Happy Valentines Day!

The long anticipated release of DotNetNuke 2.0 Beta 1 is finally here! This release represents both a ground up rewrite of the core architecture as well as a multitude of new application productivity features. Although this release was anticipated quite some time ago, the sheer magnitude of changes took much longer to complete than expected - this was mostly due to the added complexity of legacy upgrade issues as well as resourcing contraints.

The true focus of DotNetNuke 2.0 is extensibility. In a nutshell this means we want to provide users at all levels the ability to leverage the core portal functionality but at the same time provide simple mechanisms for complex customization. Basically this involved converting a relatively closed system to a more open architecture. This philosophy is consistent with the focus of ASP.NET V2 and actually exemplifies the same Provider model used in Whidbey.

Although we strive to deliver the highest quality software possible, it is very important to understand that this is a Beta 1 release and therefore should be treated as such ( ie. please do not install on production servers ). We will be following up with a Beta 2 release on March 6th followed by a final release to coincide with VSLive in San Francisco ( March 23rd ). These time frames provide us with the opportunity to address any issues which arise during the Stabilization phase.

Please note there are some known issues in the Beta 1 release. The core MS Access Data Provider is not complete in the Beta 1 package due to insufficient testing. We will be including it with the Beta 2 release. In addition, there are no examples of the new HTML skins or containers included due to time constraints. Again, there will be some good examples included with Beta 2.