Today we have released our second Community Technology Preview for DotNetNuke 7.0. This release contains our new Control Panel, the new Edit Page menu, Drag-n-Drop module placement and the new Actions Menu. Keep in mind that this is not intended to be a production quality release. You are sure to find many bugs and features that are not ready for prime-time. The purpose of a release like this is to have an opportunity to collect feedback about new features. This is especially important when we are building new features that impact the overall user experience and interface. Continue reading to learn more about some of the exciting new features coming in DotNetNuke 7.0.
New Control Panel
DotNetNuke 7.0 includes a brand new control panel for managing your site. Each menu has been updated to offer a more intuitive experience. We've even made it possible for end users to personalize the menu by creating their own bookmarks within the menu. The Host and Admin menus include areas for common items, advanced items and personal bookmarks. The Modules, Pages and Users menu items provide quick access to common features in those areas.
View Mode By Default
Navigating page-by-page while in edit mode has never been the most efficient way to navigate a DotNetNuke site. Edit mode increases the overall page payload and browser rendering. In DotNetNuke 7.0, users are now always in View mode. The Edit Page menu gives the user the ability to quickly toggle edit mode along with providing quick access to common page tasks. We are still working out a few details in this area so don't be surprised if you run into strange behavior while accessing admin or host pages.
Drag And Drop Modules
Many of you will recall that DotNetNuke introduced the ability to drag modules between panes several years ago. For one reason or another, this capability was removed in 6.0. DotNetNuke 7.0 brings back Drag-n-Drop and it's better than ever! In CTP2 you can drag modules between panes while in edit mode, but that is just the beginning. You will have to wait for the Beta release to see more of what we have done with the Drag-n-Drop capabilities.
Goodbye Manage Button
We received a lot of feedback about the Manage button that we introduced in DotNetNuke 6.0. In DotNetNuke 7.0 we have removed the Manage button in favor of a new approach that will provide greater consistency with skins. The Manage button has been replaced by an Actions menu that properly separates common module tasks. You will see three icons that represent Edit, Manage and Move. The Edit menu will be used for module defined actions. The Manage menu is used for settings and admin tasks. The Move menu is used to move a module between panes when drag-n-drop isn't available.
What to expect in CTP2?
If you aren’t quite sure what we mean by Community Technology Preview or CTP, I would suggest reading “What’s in a Name?” by DotNetNuke Co-Founder, Joe Brinkman. Just to be clear, this is not a production ready release. This isn’t close to the quality we would expect for a Beta release. We want to give everyone a preview of what we have been working on and get as much feedback as possible. You will find bugs. You will run into features that aren’t complete or that don’t work at all. You will definitely run into features that are still a work in progress. We ask that you pay close attention to the items I listed above and provide us with your feedback.
What If I Find a Problem?
If you happen to have issues with the CTP, the first thing you should do is check the known issues list in the DotNetNuke Beta Forum. We will do our best to keep this list as accurate as possible. If you have found a bug that you can reproduce, we ask that you please create the bug report in our Bug Tracker. If you have questions about functionality or how to do something, please post your question in the Community Exchange. For all other feedback and discussions please use the Open Core Testing Forum. If you aren’t sure which one to use, just use what is most convenient for you. We’ll be looking for feedback everywhere!
What's Next?
Download DotNetNuke 7.0 CTP2 and start using the product. We are looking forward to your feedback!
Download DotNetNuke 7.0 CTP2