I’m working on a new Visual Studio 2010 Project Template, that I am calling the
Gooddogs DotNetNuke Technology Module Template. My goal is to develop a template for building DotNetNuke Modules using the latest technologies. Let’s face it, it’s 2012 now, and I’m tired of building modules the same way I did back in 2003. I want to be able to build modules using the latest cool stuff.
The template will include the following technologies…
- Entity Framework for the data layer
- WCF Data Service for flexible data access
- jQuery Mobile for a customized mobile version of the module
- Built-in Razor templating engine for module output
- Pre-included NuGet packages
- Blueprint CSS Framework for layout
- Knockout.js for data binding and client-side events
- AutoMapper for moving data from the data layer to the model layer
Maybe other technologies as well, depending on your feedback 
Figure 1. A sample project built with my new project template.
The template is done, and my next thought was … I should build a new DotNetNuke module using this new template … that would be the best way to demonstrate its’ use.
I could blog about it as I develop it. I could make some videos.
But .. what type of module should I write?
Then I thought, why not ask the community? So, let’s hear it … if you were to write a module for DotNetNuke today .. what would it be? Let’s brainstorm and come up with a great module that we can build together, then open source it in the DotNetNuke Forge. We’ll design it, I’ll build it using my new project template, blogging along the way, and then we’ll release it to the community.
My new project template will be available for free for you to download and use in your future projects, once we’ve started building our community module and I’m sure that the template is good to go.
I look forward to hearing your ideas!
Steve