DotNetNuke is a Content Management System or CMS. It is written in the Microsoft Visual Basic .NET programming language.
A Content Management System allows you to get a professional website up and running quickly. It provides functionality to easily manage the users of a website, the content, design aspects, and many other attributes of a website.
With DotNetNuke, it’s not only easy to get a website up and running quickly but to manage and maintain its content.
For developers, specifically Visual Basic developers, DotNetNuke offers a programmer to get started with web development quickly and learning MIcrosoft’s ASPX technology. Since a VB programmer understands Visual Basic they’ll be able to pick up the programming languate Visual Basic .NET fairly quick.
To get started read my article 4 Programming Languages To Help You Become A Programmer. Download the freely available Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition by Microsoft. Then head over to the DotNetNuke website and download the Install Package of DotNetNuke.
Here’s the quickest way to get started:
- Download and install the Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition. This can be a pretty long install and I accept all the defaults during install. Especially the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express option. You’ll need to install it so you can run DotNetNuke.
- Download the DotNetNuke Install Package and unzip it to C:\DotNetNuke.
- Fire up Microsoft Visual Web Developer and select File -> Open Web Site… and select the folder C:\DotNetNuke. Click Open. This will open DotNetNuke as a web site in Visual Web Developer.
- Once the web site is open in the development system, press Ctrl-F5. This will start and run the web site wizard without the debugging system.
- You’ll notice an ASP.NET Development Server pop-up in the lower right-hand corner of your window. This is the built in web server that comes installed with Visual Web Developer so there’s no need for Microsoft’s IIS web server.
- After the web site has been compiled you’ll be presented with the first wizard screen to install DotNetNuke. On this screen the installation method default is “Typical”. Change it to “Auto” and click the Next link. There is a possible issue with the “Typical” install that hangs on a screen where the database scripts get run. To avoid this just select the “Auto” method.
- The install will complete and you’ll have one web page that displays the output of the install with a link at the bottom that says, “Click Here To Access Your Portal.” Below is your DotNetNuke web site after a successful install.
Click image for larger view
So what do have? We installed the development environment so we can develop custom modules in the future for DotNetNuke. We downloaded and installed DotNetNuke. We opened the web site on our local hard drive at C:\DotNetNuke, compiled and ran the wizard to setup DotNetNuke.
This article was about running DotNetNuke on your computer. There is a bunch of other stuff to do and take into consideration to run a DotNetNuke site for public or private consumption. I’ll go over that type of stuff in a future article. So make sure you subscribe to my blog by email or by RSS Reader.
Here’s the video walk thru.
Note: When you’re installing Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, you might get a pop-up window that says something about needing .NET Framework 2.0 and you’re running 3.5. Just answer yes that you want to go ahead and use .NET Framework
3.5.
DotNetNuke is a great CMS, we have build 100’s of sites with it and have used it for many years. Thanks for publishing this, I’m happy to see more people giving it a shot.
Ryan Doom –
DotNetNuke Consultant
@Web Ascender – Thanks for stoppin’ by Ryan. Yes, DNN is great!!
DotNetNuke is a convenient CMS. I tried to use it in one of my website, and however, I was pretty satisfied, really enjoyed its functionality and speed.
@Paul – Thanks for stoppin’ by. DNN is great and has a strong community. I manage a few internal portals for some companies and that helps me keep up with DNN.
Thanks for the info about DotNetNuke. I also appreciate your explanation on CMS. Do you have a tutorial on this?
DotNetNuke is a great CMS, and we with it the establishment of 100 sites and has been used for many years.
Well a good overview of DotNetNuke. But I still believe WordPress is the best on in every context as far as its accessibility and SEO performance is concerned. What do you say ?
I have fair idea of Joomla , But as i have good idea of DotNet so i am thinking to start DotNetNuke.
As Roney said, DotNetNuke it’s still a great CMS, but WordPress platform has an easy learning curve, and also it has a lot of plugins which can basically transform your blog in any other type of site.
Thanks for the article.
Umbraco eating market share? I am not so sure. A couple months ago in Microsoft’s Windows Web Application Gallery, DotNetNuke was ranked fourth overall in popularity behind a number of other open source applications, including Umbraco. However if you go to the Windows Web Application Gallery today, you will see that DotNetNuke is now in first place and Umbraco has fallen significantly behind.
Roney, “WordPress is the best on in every context as far as its accessibility and SEO performance” is pretty bold statement. Did you try DNN, Drupal, Joomla or any other fully functional CMS? Regarding SEO aspect, a CMS cannot increase your rankings, it only can not hurt your optimization efforts if has the right options and is properly configured. DNN is a great CMS and is a good choice for everyone who wants to use .net technology and is ready to pay some bucks to use all of its advanced functionality.
I agree with Roney : WordPress and now, WP MU, is the greatest CMS on the web
I have fair idea of Joomla and WordPress. But as i have good idea of .Net because i studied in my highschool and i am thinking to start DotNetNuke! Thanks
We have been using DotNetNuke for about 18 months now. It is excellent for your SME / Micro business. I recommend it and agree with the comments here.
I was using DNN for about a year and I thought it was great. It has a fantastic templating system (DNN call it skinning), it is highly customizable, very secure & most upgrades can be performed without problems in a matter of minutes.
DotNetNuke i think a convenient tool that can help us in creating dynamic websites that can easily manage users and can manage the other things in the website.
Well a good overview of DotNetNuke. But I still believe WordPress is the best on in every context as far as its accessibility and SEO performance is concerned. What do you say ?
maryembatool » I agree. DNN filled/fills a niche early for Visual Basic developers to get coding for the web. It also filled/fills a role for the diehard IIS people who might not have a choice of changing.
DNN has long since moved out of being just for VB devs.
C# is now the language of choice for most of us.
thanks for publishing this, I’m happy to see more people giving it a shot.DotNetNuke is a convenient CMS. I tried to use it in one of my website, and however, I was pretty satisfied, really enjoyed its functionality and speed.