dotNetNuke, dropping the Bomb
Today’s class was a little more self-propelled. In small groups we were required to go through an assigned Content Management System and rank various criteria on a three color scale.
- Red – Poorly Supported or Difficult to Use
- Orange – Average Support/Ease of Use
- Green – Strongly Supported or Very Easy to Use
As you’ve probably already ascertained the CMS that I helped review was dotNetNuke. Katy Behringer and I went through Core Functionality, Development Considerations, Support for dotNetNuke and our results were added onto the follow document originally given to us by Professor Tim Krause.
When you look at the comparison chart there’s a number of things dotNetNuke does well. When looking at core functionality the CMS provides many things that some CMS’s don’t, such as Workflow Control and User Registration and Account Maintenance. But there is a lingering issue with dotNetNuke that both Katy and myself discovered, and it’s that the user interface for the admin panel can be very confusing and complex.
The panel is split into two areas. At the very top is a tool bar with short cuts to some common admin tasks. The other being the main window. Inside resides the main work area and two drop down menus that allow for further settings manipulation, content creation, as well as a slew of host properties and settings that can be altered. Unlike Joomla or WordPress adding articles or creating new pages isn’t exactly intuitive and it would appear that the simplest way to add further functionality is through the “Add New Module” and “Add Existing Module” functionality on the top tool bar. Let’s just say that dotNetNuke likes to hide things on the admin.
One nice yet confusing aspect of the admin panel is the radio buttons in the top left corner, which changes the admins current editing mode.
- The View mode allows the admin to see the changes they’re making in real time to the front end of the site. This is the easiest way to get a preview of a page and this mode also allows the admin to use a WYSIWYG interface.
- The Edit mode allows the admin to change the site, module, and user settings.
- Lastly the Layout mode wasn’t exactly blunt about it’s purpose. I would assume it’s used for graphics and the physical layout of the pages.
The other major issue I had with dotNetNuke was its speed. It was incredibly painful to tinker with because every single change took far too long to implement. When comparing it to Joomla! or WordPress it felt like I could have run a lap around the world before the system added either a new module or created a blog. Even posting in the newly created blog took an eternity. Everything was very slow, but it may have something to do with it being hosted on their demo servers. It’s hard to tell, but due to the sheer complexity of the CMS I would advise only the bravest souls dare tackle it. Unless you have a large staff and the money to hire commercial support, you’re gonna have a rough time, because basic community support appeared to be sparse. I found very few answers to my questions I set out after on dotNetNuke and every time I turned around modules, skins, and other add-ons were all for sale. There’s not much for free in the world of dotNetNuke, well except for their “Community” version of the CMS.
At least there are less stressful alternatives out there.
