Customer Reviews

Professional DotNetNuke ASP.NET Portals

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For administrators and ... administrators there is no better DNN book. Developers wait for another title. As a dotnetnuke follower since its IBuySpy Workshop branding and as .Net developer I expected more in the module development and new .Net technology application areas.
Yes, it has some chapters about module development and the DNN APIs but I bought this book to learn from DNN and be able to develop better modules. Not from this book.

I never worked with DNN before, so i needed a simple explanation on how to perform a basic installation and more importantly how to customize it so it matches my client design & functionality. I tried to read this book, especially the chapters about skinning and creating custom modules. I stopped reading early, because it was so badly written (yes, i write bad too, but you do not see me publish a book); no step for step explanations, no real world examples in the skinning chapter and most pages are just lists of API calls and other reference steps. I should have been warned by the introduction of mr. Walker: pages and pages of text about the history of DNN that screams for some professional editing: no headers, no pictures and the text could be reduced in half without any loss in information.

To summarize: this is not a step by step explanation of professional customizing DNN, it's just a badly written reference manual. DNN deserves better.

From reading this book you get a sense of completion. The first chapter provides a in-depth history of DNN and how it became the popular application it is, this is something that could only be written by the core team, it really provides some great insights into this application.

Subsequent chapters take you from installing DNN, all the way to developing against it. There is excellent coverage of the API, and four chapters on module development.

There may have been some points that could have gone deeper, but this is one book you'll actually want to read and have as a reference, it is just a unique perspective from the developers of DNN, rather than just a reference book.

I had just started playing around with content management systems when I can across DNN. At first, the interface seemed slick and all seemed to be going great guns, even when I had not read any book or reviews of DNN. Ane then came the problems....some pages wouldn't get deleted...the DNN tree just didn't seem to work. That was when I bought the book and enjoyed every topic it covered. I was helped a lot by the ASP.Net forum, where all sorts of issues were discussed. Overall, a pleasant experience and would recomment this over the other VB.Net book for DNN.

An interesting enough background history of DNN with a bit of technical information thrown in and put into context. But don't buy this book if you expect it to help you build your own modules.

hard to read, not complete, messy but still something that brings you forward when you have no access to other resources.
Still compared with what you can download for free from the DNN homepage (especially the training videos) this book is a waste of money and time for the novice as well as for the experienced professional.

This book is an AWESOME refernce book!

This book has information that is definately helpful for people who have a little bit of exeperience with DNN. The book seems to be written for people who have mid experience with DNN administration.

If you are a beginner and you are looking for a step by step tutorials and explanations, then I would look elsewhere.

The book offers very little on step by step on custom module development and does not explain some crucial steps that are necessary in order to set up Visual Studio IDE for debugging the DNN project.

I recently discovered DotNetNuke as a solution to a set of problems. As far as DNN goes, it is outstanding. But this book, like so many Wrox books, is not very good. By the time I had finished the book, I had a good idea of what the team was thinking, but almost no resources on how to extend DNN. I would say that if you are serious about wanting to create modules and skins, and otherwise administer DNN, buy "Building Websites with VB.Net and DonNetNuke 3.0" by Daniel Egan. It's not that much better, but it is better. Also, the videos available on the DNN site are better than either of the books, and they are free.

After having taken the (very) expensive classroom training, attendance at seminars/conventions, I have come to the conclusion that there will "Never" be a book or set of books that will cover what someone needs in order to fully understand the workings of DNN without paying the extreme prices for official DNN corp training and support. Too many "secrets" exist within DNN to be published in printed material. Professional skinning results require support and extra training (even to comply with published HTMl/XHTML standards), let alone ADA compliance.

DNN may be "Free", but the training, seminars, books and paid for support are NOT. Beware "Free" Gifts. The DNN corporation is making their money off of support for a product that doesn't even rate within the top 30 content management systems.

Just got done reading (sometimes skimming) through the new book. Great job, guys! A lot of information that I did not know or fully understand. You obviously put a lot of time and sweat into the book, and I can't imagine how much into the product behind the book. As I do more module development this will make a great reference! Thanks again!