Working on a DNN project and contributing to the collective has been something I desired since DNN was in the 1.x release mode. Until recently, I had not the time to assist on any of the framework, but rather have spent countless hours adjusting the core for specific clients and building modules for service contracts. With our popular Map module (originally called GoMap) migrating into the core projects, I finally can contribute my time and energy to something which has already consumed a great deal of my own life.
For those people who are familiar with the GoMap module - thanks for the support - and I am diligently putting together the initial release (with some major enhancements) which will be the base operation of the DotNetNuke Map module. The architecture will be highly extensible - and a full project breakdown will be release in the coming days to identify the improvements and enhancements as well as the full project structure.
Those of you who are not familiar with GoMap, or are interested in a "Sneak Peek" of DotNetNuke Map capabilities. Here is a "Sneak Peak" of the technology abstract:
Dotnetnuke Map will provide the core foundation for Adding, Managing and Displaying Geographic Points on a map, as well as functionality for searching through points and interactivity with this information. The original version (title GoMap) was built to tie directly to the Google Map API, and enable functionality for plotting the points contained within a custom table or query. The initial example, is plotting of the Countries to which UsersOnline currently contains information. AS IN, displaying the UsersOnline on a world map. With DotNetNuke Map, the UI layer will be handled via a provider model similar to that of the data handler. The initial release will contain the same UI handler for mapping to the Google API, but make it extremely easy for additional UI providers to plot the same data on different layouts or different API's like that of the Microsoft Virtual Earth, or Yahoo Maps.
Additionally, the Data layer will also contain the same functionality - meaning, new data providers can be established for Importing and managing the map points. By default, the provider will store the points in a specific DNN table, as well as provide the ability to Import information from text files. However, in the future it may be useful to import map information from a GPS enabled device, and this model will allow new providers of that type.
I'm currently in the migration phase of the original module into a DotNetNuke core friendly platform, meaning shifting the custom AJAX script library to utilize the Client API and a migrating the framework architecture into the models just mentioned.
Look for more news shortly - until then - Happy Nuking!