I know that this is a little late with DevConnections being a little over a week-and-a-half ago, but I thought that it was still important that I get my highlights out here on the blog as i think there are number of incredibly good things coming in the future for DotNetNuke. For a more detailed review I highly recommend that you check out Will Strohl's blog post, as he goes into a bit deeper discussion than I do.
For myself there were three key areas of special concern and excitement out of the conference. The first was the roadmap for DotNetNuke 5.6 and 6.0, second was around changes for DotNetNuke PE, and lastly some specifics of changes that are included in the 5.6 release. I'll discuss each of these items in the following sections.
The Road Ahead
As we all are very aware, over the last year or so DotNetNuke has ramped up the frequency of releases and over the past year we have seen a great amount of growth. In the Keynote address Shaun Walker mentioned that although that has worked thus far that they have recognized that the community really wants to see more stability in releases and that they want to make every effort to improve quality. As such they announced that once 5.6 is released in the last portion of this year, 6.0 which will contain many new enhancements will see a slower release cycle with a 6.0 release scheduled for Q2 2011 and a 6.1 release scheduled for Q4 2011.
For me I think this is one of the biggest advantages to the community, in fact I blogged a while back about considerations that people must take when a project has rapid release cycles, I think that this frequency change is key to the future success of the project.
During the keynote it was discussed that the 6.x platform will be similar to that of the 5.x platform with a number of key initiatives being tackled such as performance and user experience. I'm looking forward to seeing more information about what is going to be coming in the future.
Professional Edition Changes
For me a key announcement that came from the Keynote was that a new option will be presented for users looking into the Professional Edition of DotNetNuke. This option is the ability to purchase a Perpetual License to use the product even after the subscription period has ended. Exact pricing and licensing information was not communicated regardless for myself, and many customers that I work with this will be a huge benefit for those that are looking to leverage DotNetNuke and also want to have the ability to stay on a version without having a need to continue a subscription if it isn't deemed necessary.
I look forward to seeing pricing information for this int he future months.
DotNetNuke 5.6
During the keynote a short discussion was had around items that will be coming out with DotnetNuke 5.6 and one of the key items here is a revamped default.css file which has been cleaned up and modified to ensure that un-needed items are no longer send to the client. Skin designers will also appreciate the changes to this styleheet as it will help to make the skinning process easier, by providing less items that might impact designs.
In summary, as with all previous years DevConnections was a great event where a lot of helpful information was shared, and where DotNetNuke Corporation was able to share with the community their plans for future releases. I think the project is on a great path, and this next year is going to be very exciting and full of new features and improved usability to truly make DNN best-in-class. If you were at the conference feel free to share your highlights below.