DotNetNuke Corp. recently started to offer free webinars meant as a high-level introduction to the web application framework.

For more advanced DNN users and administrators, a new “DNN Spotlight” series is about to kick off. Join DNN Corp’s Nik Kalyani and myself on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 1 pm PDT for an introduction to DotNetNuke search engine optimization. In this hour-long presentation, we will cover on-page DNN SEO basics followed by a 30 minute Q&A session. Register now!

Damien Wittmack, head of marketing at Digicon recently announced on Twitter the launch of an ecommerce site build on DotNetNuke. As DNN stores continue to be a controversial topic, I thought it would be great to get some input directly from the “trenches.”

1. Thanks for making time for this interview. First of all, please introduce yourself and Digicon.

   
   Hi, I’m Nick Jaco, one of the founders of Digicon. I’m an expatriate Canadian, enjoying life in Australia. Digicon is a web design firm based in Brisbane, Australia. We’ve been around since 1996 and have seen a few changes in the Internet along the way. Digicon primarily services Australian clients, but have worked with overseas companies as well.

2. When and how did Digicon get involved with DotNetNuke and what specific DNN products and services does the company offer?

   
   

   Digicon, like many other web design companies had built its own CMSs (.Net, ColdFusion, PERL & J2EE versions), but felt there must be a better way. It didn’t make sense that a million web companies globally should each be spending development resources on proprietary CMSs. Reviewing the open source CMS market at the time (about four years ago), DotNetNuke came up a winner. While there are more choices available today, we’re happy with DNN and just see the DNN story getting better and better. DotNetNuke has changed the way we solve customer problems. Frequently, it’s a matter of consulting and integration rather than application development. Even for standalone web applications, we’ll often start with a DNN base as it gives us a security model and CMS functionality out-of-the-box.

   Digicon offers a variety of DotNetNuke services: consulting, design, application development and hosting.

3. Digicon just launched wallrocks.com.au. Please give us an overview of the project and your general thoughts about ecommerce on DotNetNuke.

   
   

   The project went quite smoothly as Wallrocks Antiques was great to work with. One of the challenges was to display the details of the antiques in sufficient quality for potential customers to evaluate. Originally we looked at the Deep Zoom with Silverlight, but were concerned about the penetration of the Silverlight player. Then we came across this nice little Flash product by the name of Zoomify, which did the job quite well.

   We believe that DotNetNuke is well suited for ecommerce. DNN has good user/roles functionality and is secure and robust.

4. The Wallrocks online store runs on DNN and the Catalook module suite. Why did you choose Catalook over other ecommerce modules?

   
   Catalook is a very good DNN store – quite powerful and a rich feature set. However, Catalook can be intimidating at first, because it has so many features that require configuration. It handles real-time payment verification, downloadable products, booking for seminars, member subscriptions and the list goes on.

5. How did the Catalook installation and configuration go? Did you customize the Catalook and / or DNN core codebase in any way?

   
   Catalook installation went fine. No significant customization of either the DNN or Catalook codebase was required. As mentioned above, we integrated in Zoomify to zoom in on product images. Most of the work came down to skinning.

6. I have to say that wallrocks.com.au is the best looking Catalook implementation I’ve seen in a long time. Please share your experience skinning the module.

   
   

   Thanks very much! Wallrocks Antiques was great to work with from a design point of view, which really made our job much easier.

   I guess Digicon takes a different approach for both DotNetNuke and Catalook skinning. We have a focus on design and SEO, though we’re not absolute purists. We always custom build skins to achieve the right look. Because we custom build, we avoid the SolPartMenu and instead use our own menu module. By starting fresh, it’s actually easier to build a useable site, instead of fighting against some of the standard components.

7. Where do you see the future for ecommerce and DotNetNuke?

   
   I’m quite optimistic for DotNetNuke ecommerce. What was quite complicated years ago seems much easier now. The vendor community around DotNetNuke has matured and the product offerings have become more sophisticated. Prices have also gone up for modules, which is actually a good thing as there are skilled software developers making a living from their modules. And that in turn benefits us all. Catalook is a great example - for US $99 you get a fully functioning store. The future will bring us more options, more business and more DotNetNuke.

In a somewhat surprising move (at least for me), DNN Corp published yet another “minor stabilization release for the 4.x codebase.” According to Joe Brinkman, CE 4.9.4 fixes a module caching flaw and improves performance of the FormatRemoveSQL method. 2 low priority security issues were corrected as well. Besides maintaining 4.x, DNN Corp also released a public beta of DNN 5.1. Please contribute to the upcoming release by downloading, testing, and discussing the beta as well as logging bugs in the public issue tracker.

More DNN community news next:

• Both Day of DNN and OpenForce North America announced speakers and sessions this week. The Day of DNN seems to provide a balanced program, while OpenForce guns for the more experienced DNN administrator and developer this year.
• Shaun Walker is “back,” reflecting on the recent changes to the DotNetNuke project, the Corporation, and his involvement in it all.
• Frauke Nonnenmacher blogs about module packaging for the terminally broke. Good read.
• Sam MacDonald takes a first look at the new DNN admin console module shipping with the 5.1 beta.
• Core team member Michael Washington releases aDefHelpDesk, a free and open source help desk module for DNN 4.4 and up.
• Adding to his specialty of DNN SEO modules, Bruce Chapman releases Canonical Link Generator and Inline Link Master. For more about Bruce and iFinity Software, listen to an interview I did with him for the latest episode DNNVoice.
• If you are a self-paced learner and feel most comfortable in your own 4 walls, then the new DNN DVD training series by Engage Software might be just what you are looking for.
• Looks like I’m not the only fan of Ventrian News Articles for blogging on DNN. Core team alumni Patrick Santry wrote a script to help transition from the Blog module project to News Articles.
• The Capital DNN user group continues to blaze the trail in regards to quality video capture of monthly meetings. Watch Will Morgenweck on DotNetNuke and social networking.
• And speaking of user groups, my local CT DNN user group is hosting none other than Wrox author and Documents project lead Mitchel Sellers on advanced DNN 5 module development.

As you can see, there is lots going on in and around DotNetNuke. I’ve got a week of upgrades ahead of me while continuing to “push every button” of the 5.1 beta. What are you doing with DotNetNuke? Please share in the comments.

In preparation for the 3^rd annual conference for DotNetNuke developers, designers, administrators or anybody else with an interested in the web application framework, Joe Brinkman reaches out to the community with a call for speakers.

I had the opportunity to speak and exhibit at the event last year and mingling with like-minded DNN folks was a great deal of fun. Remember, this is not meant to be a “geeks only” show, but rather a community gathering looking to pair known DNN veterans with fresh faces. Having said that, get your act together and submit your session ideas by May 8, 2009!

What else is happening with and around DotNetNuke? Let’s see:

• Speaking of speakers, as Will Strohl hinted on, the Day of DotNetNuke opens its call for speakers tomorrow, May 2, 2009. Events like this are a great way to hone your speaking skills.
• Nik Kalyani, Director of Products and Strategy, aims to rectify DNN Corp’s recent communication blunders in regards to its business model and the project’s roadmap for the 5.1 release.
• Not sure how I missed the DotNetNuke webinars, but I did. If you are new to the web application framework, these are worth your time.
• Brandon Haynes releases a DNN Multi-Factor Authentication Provider, which “allows a host to configure enhanced authentication (including SMS, SMTP, YubiKey, and X.509 certificates) for any number and combination of portal roles.” Very interesting and a great exploitation of the provider model.
• Engage, the official DotNetNuke training partner, introduces instructor-led, Virtual Classroom with a free webinar-style session entitled “Introduction to DotNetNuke.” I stuck my head into the webinar last week and was impressed. Grab your seat here.
• The master of DNN Urls, Bruce Chapman, publishes the ultimate guide to Understanding DotNetNuke Friendly Urls and Url Rewriting for SEO. Great read.
• Still struggling with CSS-based layouts in your DNN skinning efforts? Then you may want to give YAML or DNNGrid960 a try. And here is a detailed look at the 960 CSS framework.
• Erik van Ballegoij releases and update to Apollo PageLocalization and blogs about caching in DNN 5.
• The jQuery JavaScript library is all the rage these days. And in a timely manner, Will Strohl provides 7 jQuery tips for DotNetNuke Developers.
• Working hard on new DNN skinning documentation, Timo Breumelhof posts a "Beta" of the skin objects tables. Help him out here.

That wraps up this week’s news. Again, I encourage you to “speak up” and submit your session to both the Day of DotNetNuke and OpenForce 09 North America. See you there!