible.

In the last 5 years we have seen an explosion of Single Page Application (SPA) frameworks like Angular, Backbone, Ember, Aurelia and more. These frameworks leverage JavaScript and AJAX to enable the development of rich web applications with desktop application like performance.

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A few weeks ago, the DNN Security team released blog post describing a workaround for a recently discovered vulnerability in the DNN Install Wizard. While the fix is simple, we know that there will still be users who didn't see the blog post or who w... Continue Reading »

COMMUNITY IS A FUNNY OL' WORD. In recent years our humble nine-letter friend has come to mean many things to many people. No longer merely the domain of charity groups and overtly friendly neighbors, community has gone on to be the talk of technologists, businesspeople, politicians, students, welfare groups, and just about anyone who has connected to the Internet. Throughout this explosive community lovefest, a minor detail has been omitted in all the excitement: how on earth do we build an inspiring, engaging, and enjoyable community in our own walk of life? – Jono Bacon, The Art of Community

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