DNN Store: Blog Blog https://store.dnnsoftware.com/ Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:44:37 GMT urn:store:1:blog:post:41 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/how-does-gdpr-affect-website-cookies- How does GDPR affect website cookies? <p>On the 25<sup>th</sup> May 2018 the <a target="_blank" href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679">EU General Data Protection Regulation</a> (<strong>GDPR</strong>) has become enforceable. This new legislation marks a fundamental change in how websites can use cookies and have typically achieved user cookie consent.</p> <p>Recital 30 of the legislation states:</p> <p><i>“Natural persons may be associated with online identifiers provided by their devices, applications, tools and protocols, such as internet protocol addresses, cookie identifiers or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags. This may leave traces which, in particular when combined with unique identifiers and other information received by the servers, may be used to create profiles of the natural persons and identify them.”</i></p> <p><i> </i></p> <h3>What does this mean for your website?</h3> <p>In summary a cookie that can uniquely identify a device or used with another combination of data should be treated as personal data, this supports recital 26:</p> <p><i>“The principles of data protection should apply to any information concerning an identified or identifiable natural person. Personal data which have undergone pseudonymisation, which could be attributed to a natural person by the use of additional information should be considered to be information on an identifiable natural person.....”</i></p> <p>With this is mind we now need to treat cookies that can uniquely identify users (Google analytics, advertising, tracking, etc) as personal data and as such is subject to GDPR laws. To become compliant your website has 2 options:</p> <p>1) Stop using these cookies.<br />2) Find a lawful way to gain cookie consent.</p> <p>Due to the invaluable functionality these cookies give to your website option 1 is not viable for the majority.</p> <p></p> <h3>How does a website lawfully gain cookie consent?</h3> <p>Traditionally websites relied on implied consent from users visiting the site however this is no longer <a href="https://www.cookielaw.org/blog/2016/11/3/gdpr-compliance-means-cookie-notices-must-change/" target="_blank">valid and lawful</a>. The reason being consent must be through an <strong>“<i>affirmative action to signal their consent</i></strong><strong>”</strong> such as a confirmation button.</p> <p>Some sites use a single confirmation button, also this is not acceptable <strong>“</strong><i><strong>If there is no genuine and free choice, then there is no valid consent</strong></i><strong>”</strong></p> <p>Furthermore there must be an opt out option and changing your cookie preferences at a later date must be straightforward todo <i><strong>“Even after getting valid consent, there must be a route for people to change their mind.Again this comes down to the requirement that withdrawing consent must be as easy as giving it.”</strong></i></p> <p><i><strong> </strong></i></p> <h3>GDPR Cookie Consent Viper module – become GDPR compliant in 3 easy steps</h3> <p><br /><img src="/images/uploaded/blogs/blog/steps.png" alt="" width="1050" height="258" /></p> <p>With the above in mind we have developed the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/gdpr-cookie-consent-viper">GDPR cookie consent viper module</a>. The module works by allowing you to categorize the types of cookies your website uses and then on a users first visit to your website all cookies except the “strictly necessary” ones are blocked and the user is presented a clear UI where they can view the different categories of cookies and confirm the ones they would like to enable.</p> <p><img src="/images/uploaded/blogs/blog/cookies.jpg" alt="" width="1344" height="313" /></p> <p>Only once consent has been given will the cookies by loaded, the user then has the option to change their preferences at any time and the cookies are either loaded / unloaded based on their preferences.</p> <p>The module comes with inbuilt layouts to meet the majority of needs, however it is built using Razor scripts so it can be extended to meet any requirements you require.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:40 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/payment-error-on-the-dnn-store Payment error on the DNN Store <p>Some customers are getting an error saying that their address is incorrect when they put their credit card order through the DNN Store. </p> <p>The error is <strong>wrong, </strong>please disregard it. Your order will go through. </p> <p>If you put the order through again, it will be flagged as a duplicate and <strong>all of the orders </strong>will not go through. </p> <p><br> </p> <p>Please put orders through only once, if you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact the Store's support desk. </p> <p><br> </p> <p>Sorry for the inconvience, we're working hard to get it fixed! </p> <p><br> </p> <p>Mel </p> <p>DNN Store </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:39 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/siteimprove-and-dnn-better-together Siteimprove and DNN, Better Together <p><img alt="DNN_Siteimprove-Plugin_Environmental_Laptop" src="/Portals/0/Users/212/00/127700/DNN_Siteimprove-Plugin_Environmental_Laptop.jpg?ver=2018-02-27-212605-310" title="DNN_Siteimprove-Plugin_Environmental_Laptop" width="622" style="max-width: 100%; width: 622px; height: 415px;" height="415" /></p><br /><p>What if you could manage the overall health of your website, see your SEO rankings, and monitor accessibility compliance all within DNN Content Management System (CMS)? </p><p>Now, while you're uploading and editing content within the DNN CMS, you can streamline your process immediately with valuable content insights and analytics data from the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove">Siteimprove CMS Plugin</a>. </p><p>Siteimprove's automated <a href="https://siteimprove.com/product/">intelligence platform</a> crawls your website to identify areas of improvement like content errors and digital accessibility issues, plus it dives into a robust variety of analytics data. Use the plugin to scan your website for errors as soon as a page is published, allowing you to fix mistakes, optimize content, and manage your site more efficiently. </p><h2>How does the Siteimprove CMS Plugin work with DNN?</h2><p>The Siteimprove plugin complements DNN’s user-friendly interface and appears as a movable widget on any page you're editing. With the plugin, there's no more tabbing between analytics programs or accessibility extensions; the data comes to you, giving you complete visibility into your website and your overall digital presence. </p><blockquote>"The tightly integrated functionality provided in this solution will help DNN site admins and content editors make their DNN sites more accessible and compliant. As a former Siteimprove user myself, we are excited to have this new offering available to our ecosystem."<br />- Clint Patterson, Ecosystem Manager, DNNCorp </blockquote><p><i><img title="DNN screenshot 1" src="/Portals/0/Users/212/00/127700/DNN screenshot 1.png?ver=2018-02-27-162311-880" alt="DNN screenshot 1" width="633" style="max-width: 100%; width: 633px; height: 321px;" height="321" /></i></p><h2><br /></h2><h2>Key Benefits of the CMS Plugin</h2><p>The Siteimprove CMS Plugin brings key features and benefits of the platform directly to the CMS, including:<br /></p><ul><li><strong>Quality Assurance: </strong>notifies users on how they can improve website credibility and dependability by identifying errors, such as misspellings and broken links.</li><li><strong>SEO: </strong>identifies suggestions to help increase rankings and organic traffic by making analytics insights an integral part of the content creation and editing process.</li><li><strong>Accessibility:</strong> alerts users to compliance issues that violate Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (<a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag">WCAG 2.0</a>), allowing them to test new content and identify missing headings, images without alt text, and more.</li></ul><p><img title="DCI overlay" style="max-width: 100%;" src="/Portals/0/Users/212/00/127700/DCI overlay.png?ver=2018-02-27-214745-400" alt="DCI overlay" /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><strong><em>*Data shown in the Siteimprove CMS Plugin depends on the Siteimprove services you are subscribed to</em></strong></span></p><p>The Siteimprove CMS plugin is now <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove">available for download on the DNN Store</a> and is free with a Siteimprove subscription.* </p><p>If you are not a Siteimprove customer and would like a free demo of the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform, <a href="https://go.siteimprove.com/dnn-marketplace-siteimprove-demo">fill out this form</a> and a member of our team will get in touch with you. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:38 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​ios-and-android™-apps-built-on-dnn ​iOS and Android™ Apps Built On DNN <p>You may be well aware of the benefits of using DNN as a content management solution for websites but few are aware of they can use DNN to build outstanding mobile apps. We love the security, flexibility and functionality offered by DNN, so why not use it for building and managing apps? </p> <p>There are several services on the market for managing mobile app content but the problem is that it creates more work when you have to log into your website to manage web content and your mobile CMS to manage your mobile content—especially when the content might be the same for both channels. If your app uses push notifications, then you might otherwise need yet another third party site to log into and send out your push notifications. Using DNN as both your website and mobile app content management system removes the bottleneck and allows you to take advantage of the features already built into your website. Yes, you can even send push notifications right from your DNN site! </p> <p>There are several ways of using DNN to build mobile apps. I’ll give you a brief overview of each of these methods as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. The complexity, functionality and budget for your project will determine the best solution. </p> <ol> <li><strong>App Store App</strong> - This is the name I’ve given to the most simple type of app. This is great for projects on a lower budget where most of the content is static. With this type of project, we create a basic HTML site using PhoneGap Build. PhoneGap Build is a cloud-based solution that turns your website into a mobile app for various platforms simultaneously (iOS, Android™, etc.). Content is grabbed off of one of your DNN pages and displayed within the app. The user interface is created as part of the HTML site.<br> <br> Using our <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revolution-900-push-notifications-offline-content-app-store-apps-510">Revolution product on the DNN store</a> gives you all the templates and instructions to create your own app store app. There is documentation included to walk you through the process step-by-step.<br> <br> The disadvantage of this solution is that it does not support dynamic content, user login, or push notifications.<br> <br> </li> <li><strong>App Store Web Apps</strong> – Using this solution, you can actually load your DNN site directly inside your app. You can still use PhoneGap Build to create apps for iOS and Android™ and to the end user, it looks just like a native app. Your DNN theme becomes your user interface which can be changed dynamically even after you publish your app.<br> <br> This solution supports dynamic content, user login and 3<sup>rd</sup> party modules but does not work will for push notifications.<br> <br> </li> <li><strong>Native Apps </strong>– Native apps by far offer the most flexibility but require a greater financial investment. With a native app, you can still load a DNN site directly inside your app but native apps allows us to register users for push notifications which can be sent out through your DNN site. This is part of our Revolution Premium solution on the DNN store. We’ve created apps where the footer navigation is native, but the content is all dynamic in DNN. This allows us to do things like create dynamic badges on icons within the footer.</li> </ol> <p>All of these are hybrid solutions that deliver the power of DNN to the mobile arena and make it easier than ever to create and manage mobile apps. To learn more about our Revolution products that provide you with out of the box templates for building immersive mobile experiences, <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revolution-900-push-notifications-offline-content-app-store-apps-510">visit our page on the DNN store</a>. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:37 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/ssl-implementation-best-practices-and-beyond SSL Implementation: Best Practices and Beyond <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/181/45/30645/ICG_ DNN Store Blog - Digital Security Secure Technology Code Lock System copy.jpeg?ver=2017-12-18-203642-603" style="max-width: 100%;"> </p> <h2>Security Should Be Website Job #1</h2> <p>Website design, responsiveness, apps, performance, and cloud are the sexy topics these days. They get a lot of attention and we’ve helped hundreds of customers accomplish each of them. But whenever we are working directly with business customers or in partnership with another developer, we always make sure that website security is in the must-have list. For us, it’s just not an option … it has to be a top priority. </p> <p>Having those kinds of conversations has become easier over the years. We’ve been writing and “preaching” about website security for years in <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/Resources/Blog">our blog</a> and through our series of <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/Resources/White-Papers">white papers and resource guides</a>. And every time the evening newscast leads with a story about a data breach or hacked website, the need to include security processes and practices in all aspects of website planning and maintenance becomes clearer. <strong>Fortunately, DNN is a great platform for implementing website security protocols.</strong> But where should you start? </p> <h2>Begin With SSL</h2> <p>Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a two-way encryption method that ensures that the site visitor and the website itself are the only ones participating in the conversation. The privacy of this conversation is ensured by a trusted, neutral third party – the Certificate Authority (CA) – that verifies the identity of the website so they can establish a secure, encrypted connection. </p> <p>We did some research for our <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/Resources/White-Papers">SSL implementation white paper</a> a few months ago, and we found that 67% of all active websites do not even implement the most basic levels of encryption. This one fact alone is astounding – especially since Google implemented search penalties for unprotected websites earlier this year. Other large browsers and search companies quickly followed suit. </p> <blockquote><strong>Key Takeaway: Implementing SSL security is no longer just a solid security best practice, it’s a business and marketing imperative. </strong> </blockquote> <p>SSL Certificates Are Not as Difficult as They Used to Be </p> <p>Fortunately, acquiring an SSL certificate has become relatively easy. There are dozens of CA companies who can help, including global providers Symantec and VeriSign, among others. In fact, the last few years has seen the rise of open source and community-supported CA projects as well. For example, <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">LetsEncrypt.org</a> is a community-supported CA that provides SSL certificates at no charge. It is sponsored by developers and business owners – people like you and us – and also by some of the biggest tech companies around. Corporate sponsors include Facebook, Google, Shopify, Automatic, Mozilla, and dozens of others – so the service has the kind of backing it needs to remain a great resource. </p> <h2>Best Practices for Implementing SSL Encryption</h2> <p>Once you have acquired your SSL certificate, here’s what you need to do: </p> <ul> <li><strong>Install your certificate</strong> as per platform instructions.</li> <li><strong>Test all page content for mis-matches</strong> – This means to ensure that all site content is secured by SSL, and there are tools to help you do this.</li> <li><strong>Force all pages to use SSL</strong> – In DNN you will find a setting to help you achieve this.</li> <li><strong>Set redirects</strong> – Links to previously unencrypted pages need to redirect to their newly encrypted counterparts. </li> <li><strong>Implement Strict Transport Security</strong> – prevents browsers from automatically lowering standards on certain requests. </li> <li><strong>Use Google Fetch via the Search Console</strong> – When going from non-encrypted connections to SSL, Google interprets this as a site migration even if the site has not moved from one server to another. This action will keep your analytics data and alerts functioning properly. </li> </ul> <blockquote><strong>Key Takeaway: Acquiring and installing your SLL certificate is not enough. Your site can still be unsecure, incur liability, and suffer search penalties unless you implement security best practices.</strong> </blockquote> <h2>Detailed Instructions, Code Samples, and Additional Security Best Practices</h2> <p>We have created a complete set of detailed instructions for each best practice listed above – including code samples – and put them in our white paper, titled “<strong>SSL Implementation and Website Security Best Practices</strong>.” In addition, it details three more best practices for basic website security beyond SSL. We have made this white paper available as a free resource to the community. </p> <p>On our <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/Resources/White-Papers">IowaComputerGurus white paper page</a> you will find this paper along with several other free guides and white papers covering DNN, DNN EVOQ, ASP.NET, and <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/Resources/Blog/Post/488/Why-ASP-NET-MVC-Core-Matters-for-Your-Website-and-Apps">MVC Core development</a> topics. And as always, <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/About-ICG/Contact-Us">if you have any questions or need any help</a> implementing SSL or other website security protocols … <a href="https://www.iowacomputergurus.com/About-ICG/Contact-Us">just ask</a>. We are always happy to help. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:76 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/a-dnn-module-that-helps-with-basic-seo-of-your-dnn-website A Dnn Module that helps with basic SEO of your Dnn website <p><img alt="DnnC SEO ToolBox" src="/Portals/0/Users/026/02/101402/prodSeoToolBox_large.jpg?ver=2017-12-18-150758-410" style="max-width: 100%; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" title="DnnC SEO ToolBox" />SEO for your website is one of the most important of the tasks when promoting your or your client’s websites. It can be very time consuming and tedious to do and is a never-ending task! </p><p>When we create sites for a client we found that it took allot of time to organize and add/change data for SEO, changing from 1 admin page to another, making sure that we used the correct amount of characters for the metadata, finding the right keywords, making sure that there was not in-line styling, image alt tags are used correctly, and the list goes on, so we thought we would make it easy and faster by creating the <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnc-seo-toolbox">DnnC SEO Toolbox</a></strong>. All basic SEO tasks in 1 place that is easy to use and undeerstand, visually seeing what you have done and have not and help with keywords and metadata. </p><p>So what did we end up with? The <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnc-seo-toolbox" target="_blank">DnnC SEO ToolBox</a></strong>! </p><p>What can you do with the <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnc-seo-toolbox" target="_blank">DnnC SEO ToolBox</a>?</strong>, allot and you can do it quickly in 1 place. </p><p><strong>For MetaData:</strong></p><ul><li>A tree view of all pages allowing you to see at a glance what pages have what metadata filled by using color coded icons.</li><li>A preview of how your site will be displayed in the Google results</li><li>A live counter of characters for the page title, meta description and keywords which can be set via the module settings. When you type text the counter automatically counts how many character you have used and give a signal when you reach the maximum.</li><li>Added a keywords suggestion tool to help with keywords. When you type a word, the tool will suggest accompanying suggestions.</li><li>Added a page friendly url changer for your URL’s of pages.</li></ul><p><strong>For SiteMaps:</strong></p><ul><li>A preview of the xml sitemap for the search engines</li><li>Settings for including hidden pages, page level based priorities, minimum priority for pages, excluding URL’s with a priority of…, and caching of the sitemap.</li><li>Submission of the sitemap to Google and Bing</li><li>A direct access button to go to your Google Webmaster tools and Bing webmaster tools accounts.</li><li>A verification code input field to verify your site.</li></ul><p><strong>Site Submission:</strong></p><ul><li>All the links are supplied to submit or site to Google and Bing, the URL fields will be automatically inserted into the appropriate boxes of Google and Bing.</li><li>Direct access to your webmaster tools accounts for Bing and Google.</li></ul><p><strong>SEO Analyzer:</strong></p><ul><li>A tree view of all pages for directly analyzing of all pages on your site.</li><li>Things that the module analyzes include: <ul><li>Checking for the Page title tags and the length of the title</li><li>Checking for a meta description tab and the length</li><li>Checking for a keywords tag and its length</li><li>Checking all images for the existence of an ‘alt’ tag</li><li>Checking for in-line style tags</li><li>H1, H2, H3 tags and if they are being used or not.</li></ul></li><li>All results give feedback on possible fixes and what you should do to improve on the results.</li></ul><p><strong>Google Analytics:</strong></p><ul><li>Give a place to add your Google Analytics codes and tags</li></ul><p><strong>Robot text editor:</strong></p><ul><li>A robot text editor to allow you to quickly change your robottext with various helpers to and to your robottext file.</li><li>Its quick to setup basic SEO for pages and the website.</li><li>It’s all in 1 place</li><li>It’s easy to use and understand</li><li>It informative with results</li><li>And helps with SEO for you and your client’s website</li></ul><p><span style="background-color: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This tool allows us to quickly setup the basic settings for SEO on our client’s websites, then hand it over to the client to continue to tweak the SEO settings of their website without worrying.</span></p><p>To find out more, please visit the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnc-seo-toolbox" target="_blank">DnnC SEO Toolbox</a> page and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnc-seo-toolbox" target="_blank">read more</a>. </p><p>You will also find a link to <a href="http://dnncserver.nl/portals/dnncsupportlicensing/Downloads/DnnC_SeoToolBox_01.00.03_Install.zip" target="_blank">download a demo</a> (<a href="http://dnncserver.nl/portals/dnncsupportlicensing/Downloads/DnnC_SeoToolBox_01.00.03_Install.zip" target="_blank">click here</a>) Give the demo a go, see what you think! </p><p align="center"><iframe frameborder="0" height="438" width="640" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/236287166?autoplay=1&amp;amp;loop=1&amp;amp;title=0&amp;amp;byline=0" ></iframe></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:75 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-store-blogging-guidelines DNN Store Blogging Guidelines <p><img alt="Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image" src="/Portals/0/Users/222/10/57310/Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image.jpg?ver=2017-12-07-141459-483" style="max-width: 100%; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" title="Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image" /></p><p>The DNN Store Blog should be a place where extension creators (both open source and paid products) can share information about new products, new releases, new services, offerings, promotionals, and timely information related to their products. </p><p>In order to ensure quality content, consistency, and to keep the direction and spirit of the blog in line I’m sharing some guidelines for posting your content on the DNN Store blog. The following guidelines will help ensure the blogs are a source of quality information for our ecosystem: </p><p><strong>DO:</strong></p><ul><li>Complete your vendor bio so that readers can learn more about you and/or your organization</li><li>Incorporate links to your products/services on the store in the blogs <ul><li>Be clear about the destination of the link. </li></ul></li><li>Include a summary (it’s required)</li><li>Include a summary image</li><li>Include images, screenshots, and visual queues in your blogs</li><li>Blogging about Open Source modules is acceptable and encouraged </li></ul><p><strong>DON’T</strong></p><ul><li>Speak negatively about any other vendors or products</li><li>Post more than 2 posts about a single extension, product, or service per month</li></ul><p><br /><br /></p><p>These guidelines will be updated as needed to ensure the store blog is being used as intended. </p><p>Are you an extension creator and want to blog on the store? Send an email to <a href="mailto:store@DNNSoftware.com">store@DNNSoftware.com</a> and we’ll get it lined up. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:74 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-store-blogging-guidelines DNN Store Blogging Guidelines <p><img alt="Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image" src="/Portals/0/Users/222/10/57310/Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image.jpg?ver=2017-12-07-141459-483" style="max-width: 100%; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" title="Store-Blogging-Guidelines-Summary-Image" /></p><p>The DNN Store Blog should be a place where extension creators (both open source and paid products) can share information about new products, new releases, new services, offerings, promotionals, and timely information related to their products. </p><p>In order to ensure quality content, consistency, and to keep the direction and spirit of the blog in line I’m sharing some guidelines for posting your content on the DNN Store blog. The following guidelines will help ensure the blogs are a source of quality information for our ecosystem: </p><p><strong>DO:</strong></p><ul><li>Complete your vendor bio so that readers can learn more about you and/or your organization</li><li>Incorporate links to your products/services on the store in the blogs <ul><li>Be clear about the destination of the link. </li></ul></li><li>Include a summary (it’s required)</li><li>Include a summary image</li><li>Include images, screenshots, and visual queues in your blogs</li><li>Blogging about Open Source modules is acceptable and encouraged </li></ul><p><strong>DON’T</strong></p><ul><li>Speak negatively about any other vendors or products</li><li>Post more than 2 posts about a single extension, product, or service per month</li></ul><p><br /><br /></p><p>These guidelines will be updated as needed to ensure the store blog is being used as intended. </p><p>Are you an extension creator and want to blog on the store? Send an email to <a href="mailto:store@DNNSoftware.com">store@DNNSoftware.com</a> and we’ll get it lined up. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:73 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-sharp-challenge-faster-website-or-1-000 DNN Sharp Challenge: Faster Website or $1,000 <p><a href="https://blog.dnnsharp.com/dnn-sharp-challenge-faster-website-or-1000"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Users/141/45/53645/faster-website-or-1000.png?ver=2017-12-06-134530-560" style="max-width: 100%; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" title="" /></a>We have the fastest most secure hosting for DNN at competitive pricing. Period. We call it Plant an App. Our idea at DNN Sharp was to create a service that includes VPS hosting, licensing, security and full support all around these. And it’s not just a service. We geeked on it until it became our obsession. You can now focus on growing your business while we maintain a solid technical foundation for you. </p><p>People become skeptical hearing us say it’s so fast. So here’s the deal: if we’re wrong then you get $1,000 (yes, that’s one thousand US$) that you can use to acquire any of our DNN Sharp products. But if we’re right, you commit to host your website with us. In terms of costs, we’ll either sign you up on our standard plan of $120/mo with Web Sharp licensing or create a custom plan that matches what you’re currently paying. </p><p>Before taking this challenge, make sure to also check our <a href="https://dl.dnnsharp.com/plantanapp/Plant%20an%20App%20-%20Security%20Specification.pdf">Security Specification</a> and <a href="https://dl.dnnsharp.com/plantanapp/Plant%20an%20App%20-%20Performance%20Specification.pdf">Performance Analysis</a>. </p><h2>Signup</h2><p>We require the following information to be able to conduct the performance analysis: </p><ul><li>A copy of the website files and database</li><li>A link to where the website is currently hosted</li><li>Current website setup (dedicated/VPS/shared hosting) </li><li>The price you are currently paying. We will keep this information confidential. It will help create a hosting plan that is comparable in terms of pricing if it doesn’t fit in our standard packages.</li><li>Instructions on setting up the copy of the website if needed. </li></ul><p>Please send the above information via email to <a href="mailto:sales@dnnsharp.com">sales@dnnsharp.com</a>. </p><h3>How will we measure performance</h3><p>In order to determine the performance gain, the following tools will be used: </p><ul><li><a href="https://tools.pingdom.com/" target="_blank">Pingdom Website Speed Test</a> from all 3 locations (US, Sweden, Australia).</li><li><a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/" target="_blank">Google Page Speed</a></li><li><a href="https://loadimpact.com/" target="_blank">Load Impact</a> to determine how page speed varies when user load increases.</li></ul><p>Both the live and the cloned website will be warmed up before running tests with these tools. Measuring results also means running the tests multiple times, eliminating results that are far of (which usually are an indication of something exceptional happening on the systems) and choosing best averages. </p><h3>How will we measure the security enhancements</h3><p>Security is also nearly always increased on Plant an App infrastructure. Although this campaign is focused on performance indicators, it will be good for you to know that the security is also enhanced. </p><p>The following steps will be involved in determining if security has improved: </p><ul><li>Port scan to see how well the server is protected</li><li>Analysis of the SSL certificates</li><li>Analysis of Security Patches</li><li>Analysis of DDoS protection capabilities</li></ul><p><br /></p><p>Ready to take on this challenge? </p><p>Read full <a href="https://blog.dnnsharp.com/dnn-sharp-challenge-faster-website-or-1000">Terms and Conditions</a> and email us at <a href="mailto:sales@dnnsharp.com">sales@dnnsharp.com</a>. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:72 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/critical-security-update Critical Security Update <p>The DNN Security team was recently informed of a security vulnerability in a third-party component suite that is used within DNN Products. It is critical that you follow the instructions provided in the link to ensure that your site isn’t compromised. </p><p>This vulnerability affects all versions since 5.2 of Evoq and DNN Platform. </p><p>There is a security Patch, available <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/services/customer-support/success-network/security-fix-june-2017">On the DNNSoftware website</a></p><p>The Patch only applies to versions 7.1.2 and higher. </p><p>Please refer to the linked page for more information. </p><p><br /></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:71 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/critical-security-update Critical Security Update <p>Our security team was recently informed of a security vulnerability in a third-party component suite that is used within DNN Products. It is critical that you follow the instructions provided in this email to ensure that your site isn’t compromised. </p> <p><strong>This vulnerability affects all versions of Evoq and DNN Platform.</strong> </p> <p>In order to protect your site, you will need to download and install the <a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/R00zzubNDb003020ZcSrad0" target="_blank">Security Patch</a> that is available from our website. You will install this package just like any other module in your site. Please follow the instructions in our <a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/ybrZuD2d0b0zSNd0zb00030" target="_blank">documentation center</a> for how to install an extension. </p> <p>Essential Resources: </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/R00zzubNDb003020ZcSrad0" target="_blank">Download the Security Patch</a></li> <li><a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/ybrZuD2d0b0zSNd0zb00030" target="_blank">Documentation for installing extensions</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Please do not wait to protect your site.</strong> It will only take a few minutes to install the patch. Our <a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/P000d0bZzN02ez0r0ucSbD3" target="_blank">Customer Support Team</a> is also available to address any questions that you may have. </p> <p><strong><u>FAQ</u></strong> </p> <p><strong>What versions of DNN products are affected by this issue?</strong><br> All DNN products since DNN 5.2 are affected. However, this patch only applies to versions 7.1.2 and higher. </p> <p><strong>What if I’m on a version older than 7.1.2?</strong><br> There are other security vulnerabilities in versions prior to 7.1.2. This patch alone will not protect your site. You must upgrade to a newer version for this patch to work properly. Evoq customers may contact support for more information. </p> <p><strong>How do I install this patch?</strong><br> You will install this patch just like any other module or extension. Please follow the steps outlined in our <a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/ybrZuD2d0b0zSNd0zb00030" target="_blank">documentation center for installing modules</a>. </p> <p><strong>What will happen if I don’t install this patch?</strong><br> This patch is necessary to ensure that your site is secure. Failure to install this patch may compromise the security of your site. </p> <p><strong>Is it possible that my site has already been compromised?</strong><br> We recommend using <a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/b0000bNzrZf0S2bd030Duzd" target="_blank">DNN’s Security Analyzer</a> to check if your site has been compromised. Evoq customers may contact customer support for more details. </p> <p><strong>How do I access the Security Analyzer tool?</strong><br> In version 9, you can access the Security Analyzer from Settings &gt; Security &gt; Security Analyzer. Older versions should download and install the Security Analyzer tool. <a _22_="" href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/Xbz02eN0d000SrzuD03bZg0" target=" _blank" id=">https://github.com/DNNCommunity/SecurityAnalyzer/releases</a> </p> <p><strong=">Where is the Security Bulletin about this issue?<br> We will post a security bulletin within the next week. We want to ensure that DNN customers have time to patch their sites properly.</a> </p><a _22_="" href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/Xbz02eN0d000SrzuD03bZg0" target=" _blank" id=">https://github.com/DNNCommunity/SecurityAnalyzer/releases</a> </p> <p><strong="><strong>What if I have more questions?</strong><br> Evoq customers may </a><a href="http://go.dnnsoftware.com/n/P000d0bZzN02ez0r0ucSbD3" target="_blank">create a support ticket</a> to ask additional questions. Other DNN users may send an email to urn:store:1:blog:post:70 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/data-incident-notice Data Incident Notice <p>In April of this year, DNN discovered that an unauthorized individual accessed the server on which the DNN Store is hosted. DNN has been taking this matter very seriously, and immediately launched a thorough investigation to determine the scope and extent of the intrusion, and to determine whether any personal information was accessed or acquired. </p> <p>At this time, DNN has no evidence that any personal information was accessed or acquired, or that personal information has been or will be used for an improper purpose. In addition, we remind store customers and vendors that DNN does not store full credit card numbers from our customers. Despite the fact we are not aware of evidence that personal information was accessed or acquired, we are notifying DNN Store customers and vendors of the incident out of an abundance of caution and so they can be on the lookout for any suspicious activity. </p> <p>After learning of the intrusion, DNN took immediate steps to contain the incident and secure its systems. DNN has removed the malware the intruder used to obtain access, upgraded and updated its password policies, and further hardened the security all web servers including the DNN Store. Although no system is ever 100% protected against ever-sophisticated cyber-intrusions, DNN is committed to making sure its systems are as secure as they can be in this environment. </p> <p>Again, although we have no evidence at this time that personal information was accessed or acquired, it is always a good idea for everyone to remain vigilant for incidents of fraud and identity theft, including by regularly viewing account statements and monitoring free credit reports. Further questions or concerns can be raised by customers or vendors through the Dnn Store Help Desk. </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:69 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-daniel-mettler-owner-2sic-internet-solutions Vendor Interview: Daniel Mettler, Owner @ 2sic Internet Solutions <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://2sxc.org/" target="_blank"><img alt="2sxc Module" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/2sic-logo.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Daniel Mettler</strong>, Owner @ 2sic Internet Solutions, the creator of <a href="http://2sxc.org/" target="_blank">2sxc</a>, a free content management module for DNN.</p><p>During the interview we talk mostly about his open source initiative with 2sxc. He walks us through 3 demos. We also spoke about his jungle origins and how DNN should get ready for the future.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2Rm-UqfqwMs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 0:45 - What's in it for you!</li> <p><li>2:15 - Basic Demo</li> </p><li>4:15 - What is the problem 2sxc addresses</li> <p><li>5:15 - The learning curve of 2sxc</li> </p><li>11:15 - User feedback and new releases of 2sxc</li> <p><li>17:00 - Why free?</li> </p><li>20:45 - 2sxc replacing the need for many module vendors</li> <p><li>22:00 - Advanced Demo </li> </p><li>28:45 - 2sxc Apps</li> <p><li>30:15 - Multilanguage Demo</li> </p><li>32:00 - The origins of 2sxc</li> <p><li>34:45 - Past: All started in the Jungle</li> </p><li>40:15 - What excites you today in terms of technology?</li> <p><li>43:00 - Multiple hats</li> </p><li>44:45 - DNN and the future</li> <p><li>46:30 - Closing words</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:68 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-stephen-lim-owner-revindexcom Vendor Interview: Stephen Lim, Owner @ Revindex.com <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-74-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store" target="_blank"><img alt="Revindex Storefront" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/revindex.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Stephen Lim</strong>, Owner @ Revindex.com, the creator of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-74-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store" target="_blank">Revindex Storefront</a>, an ecommerce solution for DNN and an Evoq Preferred Product.</p><p> During the interview we have mostly discussed about his product as well as his passion for e-commerce and the complexities of working in the ever-changing e-commerce space.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RkOANeY-3ZU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p> <br> <strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 2:00 - Past: Getting started with DNN</li> <p><li> 4:30 - Focus on e-Commerce</li> </p><li> 8:00 - Custom Implementations</li> <p><li> 9:15 - Help picking the right e-Commerce solution</li> </p><li> 11:45 - Target audience</li> <p><li> 13:30 - Challenges of an e-Commerce implementation</li> </p><li> 16:15 - <a href="http://demo.revindex.com" target="_blank">Product Demo</a></li> <p><li> 34:00 - <a href="http://www.revindex.com/Trial" target="_blank">Free Hosted Trial</a></li> </p><li> 35:15 - Product release process</li> <p><li> 37:00 - Getting support from Revindex</li> </p><li> 38:15 - Getting up to date with e-Commerce</li> <p><li> 39:15 - New trends</li> </p><li> 40:45 - New features coming up</li> <p><li> 42:45 - Closing words and Discount!</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:67 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-salar-golestanian-founder-salarocom Vendor Interview: Salar Golestanian, Founder @ Salaro.com <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/survey-module" target="_blank"><img alt="Salaro" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/salaro.jpg" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Salar Golestanian</strong>, Founder @ <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/salaro-team" target="_blank">Salaro</a>, a Web Design and Development agency that has been creating Themes and Modules for DNN since 2004. A very recent module they have created is called <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/survey-module" target="_blank">Survey Module</a>, and the name says it all.</p><p> Salar has been part of the DNN Core Team on its early days up until 2009.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SGnqH27dKlc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p> <br> <strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 1:45 - The Team @ Salaro</li> <p><li> 6:30 - Modules/Themes</li> </p><li> 8:45 - The Physics PHD</li> <p><li> 9:45 - Past: Core DNN Team</li> </p><li> 11:30 - Focus on DNN</li> <p><li> 13:45 - Product Showcase - <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/survey-module" target="_blank">Survey Module</a></li> </p><li> 23:00 - How to get support?</li> <p><li> 25:45 - New initiatives</li> </p><li> 28:45 - Feedback to DNN</li> <p><li> 30:30 - Closing words</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:66 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-jason-lichon-founding-partner-bluebolt-solutions Vendor Interview: Jason Lichon, Founding Partner @ BlueBolt Solutions <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/bravo-search-v-11" target="_blank"><img alt="Bravo Search" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/bravo-logo.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Jason Lichon</strong>, Founding Partner at <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/packflash" target="_blank">BlueBolt Solutions</a>, a DNN Gold Partner who's product line include <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/packflash-constellation-suite-46" target="_blank">PackFlash Constellation Suite</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/bravo-search-v-11" target="_blank">Bravo Search</a>.</p><p>During the interview we have mostly discussed about Bravo Search, their high performance search solution for organizations with complex content indexing needs.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GgadduSgUjE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 0:45 - The Team @ BlueBolt</li> <p><li> 3:00 - DNN Gold Partner</li> </p><li> 4:30 - PackFlash Constellation Modules</li> <p><li> 9:00 - Bravo Search Solution</li> </p><li> 11:00 - Bravo Search: Price Point and Audience</li> <p><li> 12:45 - Which problem is Bravo Search solving?</li> </p><li> 16:45 - Bravo Search Demo - <a href="http://www.assh.org/" target="_blank">American Society for Surgery of the Hand</a></li> <p><li> 29:15 - How to get support?</li> </p><li> 30:15 - New innitiatives</li> <p><li> 33:30 - New trends</li> </p><li> 35:30 - Closing words</li></ul><p><br><strong>Clip:</strong></p><ul> <p><li><a href="https://youtu.be/b54yrtg9iNk" target="_blank">Bravo Search Demo</a> (11m 53s)</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:65 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/point-of-sale-just-got-easier- Point of Sale Just Got Easier! <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/194/98/21698/dnn-pos-slide-home.png"></p><p>If you have an eCommerce site, chances are you have thought about selling your products in a brick and mortar, or at a trade show. Maybe you’ve already started. With all of the ins and outs of credit card processing, mobile Point of Sale can seem like just another headache. But it doesn’t have to be. </p><p>SmithCart now offers an app that is available on the&nbsp;<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smithcart-pos/id1031399125?ls=1&amp;mt=8" target="_blank">Apple Store</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smithconsulting.smithcart&amp;hl=en" target="_blank">Google Play</a>. Forget entering your products online and again in your POS system. Now, you only have to manage your inventory one time. You can take payments through a mobile card reader on your phone or tablet, and it supports cash sales too! You can download the app for free and get started today.</p><p>“The world of payments is at the start of a process of change more fundamental than ever before. New business models and partnerships with more flexible solutions having payment acceptance at their heart are the order of the day, but the key ingredient that weaves through the rapidly evolving landscape is mobility; the ability to accept payments at the customer's convenience and at a greater variety of locations than ever before.” - Andrew Copeman, Aite Group</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:77 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-chris-wylie-ceo-accord-lms Vendor Interview: Chris Wylie, CEO @ Accord LMS <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/accord-lms-scorm-elearning-solution" target="_blank"><img alt="Accord LMS" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/accord-logo.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Chris Wylie</strong>, CEO at <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/accord-lms-scorm-elearning-solution" target="_blank">Accord LMS</a>, an e-learning solution for DNN which has Evoq Preferred stamp of approval. The LMS space has been the primary focus of Chris and his organization since 2008.</p><p>During the interview we have mostly discussed about Accord LMS as well as e-learning in general.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_V54Zoal6hA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 1:00 - The Team Behind Accord LMS</li> <p><li> 3:00 - What is LMS?</li> </p><li> 8:15 - What is SCORM?</li> <p><li> 11:45 - Past: How long and why LMS?</li> </p><li> 15:15 - Keeping the company focused on the LMS space</li> <p><li> 18:30 - Custom implementation for Clients</li> </p><li> 23:00 - Pricing</li> <p><li> 27:15 - Target Audience</li> </p><li> 30:30 - Client Showcase</li> <p><li> 35:15 - Demo</li> </p><li> 47:30 - Client Training</li> <p><li> 50:45 - Future: Trends in the LMS space</li> </p><li> 55:30 - Plug: Discount Offer</li> <p><li> 56:45 - Closing words</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:23 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-will-strohl-co-owner-hotcakes-commerce Vendor Interview: Will Strohl, Co-owner @ Hotcakes Commerce <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy" target="_blank"><img alt="Hotcakes Commerce" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/hotcakes-logo.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Will Strohl</strong>, Co-owner and Director Of Product Development at <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce</a>, an e-commerce solution for DNN. Will has a long history on the DNN ecosystem and being a leader at Hotcakes Commerce is one of many hats he wears in the DNN community.</p><p>During the interview we have mostly discussed about Hotcakes Commerce as well as the future of e-commerce and his many roles in the DNN space.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9aWhL4lILwQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 4:00 - The Team Behind Hotcakes Commerce</li> <p><li> 7:45 - Hotcakes Origins</li> </p><li> 10:00 - Solving the steep learning curve problem</li> <p><li> 14:45 - Custom Implementations and Partners</li> </p><li> 16:45 - Mobile Apps</li> <p><li> 21:00 - Pricing Strategy</li> </p><li> 25:45 - Market Strategy</li> <p><li> 27:15 - Exposing DNN to new Audiences</li> </p><li> 29:00 - Why no "Lite" version?</li> <p><li> 30:45 - Demo</li> </p><li> 36:15 - Showcase / <a href="http://startwithwhy.com" target="_blank">startwithwhy.com</a> / <a href="http://clabbergirl.com" target="_blank">clabbergirl.com</a> / <a href="http://tptherapy.com" target="_blank">tptherapy.com</a></li> <p><li> 41:15 - New Release Process</li> </p><li> 43:00 - Getting Support for Hotcakes</li> <p><li> 44:30 - Tips of how to pick a module</li> </p><li> 47:30 - News Trends on Ecommerce</li> <p><li> 49:45 - The Future of Hotcakes Commerce</li> </p><li> 54:00 - Closing words</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:22 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-peter-donker-creator-of-dmx Vendor Interview: Peter Donker, creator of DMX <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/bring2mind/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank"><img alt="Document Exchange" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/bring2mind.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Peter Donker</strong>, creator of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/document-exchange-61/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Document Exchange</a>, a document management solution for DNN. Peter plays many roles within the DNN ecosystem. He is a DNN MVP, the President of DNN-Connect and he is now a book author as he co-authored the Professional DNN 7 book recently released. He is&nbsp;also part of many steering committees within the DNN space.</p><p> During the interview we have discussed about his module, DMX, as well as his passion for community building.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FvDiTFlUbh8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p> <br> <strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 2:30 - DMX Origins </li> <p><li> 5:45 - Single focus on DMX</li> </p><li> 12:30 - The use case of DMX</li> <p><li> 15:15 - DMX Lite</li> </p><li> 18:00 - Not too many Document Management modules out there</li> <p><li> 21:15 - Evoq Certification</li> </p><li> 22:25 - Unusual DMX implementation</li> <p><li> 24:45 - DMX new release process</li> </p><li> 30:00 - DMX Demo</li> <p><li> 37:15 - A talk about DNN-Connect</li> </p><li> 41:00 - How to engage with DNN-Connect</li> <p><li> 45:30 - Author on the new Professional DNN 7 book</li> </p><li> 47:15 - Closing words</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:64 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-nigel-allan-and-mark-mcavoy-creators-of-cart-viper Vendor Interview: Nigel Allan and Mark McAvoy, creators of Cart Viper <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cart-viper-330-ecommerce-store/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank"><img alt="Cart Viper" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/cart-viper.png" style="width:200px"></a></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Nigel Allan</strong> and <strong>Mark McAvoy</strong>, creators of the ecommerce module <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cart-viper-330-ecommerce-store/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Cart Viper</a>. They are also the creators of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/event-planner-registration-module-340/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Event Planner &amp; Registration</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/resource-management-pro-100/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Resource Management Pro</a> modules.</p><p>During the interview we have discussed about their partnership, the ecommerce space on DNN and new trends they see coming up that we should pay attention.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3xrAb3msRWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 1:15 - The partnership</li> <p><li> 2:30 - Where did the interest for ecommerce come from? </li> </p><li> 3:54 - "We were fed up with the ecommerce modules for DNN"</li> <p><li> 6:00 - The focus - What else they do</li> </p><li> 7:30 - Challenges of developing an ecommerce solution</li> <p><li> 8:45 - Stripe - What is that?</li> </p><li> 10:45 - Cart Viper: The audience</li> <p><li> 12:00 - Cart Viper: Release process</li> </p><li> 13:30 - Cart Viper: Training</li> <p><li> 15:00 - Best way to get support</li> </p><li> 16:30 - Tips about picking modules</li> <p><li> 19:45 - Cart Viper: Templating</li> </p><li> 22:00 - Showcase: <a href="http://www.mainsgillfarm.co.uk" target="_blank">mainsgillfarm.co.uk</a>, <a href="http://www.daigger.com" target="_blank">daigger.com</a>, <a href="http://www.actionhandling.co.uk" target="_blank">actionhandling.co.uk</a>, <a href="http://www.paramparacashmere.com/" target="_blank">paramparacashmere.com</a></li> <p><li> 23:45 - Trends</li> </p><li> 27:15 - Keeping up to date</li> <p><li> 29:00 - What's next?</li> </p><li> 31:15 - Promo: 15% off for Cart Viper on the DNN Store - Promo Code: CV15 - Good until the end of June.</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:63 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-tracy-wittenkeller-from-t-worx Vendor Interview: Tracy Wittenkeller from T-WORX <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="T-Worx" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/t-worx.png" style="width: 200px;"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Tracy Wittenkeller</strong>, the Owner of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/t-worx/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">T-WORX</a>. They create premium DNN themes that you can find on the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/t-worx/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNStore</a>. Tracy is a highly regarded member of the DNN community, a DNN book author and the editor of the DNNMagazine.</p><p> During the interview we have discussed about his journey on the UI/UX arena as well as where he finds inspiration for design and new trends he sees coming up.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NKxyRDKkzwQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p> <br> <strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 2:00 - The basics: Where are you and who's the team?</li> <p><li> 6:00 - What's the focus of T-WORX?</li> </p><li> 7:15 - Where did the interest for design come from? </li> <p><li> 9:45 - Being an Author and DNN Books</li> </p><li>14:30 - Design in DNN coming a long way </li> <p><li>17:15 - Strategy / Pricing / Value / Quality of T-WORX</li> </p><li>23:00 - Inspiration - <a href="http://themeforest.net/" target="_blank">Theme Forest</a></li> <p><li>24:15 - Best way to get support from T-WORX</li> </p><li>25:45 - Showcase: <a href="http://www.aerokool.com/" target="_blank">AeroKool Aviation Corporation</a></li> <p><li>28:00 - Tips: Picking a skin and common mistakes when applying</li> </p><li>36:15 - The <a href="http://www.dnnmagazine.com" target="_blank">DNNMagazine</a></li> <p><li>42:00 - Keeping up to date and new trends</li> </p><li>47:15 - What's next? - <a href="http://bindtuning.com/" target="_blank">BindTuning</a></li> <p><li>52:15 - Closing - New T-WORX site powered by <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce</a></li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:62 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/accord-lms-and-live-forms-added-to-the-evoq-preferred-products-program Accord LMS and Live Forms Added to the Evoq Preferred Products Program <p>Designed to give vendors a way to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and to allow Store customers to make purchases with greater confidence, the<a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program">Evoq Preferred Products Program was launched in November 2014</a>, with <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/-6-new-products-added-to-the-evoq-preferred-products-program">6 additional products added in March 2015</a>.Products included in the program have been tested to ensure a basic level of quality and compatibility with DNN Platform and Evoq solutions, including Evoq OnDemand.Additionally, they are created by vendors who have a history of developing mature products and providing quality support.</p><p>Today, two additional products have been added to the program, Accord LMS and Live Forms, bringing the total to 23 products now included in the <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/evoq-preferred-product">Evoq Preferred Products Program</a>.<span></span></p><ol> <li><span></span>Developed by Interzoic Media LLC, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/accord-lms-scorm-elearning-solution">Accord LMS</a> is a SCORM compliant, customizable, and mobile friendly, web based Learning Management System that includes ecommerce, content management, and social tools. <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Accord LMS.JPG"></li><li>Mandeeps.com’s <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-forms">Live Forms</a> is an intuitive form builder.One customer commented in a recent review: “This product is advertised as 'easy to use...create forms in minutes' and this is exactly correct.It is truly 'drag and drop' but also allows for customization.And, like all Mandeeps products, the default styling is very clean and elegant." <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Live Forms Contact Form.JPG"></li></ol><p>If you are interested in having your modules or themes included, please contact <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a> with the following information:</p><ul> <li>The URL of the product you wish to have included in the program</li><li>Links to any other product listing pages you have for this product (on your own website, for example)</li><li>Whether you are using/intend to use the DNN Store Helpdesk to handle customer support, or, if not, the URL and a description of the help desk system you use</li><li>Please attach results of<a target="_blank" href="http://evs.dotnetnuke.com/"> Extension Verification Service (EVS)</a>testing. The package must not have Errors and must be marked Azure compatible.</li></ul><p>If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the Evoq Preferred Products program, please contact <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a>.If you have questions for the developers of any of these products, please use the “Ask a Question” link on the product listing (pictured below) to contact them directly.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Ask A Question.jpg"></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:61 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-q1-2015-top-modules-and-themes ​ Q1 2015 Top Modules and Themes <p>Are you looking for modules or themes to extend your DNN site? &nbsp;A great place to start is often the top seller list, as these products have been used and tested by many. &nbsp;With the first quarter of 2015 wrapping up last week, now is a good time to look at the most popular products on the DNN Store during that period.</p><p>Since the DNN Store supports products that are sold at a price as well as free products, we’ll look at the top modules and themes by number of units sold and by total revenue during the last three months.</p><p><strong>Top Themes (units sold)</strong><span></span><span></span></p><ol><li><span></span><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hammerflex-responsive-skin-for-dotnetnuke" target="_blank">HammerFlex Responsive Skin for DotNetNuke</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/salaro-responsive-solution-free" target="_blank">Salaro Responsive Solution</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/acumen-business-parallax-skin-unlimited-colours-bootstrap-3-responsive-control-panel" target="_blank">Acumen Business ParallaxSkin</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/vignahara-silver" target="_blank">Vignahara Silver</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/eds-theme-and-module-collection-21-4-professional-themes-and-powerful-modules" target="_blank">EDS Theme and Module Collection</a></li></ol><p><strong>Top Modules (units sold)</strong></p><ol><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-71-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds" target="_blank">EasyDNNnews - Blog, Article, Events, Documents, Classifieds and RSS feeds</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/2sxc-665-responsive-amazing-content" target="_blank">2sxc responsive amazing content</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnngallery-66-image-gallery-video-gallery-and-audio-gallery" target="_blank">EasyDNNgallery - Image gallery, video gallery and audio gallery</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-36-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn" target="_blank">Action Form - The Easiest and Most Flexible Form Builder for DNN</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-directory-authentication-v2" target="_blank">Active Directory Authentication</a></li></ol><p><strong>Top Themes (by revenue)</strong></p><ol><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/eds-theme-and-module-collection-21-4-professional-themes-and-powerful-modules" target="_blank">EDS Theme and Module Collection</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto" target="_blank">Porto</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-033-v400-responsive-themes-retina-megamenu-bootstrap-32" target="_blank">Unlimited DNN Theme 033</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-048-v310-responsive-multi-purpose-retina-bootstrap-3" target="_blank">Unlimited DNN Theme 048</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-046-v230-responsive-themes-retina-bootstrap-3" target="_blank">Unlimited DNN Theme 046</a></li></ol><p><strong>Top Modules (by revenue)</strong></p><ol><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce - Ecommerce made easy</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-36-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn" target="_blank">Action Form - The Easiest and Most Flexible Form Builder for DNN</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-71-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds" target="_blank">EasyDNNnews - Blog, Article, Events, Documents, Classifieds and RSS feeds</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/app-sharp-20-rapid-application-development-tools" target="_blank">App Sharp - Rapid Application Development Tools</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-ecommerce-store-shopping-cart" target="_blank">Smith eCommerce Store - Shopping Cart</a></li></ol><p>If you’d like to learn more about these products, check out their reviews, contact their developers through the “Ask a Question” link on the product listing, or download a free trial if available.</p><p>Have you purchased a quality product that didn’t make the list? &nbsp;Leave your recommendations in the comments below.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:60 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-happy-1st-birthday-to-the-dnn-store-blog ​ Happy 1st Birthday to the DNN Store Blog <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Birthday Candles 2.jpg"></p><p>On March 26, 2014 we added a blog to the DNN Store; its first entry was <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/try-them-before-you-buy-them-5-modules-that-offer-free-trials">Try Them Before you Buy Them: 5 modules that offer free trials</a>. &nbsp;Our hope was that the Store Blog would give vendors, customers, and DNN Corp. employees a way to share useful and relevant information with Store customers and the larger community of DNN users. &nbsp;Since that time we have averaged 1 blog every week and would like to thank those that have shared information with our visitors:</p><ul><li>Aderson Oliveira</li><li><span>Cart Viper</span></li><li>Christoc</li><li>DNN Corp.</li><li>DNN Sharp</li><li>DNNCon</li><li>DNNGo</li><li>Ernst Peter Tamminga</li><li>Glanton Solutions</li><li>Hans Lenting</li><li>Hotcakes Commerce</li><li>Mandeep Singh</li><li>Mitchel Sellers</li><li>Smith Consulting</li><li>Weweave</li></ul><p>These blogs have covered a variety of subjects from tips for choosing modules/themes to vendor interviews, information on pricing, and Store features. &nbsp;There are many blogs that, although having been written several months ago, remain very relevant to Store customers. &nbsp;Here are 10 we would recommend taking a look at if you haven’t already (or revisiting if you have):</p><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/10-requirements-i-look-for-when-picking-a-skin">10 Requirements I Look for When Picking a Skin/Theme</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/3-features-every-dnn-module-must-have">3 Features Every DNN Module Must Have</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program">Announcing the Evoq Preferred Products Program</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/azure-compatibility-for-dnn-store-modules">Azure Compatibility for DNN Store Modules</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cloud-compatible-licensing-schemes">Cloud Compatible Licensing Schemes</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/module-performance-set-yourself-apart">Module Performance: Set Yourself Apart</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/reviewing-your-purchases-creating-reviews-benefits-customers-vendors-and-yourself">Reviewing your Purchases: Creating reviews benefits customers, vendors, and yourself</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/top-6-reasons-why-you-should-keep-your-dnn-modules-up-to-date">Top 6 Reasons Why you Should Keep your DNN Modules Up to Date</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/what-is-my-approach-for-a-new-project">What is my Approach for a New Project?</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/why-should-you-list-your-open-source-extensions-on-the-dnn-store">Why Should you List your Open Source Extensions on the DNN Store?</a></li></ol><p>We hope to have even more contributions from Store vendors and customers in the Store Blog’s 2<sup>nd</sup> year! Contact us at <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a> if you have something you’d like to share. &nbsp;Vendors, we’d love to learn more about your products and the unique ways they can be used on customer sites, as well as your tips for module/theme development. &nbsp;Customers, tell us about the products you work with, how you select them, and how you implement them on your sites.</p><p>Even if you’re not interested in writing a blog, let us know what you’d be interested in reading or learning more about!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:16 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-chad-nash-from-data-springs Vendor Interview: Chad Nash from Data Springs <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="Data Springs" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/data-springs.png" style="width: 200px;"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Chad Nash</strong>, the Owner of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/data-springs-inc/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Data Springs</a>. They have created various famous and top selling modules like <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dynamic-forms-50/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Dynamic Forms</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dynamic-registration-50/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Dynamic Registration</a>.</p><p> During the interview we have discussed about his innovative marketing strategies as well as his view on the future of DNN and how we should engage the next generation of developers.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OdtX44dFV1I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p> <br> <strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li> 0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li> 0:30 - Where is Annie the Pig?</li> <p><li> 2:00 - The basics: Where are you and who's the team?</li> </p><li> 4:15 - What's the focus of Data Springs?</li> <p><li> 7:30 - The secret origins</li> </p><li>10:30 - How to come up with new products/solutions?</li> <p><li>12:15 - Marketing innovation strategies</li> </p><li>16:45 - Best way to get support from Data Springs</li> <p><li>19:30 - What to add to the next module release?</li> </p><li>23:30 - The balance between functionality and complexity</li> <p><li>26:00 - The target audience</li> </p><li>27:45 - Evoq Preferred will come</li> <p><li>30:45 - Data Springs showcase</li> </p><li>33:00 - The impact changes to come in DNN during 2015</li> <p><li>36:30 - What's next?</li> </p><li>39:00 - Plugs, final words</li> <p><li>40:30 - Thoughts: Bringing the next generation of developers to DNN</li> </p><li>47:00 - Closing</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:15 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-6-new-products-added-to-the-evoq-preferred-products-program ​ 6 New Products Added to the Evoq Preferred Products Program <h5>In November 2014, we <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program">announced the launch of our Evoq Preferred Products Program</a>. &nbsp;As Evoq Preferred Products have been tested to ensure a basic level of quality and compatibility with DNN, the program was created to allow Store vendors a way to distinguish themselves in the marketplace while enabling customers to purchase with greater confidence.</h5><h5><br></h5><p>Six additional products have now been added to the program:</p><p><span></span></p><ol> <p><li><span></span> <p><p> DNN Sharp’s <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-grid-20-touch-friendly-and-responsive-grids-for-dnn-data-rich-applications">Action Grid</a> provides a simple and flexible way to display data from multiple sources, including <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-36-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn">Action Form</a> forms, database table, and SQL query. &nbsp;This module for creating touch-friendly and responsive grids offers a 30 day free trial.<br> <br> <img style="width: 836px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Action Grid screen shot.jpg"> </li> </p><li>Developed by Bite the Bullet, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cart-viper-320-ecommerce-store">Cart Viper</a> is an ecommerce store that supports the sale of physical or digital goods and can even be used for events and donations. &nbsp;Every license comes with free lifetime upgrades to all future releases, and a 14 day free trial is available. <p><p> <img style="width: 839px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Carp Viper Screen Shot.jpg"> </li> <p><li>Created by NA Development, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/event-planner-registration-module-330">Event Planner and Registration</a> turns your site into a fully functioning event booking system, and the product’s responsive design allows users to register and pay for events from a variety of devices. &nbsp;A 14 day free trial is available. <p><p> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Event Planner Screen Shot.jpg"> </li> </p><li>Also developed by DNN Sharp and offering a 30 day free trial, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/redirect-toolkit-22-redirects-segmentation-and-workflow-builder">Redirect Toolkit</a> includes tools for building redirects, segmentation, and workflows based on criteria such as user information, roles, referrer, page parameters, and host or browser information. <p><p> <img style="width: 855px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Redirect Toolkit Screen Shot.jpg"> </li> <p><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-71-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store">Revindex Storefront</a> ecommerce solution supports thousands of products and unlimited orders. &nbsp;With a free trial available, it additionally allows for configuration of a multi-vendor marketplace, enabling 3rd party sellers to list their products for sale. <p><p> <img style="width: 865px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Revindex Screen Shot.jpg"> </li> </p><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/url-adapter-14-the-next-generation-url-builder-and-rewriter-for-dnn">URL Adapter</a> is DNN Sharp’s URL builder and URL rewriting engine. &nbsp;Website owners who are interested in optimizing their site can use the 30 day free trial to test the product and its simple, modern administration. <p><p> <img style="width: 884px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/URL Adapter Screen Shot.jpg"> </li></ol><p> There are currently 21 <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/evoq-preferred-product">Evoq Preferred Products</a>, and all have not only been tested for compatibility with the latest version of DNN, but are developed by vendors who have a history of creating mature products and providing valuable and timely support to their customers.</p><p> If you are interested in having your modules and themes included in the Evoq Preferred Products Program, please contact store@dnnsoftware.com with the following information:</p><ul> <p><li>The URL of the product you wish to have included in the program</li> </p><li>Links to any other product listing pages you have for this product (on your own website, for example)</li> <p><li>Whether you are using/intend to use the DNN Store Helpdesk to handle customer support, or, if not, the URL and a description of the help desk system you use</li> </p><li>Please attach results of <a href="http://evs.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">Extension Verification Service (EVS)</a><a href="http://evs.dnnsoftware.com/"></a> testing. The package must not have Errors and must be marked Azure compatible. If you have questions about EVS results, please let us know.</li></ul><p> If you have questions or suggestions, please contact <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:14 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/pricing-products-on-the-dnn-store Pricing Products on the DNN Store <h4><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Pricing Products on the DNN Store.JPG"></h4><h4>Here are a few additional details to give you an idea of the range of product prices: over 100 of the extensions available on the Store are free, and many more can be purchased for less than $50; still others cost several hundred dollars, with the most expensive product currently listed on the DNN Store costing $9,200. In fact, even different versions on the same product can vary by several hundred dollars.</h4><p><img style="width: 650px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Most sold products, feb. 2015.JPG"></p><p><img style="width: 742px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Product Pricing, Quote 1.JPG"><br><br>As the Store is a marketplace for 3rd party extensions, the price of products sold here is completely determined by the vendors who list their products on the Store, so we asked the developers of several popular products to explain how they determine their prices:</p><p><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp" target="_blank"></a></p><p><img style="float: left; width: 144px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/logo-dnnsharp.png" alt="logo-dnnsharp"></p><h4><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp" target="_blank">DNN SHARP</a></h4><p>We spent a great deal of time and resources working on our pricing and on licensing options. The first reason for this was the fact that there’s no standard model in DNN. So we had to reach out to customers, listen, negotiate, and finally standardize, but we are very happy with where we are today because we can answer to a variety of clients. Our licensing options are suitable to consultants, small biz owners, web app developers, enterprises and others.</p><p>Once we found a model that worked, we just reused it over and over again. It might sound a bit strange, but we had more clients complaining that our pricing is too low, which sent the wrong message. That’s because they looked at each product individually, and so did we. Brainstorming again, we came up with <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/app-sharp-20-rapid-application-development-tools" target="_blank">App Sharp</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/web-sharp-20-essential-modules-for-building-websites" target="_blank">Web Sharp</a>, which are basically the same individual products bundled together, so we have much a bigger product that made sense both in terms of integrated functionality and pricing.<br><br>To sum it up, there are two parts in our pricing. There’s the product price, which is a combination of development cost, operations, market price and psychology. The other part is the support which our clients value highly. There are so many possibilities with our modules, and without good support they would be dissipated, but it can get quite time-consuming to come up with solutions to all requirements that come to our support team.<br><br>Again, we analyzed and discussed with our clients and concluded that it would send a bad message to include pricing for everyone to cover those really complex support cases. So instead, we came up with premium support options. We did it on the same grounds, to try and satisfy a wider audience, so we started with 2 options: time based and incident based.<br><br>I’m sure there is a science in relation to pricing, but what worked for us was constant experimentation and negotiation to find the right balance.” – <em>DNN Sharp</em></p><p><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-ecommerce-store-shopping-cart" target="_blank"></a></p><p><img style="float: left; width: 144px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/logo-smithcart.png" alt="logo-smithcart"></p><h4><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-ecommerce-store-shopping-cart" target="_blank">SMITH ECOMMERCE STORE</a></h4><p>“Here at Smith Consulting, we take a detailed and dedicated approach to pricing our products. Whether it be software or services, we believe in fair pricing, while still remaining competitive across our industry. It is a delicate balance of science and art.<br><br>We first take into consideration the cost of the product. While software doesn't require packaging or shipping costs, we still have to factor in our materials. That can be anything from equipment, office fees, rent expenses and utilities. We have to account for the labor spent not only on developing and QA for our modules, but the support that our customers have come to know and love.<br><br>We have to also analyze our sales trends based on previous years and project the realistic number of licenses we can expect to sell based on what our customers are willing to pay, and what other similar vendors are asking their customers to pay.<br><br>The final determining factor is what is included with a module license. We offer three months of free upgrades from the date of purchase for all of our customers. We have an aggressive release schedule and our customers can get the latest software with the latest features at no extra charge. And all of our modules come with free support through our help desk, which includes answering basic questions and pointing users in the right direction. For more hands-on support, we offer what we call Premium support, which includes phone support and logging in to your portal to configure settings and troubleshoot. We have a fully staffed on-site team ready to answer any questions from pre-sales to complex configurations.” – <em>Smith Consulting</em></p><p><img style="float: left; width: 149px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" alt="" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/logo-eventcal.png"></p><h4><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/event-planner-registration-module-330">EVENT PLANNER and REGISTRATION</a></h4><p>"The price is determined by time and effort that has gone into developing the module. The Event Planner was first launched in 2010, and since then we have released many new versions with increasingly complex features (Razor script support, responsive layout, multi-user registration, etc). As we have released new versions we have adjusted the module price to reflect the feature set that is supported.<br><br>Our licensing model works on a portal basis, so depending on the license type you purchase (portal or host) you can either install on a single portal or multiple portals on a single DNN instance. Included in the license price is access to all the module resource material as well as first class support and life time upgrades to new versions of the module. Imagine never having to pay to upgrade your module again! The licensing fee also contributes to future product development and research into new features." - <em>NA Development</em></p><p>Thanks to DNN Sharp, N A Development, and Smith Consulting for sharing this information! We hope this article has shed some light on how developers determine the prices of the products they sell here on the DNN Store, and we hope this brings attention to some things to look for when making a purchase on the Store. However, price is only one consideration when choosing a product; here are some additional <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/3-simple-criteria-for-choosing-modules-at-the-dnn-store" target="_blank">criteria for choosing a product on the DNN Store</a>.</p><p><img style="width: 734px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Product Pricing, Quote 2.JPG"></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:13 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/show-me-your-skin- Show me your skin? <p> A new default theme for DNN 7.5?</p><p> Good looks is all that matters for a first impression. And that applies for new installs of DNN as well. DNN has done some great and less than great jobs in the past. And now, with DNN 7.5 around the corner, I would like put out a call for action for <strong>skin (theme) designers</strong> in the community:&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: center;"> <strong>Show off your theme talent by helping us to show off the all new DNN 7.5 release?</strong></p><p> We are looking for a <strong>Wow! factor</strong> for every new install, DNN deserves that. Can you do something for that by showing your talent and by providing an exiting theme? If so, please read on, I have put together some guidelines for such a new theme.</p><h3>Essential</h3><p> <strong>Completely open source</strong>&nbsp;- No commercial components can be used, all source must be included so that the theme is freely available for everyone who is interested.&nbsp;<br> <strong>DNN standard components</strong>&nbsp;- Use only standard DNN installed components if possible, base the theme on the components that are distributed with the platform, e.g. the menuing system.<br> <strong>Responsive</strong>&nbsp;- That should not be a surprise.<br> <strong>Browser independent</strong>&nbsp;- Correctly working on all current browsers.<br> <strong>Install package </strong>-&nbsp;Complete DNN extension install&nbsp;package, so that the theme can be easily distributed and installed.<br> <strong>Home, Inner, 404,&nbsp;Admin</strong> -&nbsp;At least a Home, Inner and (optional) a 404 and Admin page theme, the theme must be optimal (minimal overhead, maximal screen usage) for admin use as well.<br> <strong>Sample images</strong> -&nbsp;Optimized page theme image samples in the theme package.<br> <strong>Current technology</strong> -&nbsp;HTML5 compliant, CSS 2.1 or higher compliant, use of the jQuery version supplied with the platform if needed.<br> Site template with sample pages&nbsp;-&nbsp;In order to get the best impression possible, we advise to create a sample site with 2 pages (home page, inner page) displaying content that only consists of images and Text/HTML modules. <br> <strong>Deadline</strong> - Ready April 15, 2015 (to be in line with the planning of the release of 7.5).</p><h3>Optional</h3><p> <strong>Color configurator</strong> -&nbsp;An option to configure the theme interactively for changing colors.<br> Pane configurator&nbsp;-&nbsp;An option to configure the theme interactively for changing the pane layout.</p><h3>What no to do</h3><p> <strong>No additional components</strong> - Do not include additional modules, it is about the theme, not about banners, news modules, galleries, etc.<br> <strong>Advertisement</strong> - Do not use the theme you supply as advertisement, the package you supply must be an example of a generic DNN site, see DNN 7.4 default site template as an example.</p><h2>What we offer in return</h2><p> <strong>Default in 7.5&nbsp;</strong>- Should your theme be selected as the all new version theme, it will in included in the install of DNN 7.5 as default skin.<br> <strong>Recognition</strong>&nbsp;- We will include appropriate recognition in the release notes and blogs<br> <strong>Eternal fame</strong> - Well, maybe not eternal, but for some time for sure.</p><h2>Interested?</h2><p> If you are interested, just create your splendid theme and submit the install package with all source to me (ernstpeter.tamminga AT dotnetnuke.com). If you have an existing theme that you think is a real candidate, that is OK as well.&nbsp;</p><p> Any questions left? Ping me at my twitter account (@ernst_peter).&nbsp;</p><p> Please note: you must be willing to sign a Contributor License Agreement. A great way to make all source available is to have your theme as a&nbsp;project on CodePlex or a repository on GitHub, both under the rules of a MIT license. If you need any help with this I can assist you.</p><p align="right"><em> This blog is crossposted from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155174/show-me-your-skin" target="_blank">my blog on&nbsp;dnnsoftware.com</a>.</em></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:12 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-4-modules-for-managing-media-on-your-dnn-site ​ 4 Modules for Managing Media on your DNN Site <p>Think about all the websites you visit in a day:</p><ul> <li><span></span>You may start your morning checking a favorite news site, Facebook, and Twitter. &nbsp;You read a few articles on the news site, retweet an interesting blog on Twitter, and comment on a friend’s Facebook status.</li><li>There are unlimited options for the sites you may need to visit at work - you research a competing company; you explore restaurant options to which to take a new client; you search for potential vendors for an upcoming event; you read industry blogs. </li><li>In your personal time, perhaps you shop for a new pair of running shoes, investigate vacation spots, and search for a contractor to complete an upcoming kitchen renovation.</li></ul><p>These are just a few examples. &nbsp;Most of us will visit dozens of websites every day. &nbsp;But how do you choose which ones get more attention than others (and thus which restaurant or vendor you select, which shoes you purchase, or which hotel or contractor you choose)?</p><p>The site must be attractive and interesting (without being cluttered, as you will need to easily find the content you are looking for). &nbsp;A few weeks ago, we looked at <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/-5-tools-for-creating-and-sharing-content-on-your-dnn-site">5 Tools for Creating and Sharing Content on your DNN Site</a>; this week, we’ll look at 4 modules that can help create visual interest in your site:</p><p><em>The modules below all have an average review of at least 4.9 stars and pass <a target="_blank" href="http://evs.dotnetnuke.com/">Extension Verification Service (EVS)</a> without error.</em></p><ol> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnngallery-645-image-gallery-video-gallery-and-audio-gallery">EasyDNNgallery</a>, now on version 6.4.5, is an advanced solution for managing and displaying images, video, and audio files. &nbsp;It can be used for galleries/pages maintained by a web site owner or for community sites, for which users upload their own images. This popular module integrates with EasyDNNnews and EasyDNNrotator and offers a free trial.</li><li>Used on over 10,000 DNN sites, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/ultra-media-gallery-984-with-free-slider-collection">Ultra Media Gallery</a> offers many configuration settings and 10 sliders to meet diverse needs. &nbsp;Customers appreciate the professional appearance, ease of use, and frequent enhancements. <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/4 Media Modules review 1.jpg"></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnsmart-effect-collection-421-responsive-gallery-slide-show-banner-content-32-effects-in-1">DNNSmart Effect Collection</a> includes 32 image effects in one package, including gallery, banner, slider, and accordion. &nbsp;Interested DNN users can take advantage of the free trial.</li><li>Created by popular developer mandeeps.com, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-gallery-v306">Live Gallery</a> allows creation of simple yet powerful image galleries with support for nested albums, drag-n-drop sorting, dynamic image resizing, automatic thumbnails, and more. &nbsp;You can find out why customers like the one below appreciate this module by downloading the free trial. <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/4 Media Modules review 2.jpg"></li></ol><p>Do you use any of these solutions on your website? &nbsp;Share your experiences in the comments below.What solutions other modules do you recommend for managing media on your DNN site?</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:11 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-5-tools-for-creating-and-sharing-content-on-your-dnn-site ​ 5 Tools for Creating and Sharing Content on your DNN Site <p>Chances are, if you’ve recently been involved in building a website for a business, you’ve heard about content marketing (whether you know it or not). &nbsp;According to the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/">Content Marketing Institute</a>, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience &mdash; and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”</p><p>Further, “It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent.”</p><p>And creating meaningful content for target audiences is not just for businesses; schools, churches, gyms, government agencies, non-profit groups, and organizations of all sizes are tasked with the challenge of continuously creating valuable content that informs their audiences. &nbsp;With the website at the center of most interactions between a business or organization and its customers/users, it is important to have tools within the site to easily create and distribute content, and as a DNN user, you have many options:</p><ol><li><span></span>Now on version 7.0, the <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-70-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds">EasyDNNnews</a> module for publishing and managing articles, news, events, press releases, and editorials has a 4.99 star rating from customers, like the one below, and offers a free 15 day trial.<br><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/5 tools image 1.jpg"></li><li>Also offering a free trial, Mandeeps.com’s <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-blog-v300">Live Blog</a> includes multi-author support, an advanced comment system, and integration with many services such as Twitter, Disqus, Akismet, Google ReCaptcha, Feedsburner, and Live Writer.</li><li>In addition to using <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/digarticle-63-articles-news-blogs-custom">DigArticle</a> for blogs or news, the custom fields and template features allow users to adapt this module for additional needs including biographies, idea sharing, magazine sites, business directories, obituaries, or real estate listings, with a 15 day free trial available.</li><li>With a 5 star review average and a 60 day free trial, you will want to be sure to check out <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-article-79-news-blog-rss-slideshow-catalog-media-survey-real-estate-job-listing-dnn-73">CrossArticle</a>, which can also be used for news, articles, blogs, surveys, and more customized listings such as cars, real estate, and product catalogs.</li><li>Receiving positive reviews for both product quality and support, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnarticle-106">DNNArticle</a>’s features include unlimited levels of categories, content moderation, email notifications, comments and rating, with a 15 day free trial available.<p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/5 tools image 2.jpg"><br><br>Have you used any of these modules? Share your feedback in the comments below.</li></ol> urn:store:1:blog:post:10 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-will-morgenweck-from-dnn-corp Vendor Interview: Will Morgenweck from DNN Corp. <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="Evoq 8" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/evoq8_Logo.png"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Will Morgenweck</strong>, the VP of Product Management for <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-corp/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNN Corp</a>. He was the founder of Active Modules which was acquired by DNN Corp. back in 2011. Back then, he had created very popular social modules including Active Forums and Active Social.</p><p>During the interview we have discussed about his past with Active Modules, his current role with the DNN Corp. and what's new and wonderful on <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/exciting-new-features-in-evoq-8" target="_blank">Evoq 8</a>, which was just released. We have talked about the internal processes they go through to decide what to include in a new release as well as the many new features of Evoq 8. We also came to terms with our bloody past :).</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kBRetrOEkTw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe><p><br><strong>Interview Breakdown:</strong></p><ul> <p><li>0:00 - Introductions</li> </p><li>1:11 - A funny story - Coming to terms with a bloody past :)</li> <p><li>6:30 - Active Modules acquisition</li> </p><li>8:40 - What does a "VP of Product Management" do?</li> <p><li>10:00 - A look at priorities and processes</li> </p><li>14:30 - Selling to Marketing as opposed to IT</li> <p><li>17:30 - The Evoq 8 audience</li> </p><li>19:50 - Evoq Social (no more) and Evog OnDemand</li> <p><li>21:50 - Evoq Pricing and Packages</li> </p><li>25:40 - Evoq 8 - The New PersonaBar</li> <p><li>29:00 - Evoq 8 - Less Complexity</li> </p><li>31:10 - Evoq 8 - The Editing Process</li> <p><li>33:50 - Evoq 8 - Analytics</li> </p><li>36:50 - Evoq 8 - Real-time Personalization</li> <p><li>40:00 - Evoq 8 - The Connectors</li> </p><li>44:50 - Evoq 8 - Advocate Marketing</li> <p><li>46:30 - Evoq 8 - Final Considerations</li> </p><li>47:50 - Future Trends</li> <p><li>50:00 - Closing</li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:9 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-ian-sampson-from-glanton-solutions Vendor Interview: Ian Sampson from Glanton Solutions <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="Glanton Solutions" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/glanton.png"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Ian Sampson</strong>, the Technical Director and co-founder of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/glanton-solutions/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Glanton Solutions</a>. They are well-known on the DNN space for their knowledge and expertise on Active Directory integration with DNN and they have created <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-directory-complete-bundle-v2/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">a bundle of products</a> around that, which is already part of the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program" target="_blank">Evoq Preferred Products</a> list.</p><p> During the interview we have discussed about DNN in context with Enterprise Software and how they help mid and large size corporations by being their DNN implementation partners. He name-dropped a few very recognizable brands and organizations that use their products and services including Harvard, BP and the US Department of Defense.</p><p> Check out this video interview and get to know more about Ian and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/glanton-solutions/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Glanton Solutions</a>. We have talked about the evolution of DNN and what they are most excited about the soon to be released Evoq 8.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/f91Q0211RtA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:8 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/what-makes-a-top-product- What makes a top product? <p>If you missed the Store Newsletter two weeks ago, we sent out a list of the top-selling modules and themes of 2014 (by revenue from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014). &nbsp;The top 5 of each include:</p><p><strong>Top-selling Modules</strong></p><ol><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-70-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds" target="_blank">EasyDNNnews</a><span></span></li><li><span><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce</a></span></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnngallery-645-image-gallery-video-gallery-and-audio-gallery" target="_blank">EasyDNNgallery</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dynamic-forms-50">Dynamic Forums</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-35-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn" target="_blank">Action Form</a></li></ol><p><strong>Top-selling Themes</strong></p><ol><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto" target="_blank">Porto Responsive Theme</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-033-v330-responsive-themes-retina-megamenu-bootstrap-32" target="_blank">Responsive Theme 033</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/generic-new-ultra-powerful-dnn-skin-ecommerce-sliders-porfolio-blog--megamenu" target="_blank">Generic Responsive Theme</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-029-v320-responsive-themes-retina-5-homelayouts-bootstrap-32" target="_blank">Responsive Theme 029</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-responsive-dnn-theme-045-v250-retina-shortcodes-bootstrap3-megamenu-themes" target="_blank">Responsive Theme 045</a></li></ol><p>As you can see, EasyDNNnews by <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/easydnnsolutionscom" target="_blank">EasyDNNsolutions</a> topped the list for modules; while Porto Responsive Theme by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/mandeepscom">Mandeeps.com</a> took the #1 spot for themes. &nbsp;What makes a product a top-seller? &nbsp;Let’s look to reviews of the top-selling module and theme to see why customers rave about them.</p><p>EasyDNNnews currently has 73 reviews, with an average review of 4.99 (out of 5) stars. &nbsp;Now on version 7.0, the product and its vendor have established a positive reputation within the DNN Community. &nbsp;Although Porto has not been in the marketplace as long, it is created by a vendor with a history of developing quality modules for DNN, and with an average of 4.92 stars, this theme has joined the group of trusted extensions from Mandeeps.com.</p><p><strong>Quality Product – The module or theme and its features work as advertised. &nbsp;It is easy to use, and simplifies building/designing your DNN site.</strong></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 1.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 2.png"></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Quality Support – The product’s developer provides documentation, offers quick and comprehensive support, and uses customer feedback to improve the module/theme.</strong></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 3.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 4.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 5.png"></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Flexibility/Customizability – The product offers many options, allowing customers to create unique implementations.</strong></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 6.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 7.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review 8.png"></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>What do you look for when making a purchase here on the Store? &nbsp;Share your thoughts on what else makes a top product in the comments below! </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:7 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/new-school-knowledge-transfer New-School Knowledge Transfer <p> Here we are, starting off a new year with limitless information at our fingertips. With technology evolving faster than we could have ever imagined a few decades ago, things that used to take hours now take mere minutes. For example, encyclopedia research has given way to search engines, pagers to SMS and faxes to emails. But there is one specific innovation that truly has changed everything, and it celebrates its tenth birthday next month. We should really take a minute to appreciate YouTube. With DNN tutorials becoming increasingly more available, our industry will never be the same. </p><p> With a few clicks, we can access countless videos. Not only is it a convenient way to watch funny videos of hamsters eating burritos, or listen to songs on repeat&mdash;YouTube is a powerful educational tool. Without leaving my desk I can learn how to change a tire, how to brew the perfect cup of coffee or how to build a website. Yeah, you read that right. The possibilities are endless.</p><p> While YouTube is a fairly new tool in the Internet's tool shed, that's no reason not to take full advantage of this modern marvel. Several vendors on the DNN store are already using YouTube as a way of transferring knowledge to long-time customers and DNN novices alike.</p><p> Here at Smith Consulting, we recently gave our YouTube channel a makeover, and we are really excited about it. We have new, up-to-date video tutorials covering several aspects of our module from basic setups to complex configurations. And if you haven't used SmithCart yet, you can get a good idea of the ins and outs of the module. (We also offer a free trial, more on that <a href="https://www.smith-consulting.com/Products/FreeTrial.aspx">here</a>). You can view our full channel at the link below. Show some love by subscribing. If we haven't covered a topic you'd like to see, let us know. More videos are on their way!</p><p> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/SmithConsultingInc">https://www.youtube.com/user/SmithConsultingInc</a></p><p> Enjoy some YouTube today. Watch videos of cute animals. Research DNN tutorials. Upload your own DNN tutorials. Check out our channel. But most importantly, learn something. We live in an amazing era with information all around us. “Learning never exhausts the mind.” &mdash;Leonardo da Vinci</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:6 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​cloud-compatible-licensing-schemes ​Cloud Compatible Licensing Schemes <p>Many vendors in the DNN Store implement their own custom licensing schemes. This is a diverse collection of schemes which vary on both what the license is made for, and how that is enforced technically. Diversity in this case means strength – a compromised scheme from a single product wouldn’t mean all products are affected, and vendors can choose a model which best suits their business model and practice.</p><p>The introduction of different cloud providers for implementing DNN Installations has brought with it a number of challenges for vendors in the DNN ecosystem. Initially, a lot of the challenges were about making sure products installed and ran in cloud environments. Cloud-deployed DNN installs are a mature product area, and many customers are turning to cloud providers like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services as a source of flexible hosting.</p><h2>EVS Testing</h2><p><a href="http://evs.dnnsoftware.com/" target="_blank">EVS</a> was created as a general quality checking tool, which also explicitly checks for Microsoft Azure compatibility where it can. This is an important first step to ensuring an Extension is compatible with Azure. However, there are things that EVS cannot check. EVS cannot check anything that happens at ‘run time’ rather than at installation time.</p><p>One of those conditions is the licensing scheme that a Vendor product may be using. In general, these shouldn’t be affected by running in a cloud environment, but some schemes may be affected. The reason for this is that many environmental variables change during the normal operation of a cloud-based site. Many of these variables are static in an On Premise deployment at a dedicated hosting facility, and have been adopted by Vendors as a way of locking software to a specific level of use.</p><h2>DNN Environment Variables</h2><p>Licensing schemes often read environmental variables about a DNN installation which help determine both the uniqueness and scale of an implementation. </p><p>The following table shows how environmental variables may be impacted in a cloud environment, making them unsuitable as the basis for a licensing scheme in a cloud environment.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/023/59/110359/Licensing table 2.JPG" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; width: 705px; background-color: initial;"></p><h2>‘Phone Home’ Licensing Schemes</h2><p>Some vendors may implement a ‘Phone Home’ scheme whereby software contacts an external licensing server to determine if it is still a current licence. </p><p>It’s impossible to give a direction to the broad amount of possibilities. Any Vendors implementing a ‘phone home’ licensing system must be careful to ensure that the network communications being used still work inside a cloud environment, which may have many ports and services switched off by default, with the customer unable to change those settings to accommodate.</p><p>While licensing schemes of this type are useful and powerful, it’s important that they are maintained and robust, and provide a way for customers to deal with a scenario where the Vendor licensing server goes offline for any reason. It’s important to provide a fallback mode in this case.</p><h2>Evoq Preferred Products </h2><p>The&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/evoq-preferred-product" target="_blank">Evoq Preferred Products</a> list includes products suitable for use with Evoq products in all deployment scenarios, including cloud deployment in the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-in-the-cloud" target="_blank">Evoq OnDemand</a> environment.</p><p>Candidate products for the Evoq Preferred Products must meet the following conditions for licensing schemes under normal operating conditions.</p><ul> <p><li>No changes to product operation should be visible to end users of the product </li><li>A message to administrative or host users is permitted</li><li>License re-activation in response to environmental changes is fully automated and immediate</li></ul><p>Normal operating conditions include scaling of the site resources (adding/removing more servers), redeploying of the site to new resources and stopping/suspending/restarting the site. Non-payment of a subscription renewal or using the product outside the license conditions (e.g., adding a new site in a site-restricted licence)</p><p>Unacceptable licence behaviour in response to the cloud environment changing include:</p><ul> <p><li>Stopping the product from working (e.g., Enquiry form stops accepting enquiries)</li><li>Showing a visible licensing message to end-users of the product (e.g., showing a red warning message to blog visitors)</li><li>Requiring human intervention to re-activate a product (e.g., requiring an administrator to relicense when the server name changes)</li></ul><p>The above list doesn’t apply to violations of the licensing scheme by the customer (e.g., using the product on a different domain name).</p><p>Most Vendors already have licensing schemes that work well with Cloud environments and provide a good model for ensuring compliance with licensing conditions without interfering with customer usage. It’s important for all DNN Store Vendors to be aware of the diverse set of environments that products get deployed in, and be sure that licensing schemes work in all scenarios.</p><p>Is there an environment variable you use or have seen used, and is not in the above list? Please share via the comments.</p><p><em>**This article was written for the DNN Store Blog by Bruce Chapman, Product Manager at DNN Corp.</em></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:5 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-david-smith-from-smith-consulting Vendor Interview: David Smith from Smith Consulting <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="Smith Consulting" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/smith_logo.png"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>David Smith</strong>, the president of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/smith-consulting/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Smith Consulting</a>. They have created a very popular ecommerce solution for DNN called <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-ecommerce-store-shopping-cart/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">SmithCart</a> which is already included within the "<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program" target="_blank">Evoq Preferred Products</a>" list.</p><p>During the interview I have asked about some examples of websites that are using their ecommerce module and here are a few of them that really showcase what can be done with SmithCart:</p><ul> <p><li><a href="https://www.naturessleep.com/pillows/vitex-gel-memory-foam-pillow/" target="_blank">Nature's Sleep</a> - A global manufacturer and distributor of specialty sleep products.</li> </p><li><a href="https://www.spemco.com/Products" target="_blank">SPEMCO</a> - Specialties manufacturing company.</li></ul><p> Check out this video interview and get to know more about David and his company <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/smith-consulting/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Smith Consulting</a>. We have talked a lot about many different aspects of the current state of ecommerce, online payments in general and new trends. He was also very insightful regarding my questions about PCI compliance, its requirements and business implications. I'm sure you will pick some great nuggets of information about ecommerce from our conversation. I, for one, picked up quite a lot!</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GmZtMzUrXmU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:4 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/happy-holidays-for-e-commerce-vendors-overall Happy Holidays for E-Commerce Vendors Overall <p> <img src="http://hotcakescommerce.com/Portals/0/Users/204/hcc-heart-800x339.png" alt="Hotcakes Commerce loves our customers!"></p><p> Every year, it’s the same wonderful pattern of excitement and stress that we love to hate. We decorate our houses, offices, and trees. We go to company holiday parties. We make plans to see (or not see) family and friends. We decide what our budgets are and buy presents. Every year, one of these seems to be shifting dramatically. Next year, will you be ready?</p><h3> Black Friday &amp; Cyber Monday Improved! </h3><p> Some people did their normal thing of shopping early either in person or online during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Did you participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday? If you did, you might have been one of the people that helped <a href="https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/11/27/shoppers-gobble-shopping-deals-thanksgiving" target="_blank">retailers like IBM, Adobe, and others increase sales up to 32% higher than the same day last year</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/11/30/merry-and-mobile-holiday-weekend-web-retailers" target="_blank">on Thanksgiving Day alone, e-commerce sales went over $1 billion</a>, and <a href="https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/11/25/williams-sonoma-sells-more-online-stores-q3" target="_blank">overall during Q3 Williams-Somona sold more online than in their brick and mortar stores</a>, for the first time ever.</p><h3> Some Weren't Prepared </h3><p> It wasn’t all good news though. Larger retailers such as Staples and Rue La La saw their sites begin to slow down early in the morning, while <a href="http://fortune.com/2014/11/28/best-buys-website-down/" target="_blank">others like Best Buy surprisingly were down altogether</a>. They simply were not ready for the traffic that was <a href="https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/11/21/e-retailers-get-jump-discounts-and-black-friday-promotions" target="_blank">brought in by their marketing departments</a> - but there’s more than one side to why.</p><h3> Mobile Devices Finally Overtake Desktop </h3><p> Probably the most interesting statistics about the Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday online sales was in mobile. Many e-retailers reported that as much as a third of their online sales came from mobile devices, but <a href="https://www.internetretailer.com/2014/11/20/hold-phone-66-time-spent-e-retail-mobile" target="_blank">more than 66% of the time customers are spending on e-commerce sites is using mobile devices</a>. Walmart alone says that <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/02/walmart-com-reports-biggest-cyber-monday-in-history-mobile-traffic-at-70-over-the-holidays/" target="_blank">over 70% of their website traffic came from mobile devices</a>!</p><p> Yeah&hellip; Remember that marketing line you keep hearing about when mobile is expected to topple desktop? &nbsp;If you sell online, it’s already here. Are you ready for it?</p><p> Everyone has been hearing the same warning for years now. Mobile first. Make sure your customers can have a great experience using a mobile phone. Even <a target="_blank" href="http://hotcakescommerce.com/Community/Blog/tabid/61/cid/1113/Default.aspx">we told you last year</a>. Yada, yada, yada&hellip;</p><h3> You Can Serve Mobile Devices Today </h3><p> We took this issue seriously from day one. This is why you can already provide an exceptional experience to your customers today if you’re using Hotcakes Commerce. Every single view a customer will see comes out-of-the-box responsive - that’s fancy techie talk for: your customers can shop from end to end using their phone or tablet without your designers and developers lifting a finger.</p><p> If you haven’t heard it already, we believe that e-commerce should be easier&hellip; For EVERYONE!</p><h3> Get Your Hotcakes Now for 20% Off! </h3><p> If you’re in the holiday spirit, I hope that you’re ready for us to let you know one more great fact about this year’s season of giving&hellip; For the rest of the month, you can purchase Hotcakes Commerce for a whopping <strong>20% off</strong> of the standard retail price by using coupon code <strong>HOLIDAY2014</strong> during checkout. This is our way of thanking you all for helping us have an amazing year in 2014. Hurry&hellip; Get your licenses now and save. &nbsp;Click the banner below!</p><p> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy?r=78057F7E7B704F66AC55" target="_blank"><img src="http://hotcakescommerce.com/Portals/0/Users/204/HotcakesHolidayDNNstorebanner700x100.png" alt=""></a></p><p>This blog entry is&nbsp;<a href="http://hotcakescommerce.com/Community/Blog/tabid/61/cid/2535/Happy-Holidays-for-E-Commerce-Vendors-Overall.aspx" target="_blank">cross-posted from our e-commerce website</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:59 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/track-events-in-realtime-and-historical-with-dnn-google-analytics-advanced Track events in realtime and historical with DNN Google Analytics Advanced <p> DNN comes with a built-in module "Google Analytics" for web analysis. You can find it under Admin &gt; Google Analytics in every DNN installation. Setting it up is easy: Just enter your Google Analytics Tracking ID and your page views will be tracked. You can optionally disable tracking of admins (which is quite useful as you probably don't want to distort your reports). Evoq Content - DNN's enterprise version - comes with "Google Analytics Professional". In addition to DNN's standard module, the Professional version features options for segmentation. <br> <br> However, DNN and Evoq are limited to page view tracking. Tracking events such as downloads, search requests, and dead links (404) is not possible with either of them. This is why we developed <a href="https://weweave.net/s/dnn-google-analytics-advanced" target="_blank">DNN Google Analytics Advanced</a>.</p><p> Below you can find information about how to install DNN Google Analytics Advanced in your DNN environment and a short introduction about the events that will (automatically) be tracked after the setup is complete.</p><p> <strong>Setting up DNN Google Analytics Advanced</strong></p><p> Installing DNN Google Analytics Advanced is easy, it just takes the following steps:</p><ul> <p><li><a href="https://weweave.net/s/dnn-google-analytics-advanced/download" target="_blank">Download the latest version</a> of the module from weweave.net.</li> </p><li>You can try the module for free on localhost and *.local-domains. If you want to use it on a production site, you can easily purchase a license key by buying the module in <a href="https://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-google-analytics-advanced" target="_blank">DNN Store</a>.</li> <p><li>Install the module under Host &gt; Extensions (as usual).</li> </p><li>As DNN Google Analytics Advanced extends DNN's standard Google Analytics module, please enter your Google Analytics Tracking ID under Admin &gt; Google Analytics.<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdmin-300x167.png" alt="2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdmin-300x167"><br><a href="https://weweave.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdmin.png" target="_blank">Full-size view</a></li> <p><li>Set up your (purchased) license key under Host &gt; Google Analytics Advanced.<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdvnacedLicenseKey-300x157.png" alt="2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdvnacedLicenseKey-300x157"><br><a href="https://weweave.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsAdvnacedLicenseKey.png" target="_blank">Full-size View</a></li></ul><p> That's it. All supported events will be tracked in realtime now. You can view these events under Real-Time &gt; Events. Historical events can be viewed under Behavior &gt; Events.</p><p> Need information about Google Analytics' Events? <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033068?hl=en" target="_blank">Click here</a>.</p><p> <strong>Tracking downloads</strong></p><p> All downloads are tracked in realtime without configuration - independent from the site or module they are contained in.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTracking-300x162.png"><br><a href="https://weweave.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-11-22_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTracking.png" target="_blank">Full-size View</a></p><p>The following properties are sent to Google Analytics in the tracking events:</p><ul> <p><li>Event Category: Download</li> </p><li>Event Action: <p><ul> <p><li>DigitalAssets: File was downloaded via the Digital Assets module (click right on file and select "Download").</li> </p><li>LinkClick: (Protected) file was downloaded via the LinkClick handler (download links using the pattern <a href="http://your-domain.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XXXXXXXX&amp;portalid=X)">http://your-domain.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=X...</a>.</li> <p><li>Standard: (Non-protected) file was downloaded via a direct link.</li> </ul></li> <p><li>Event Label: File name (incl. relative path) of the downloaded file.&lt;/li&gt;</li></ul><p> <strong>Tracking search requests</strong></p><p> <strong></strong>All search requests submitted from the search page and from the quick search in the header bar are tracked in realtime without configuration - independent from the site or module they are contained in.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2014-11-27_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTrackingSearch-300x191.png"><br><a target="_blank" href="https://weweave.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-11-27_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTrackingSearch.png">Full-size View</a></p><p>The following properties are sent to Google Analytics in the tracking events:</p><ul> <p><li>Event Category: Search</li> </p><li>Event Action: <p><ul> <p><li>Preview: Search request was submitted via quick search in header bar.</li> </p><li>Standard: Search request was submitted via search page.</li> </ul></li></ul><ul> <p><li>Event Label: Query string</li></ul><p> <strong>Tracking 404 requests (resource not found / dead link)</strong></p><p> All 404 requests are tracked in realtime without configuration - independent from the site or module they are contained in.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2014-11-27_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTrackingNotFound-300x169.png"><br><a href="https://weweave.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-11-27_GoogleAnalyticsRealtimeEventTrackingNotFound.png" target="_blank">Full-size View</a></p><p>The following properties are sent to Google Analytics in the tracking events:</p><ul> <p><li>Event Category: Not Found</li> </p><li>Event Action: Referrer (if known) or "No Referer" - useful for finding the source of dead links.</li> <p><li>Event Label: URL that produces the 404 error.</li></ul><p> <strong>More information</strong></p><p> From time to time, we publish some HOWTOs and tips in our <a target="_blank" href="https://weweave.net/blog/">blog</a>. If you have any questions, feel free to <a target="_blank" href="https://weweave.net/s/contact">contact us</a>.</p><ul> <p><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-google-analytics-advanced" target="_blank">DNN Google Analytics in DNN Store</a></li> </p><li><a href="https://weweave.net/s/dnn-google-analytics-advanced" target="_blank">DNN Google Analytics Advanced Product Page</a></li> <p><li><a href="https://weweave.net/s/dnn-google-analytics-advanced/download" target="_blank">Download free evaluation version of DNN Google Analytics Advanced</a></li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:58 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​improving-product-reviews-on-the-dnn-store ​Improving Product Reviews on the DNN Store <p> Few people would argue with the&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/reviewing-your-purchases-creating-reviews-benefits-customers-vendors-and-yourself" target="_blank">importance of customer reviews</a>; not only does creating an online review of a product aid future customers, it can help the product’s developer target things that need improvement, and can ultimately benefit the reviewer by making his/her requests for enhancement known.</p><p> On the DNN Store, customers are emailed 30 days after making a purchase to request that they review the purchased product(s). However, despite having over 2000 transactions on the Store each month, the average number of product reviews posted by customers in the same time frame is much lower, only about 100.</p><p> I presented this information in a session at DNNCon, and it was suggested that the review system could be simplified and improved in order to encourage more Store customers to review their recent purchases.</p><p> The current rating systems asks customers to select a star rating (1-5) and enter text to elaborate on their review, as pictured below.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Add a review 2.JPG"></p><p>As one might expect, a range of reviews result.</p><ul><li>Some are very brief.<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Ex 1.2.JPG" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: initial;"></li><li>Others give a little more information.<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Ex 2.2.JPG" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: initial;"></li><li>While still others give a full explanation of the review and the customer’s experience with the product.<br><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Ex 3.2.JPG"></li></ul><p> It is these detailed reviews that give future customers the information they need to buy with confidence. However, in today’s busy world, such extensive reviews are not the norm. As we begin to think about how we can improve the review system, we have a few questions for you:</p><ol><li>How can we simplify product reviews, so that you are more inclined to share your experience with a product with others?</li><li>What information do you, as a potential customer, need to see about a product?</li></ol><p> Some review systems include scales of particular aspects of a product, as pictured below (from overstock.com). Would you be more likely to select points on a scale, than to create a written review? Do you find these scales helpful, and if so, what features of a product would you like to see rated this way – quality, support, documentation?<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Overstock Review Ex 2.JPG" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: initial;"></p><p> Please share your suggestions on how we can improve the DNN Store review system in the comments below!&nbsp;</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:1 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/what-is-my-approach-for-a-new-project- What is my approach for a new project? <p><strong></strong></p><h3><strong>About Me</strong></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"> Hans has a small - Dutch - company. His core business is to help small companies in using IT as an enabler for their core business. So IT should be helping and not a restriction. My rules:</p><ul> <p><li>I want to focus on a few products. Because there are thousand of IT solutions, I only want to work with products I know more than 80% of the functions and possibilities. I can not know every CMS. Because than too much time of my business leaks away to maintain all that knowledge. So I chose DNN (starting with DNN 4.9 in 2008)</li> </p><li>Sometimes I create solutions by myself (f.i. a website or a database), and sometimes I hire a developer. Therefore I need to know what's going on in IT-business. So my knowledge about IT should be up-to-date, and that's why I'm always looking to every new module in the DNN store to know what's on the market.</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"> I am not a developer. But I can translate business requirements into solutions. I will go a step forward: I will challenge my clients with their needs, so I can provide the best fit for their company.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><br> </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><h3><strong>About My Project</strong></h3><ul> <p><li>This project is about an intranet, used by a small organization&nbsp;with a few workers at the office and a few workers abroad. Their needs are:</li> </p><li>having an online responsive solution to share day-by-day used information:</li> <p><li>documents</li> </p><li>media (like photo's, powerpoints, logo's, etc)</li> <p><li>sharing news</li> </p><li>filling in their timesheets for different projects</li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><br> </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><h3><strong>About the realisation</strong></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"> Normally i try to use the core modules for creating a website. I think I don't have to explain why, but for sure: if I use the core modules, there is almost no chance for having issues doing an upgrade of DNN.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> But if I have to go to 3rd party modules, I will choose according to the following rules:</p><ul> <p><li>sourcecode is available (although I don't want to change it, just for safety reasons)</li> </p><li>try to stay with one vendor (if I need multiple modules and they are from the same vendor than the chance for issues is less than when using modules from multiple vendors)</li> <p><li>&nbsp;check if the module is templatable and localizable</li></ul><p><strong></strong></p><h3><strong>Solution</strong></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"> For this solution I needed a few specific&nbsp;modules:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="font-size: 16px;">News&nbsp;module</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I choose to work with the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ventrian.com/modules/news-articles" target="_blank">Ventrian News Article module</a>. It is a module with an easy way to template the layout, but also has two satellite modules to show the latest news f.i. Because the client has two types of employees (they have their own news&nbsp;categories) I can easy&nbsp;show the latest news per category for each type of employee.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="font-size: 16px;">Forum&nbsp;module</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For the forum, there are a very small number of modules I know. Most of them are old. I looked arround and asked some of my&nbsp;collegues&nbsp;at&nbsp; <a href="http://dnn-connect.org/" target="_blank">DNN-Connect.org</a> about&nbsp;their favorite module, and there came one answer:&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-forums-v5" target="_blank">Active Forum</a>. The module installed very easy and you can get the layout very similar to the rest of your site.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="font-size: 16px;">User&nbsp;management&nbsp;module</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Because normally I don't use the admin role for my clients (because I think the user interface is too complicated for a normal user), I was looking for a module where a user can create users, add users to a role and update the profile. There are some commercial modules for this kind of features but there is one module which contains not only the function of creating users etc. but also has a templatable layout. I'm really impressed by this&nbsp; <a href="https://github.com/DNN-Connect/UserAccountRegistration">Usermanagement</a> module, and it is created by one of the founders of DNN-Connect! So I know it will be DNN proof!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="font-size: 16px;">Timesheet&nbsp;module</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> The timesheet function contains a few parts: a user must select a specific project and a specific task on a specific date to add some hours. Those items should be stored so my client can download them and use it for management information etc. So I wanted to create a form with a few dropdowns and a button to store the data. I wanted to show the 10 latest added items to the user, and for my client I needed a function to add new projects and tasks. I have used two modules from the same vendor for that, and they can work together:&nbsp; <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-35-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn" target="_blank">ActionForm</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-grid-11-touch-friendly-and-responsive-grids-for-dnn-data-rich-applications" target="_blank">ActionGrid</a> from DNNSharp. These modules are easy to use and have a lot of flexibility. The form module has a dropdown of projects (therefore I created a table in my database with projects), and via the Gridmodule, my client can maintain the available projects. The grid module is also used for showing all the entries of all users.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong><span style="font-size: 16px;">Documents&nbsp;management&nbsp;module</span></strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> The last module is the complex one. They want to share documents, mail documents directly from the site, and the documents should have an easy to find overview. In the Store, there are a lot of documents&nbsp;modules (to share files) but almost everyone does not&nbsp;have the capability to mail the file (instead of mailing a link). Mailing a file is necessary because the intranet is only for registered users, and&nbsp;sending a file to an external email&nbsp;address will give an error when the receiver of the link is not a user. So there was one big module left that&nbsp;has these functions:&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/document-exchange-61" target="_blank">Document Exchange</a>, again from one of the members of DNN-Connect. (a very productive DNN group!)</p><p><strong></strong></p><h3><strong>Conclusion</strong></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"> I created all the functions I needed and all without programming or changing any code! Only by configuring and templating the modules. Choosing four stable and solid vendors was the best choice. Sometimes I needed some support, just to find the place to configure something. All of the vendors above reacted quickly and helped.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Some images of the timesheetmodule (sorry for the Dutch text on the pictures)&nbsp;:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <img alt="" src="http://blog.dekaleict.nl/Portals/8/Images/form%20timesheet.png">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <img alt="" src="http://blog.dekaleict.nl/Portals/8/Images/grid%20overview%20timesheets.png" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: initial;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> <strong></strong></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:2 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-mandeep-singh-from-mandeeps Vendor Interview: Mandeep Singh from Mandeeps <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="dnnsharp" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/mandeeps_logo.png"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Mandeep Singh</strong> from <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/mandeepscom/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Mandeeps.com</a>. His most popular modules are <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-blog-v300/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Live Blog</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-tabs-v500/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Live Tabs</a>, but lately Mandeeps has gotten a lot of traction with their theme called <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Porto</a>, at this point going head to head for the top spot on the Top Selling Themes in the DNN Store. In addition to that, all 3 products mentioned here are already stamped as "<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program" target="_blank">Evoq Preferred Products</a>".</p><p> Check out this video interview and get to know more about Mandeep and his company <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/mandeepscom/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Mandeeps.com</a>. We discovered how he was able to create a top selling theme in the DNN Store after developing themes for just under a year! We also talked about DNNCon and he brought up a VERY special promotion during the interview.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/T7_Qu9QR9IQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:3 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/announcing-the-evoq-preferred-products-program Announcing the Evoq Preferred Products Program <p>You may have noticed a new page (and badge) on the DNN Store – we are excited to announce our&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/evoq-preferred-product" target="_blank">Evoq Preferred Products Program</a>. The DNN Store is a marketplace for 3rd party solutions and has largely relied on customer reviews and conversations within the DNN Community to promote those products. &nbsp;However, with the large number of products available on the Store, we recognize the need for developers to find ways to continue to differentiate their products in the marketplace, and the Evoq Preferred Products Program has been created to provide this opportunity.</p><p>Evoq Preferred Products have been tested to ensure a basic level of quality and compatibility with DNN. Furthermore, the developers of these products have a history of quality customer support and of creating mature products for the DNN ecosystem. &nbsp;Our initial group of included&nbsp;modules and themes was identified by DNN Corp. employees and feedback from customers. &nbsp;The developers of these products are assisting us as we solidify the details of the program and the&nbsp;testing process, and in the future, we will be adding more qualifying products to the program.&nbsp;</p><p>Please note that we are in no way saying these products are the only quality products available. &nbsp;This is just the beginning of a program that will (1)&nbsp;Allow&nbsp;module and theme developers a way to distinguish themselves in the marketplace by providing top quality products and support to the Community of DNN Platform and Evoq customers, and (2) Enable&nbsp;customers to purchase with greater confidence. &nbsp;We continue to encourage Store customers to read reviews, contact developers with presale questions, and take advantage of free trials when choosing solutions to extend their DNN sites.&nbsp;</p><p> If you are interested in having your modules and themes included in the Evoq Preferred Products Program, please contact store@dnnsoftware.com with the following information:</p><ol><li>The URL of the product you wish to have included in the program</li><li>Links to any other product listing pages you have for this product (on your own website, for example)</li><li>Whether you are using/intend to use the DNN Store Helpdesk to handle customer support, or, if not, the URL and a description of the help desk system you use</li><li>Please attach results of <a href="http://evs.dnnsoftware.com/" target="_blank">Extension Verification Service (EVS)</a> testing. The package must not have Errors and must be marked Azure compatible. If you have questions about EVS results, please let us know.</li></ol><p>If you have questions or suggestions, please contact store@dnnsoftware.com.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:17 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/go-beyond-static-how-to-add-automagic-to-dnn's-role-system Go beyond static: How to add automagic to DNN's role system <p> Without doubt, DNN's role system is a powerful means for customising your site's content. The visibility of every single module on your pages can be configured on the basis of roles. By employing the technique, you can easily display additional content for super users, display some relevant information for your sellers, or hide products already bought from customers on your e-commerce website. But there is one central limitation.</p><p> While working on the relaunch of a big international B2B shop running on the DNN CMS platform, we came across one issue: We wanted to create a single role which automatically consists of the members of other roles. However, this isn't possible with DNN's standard role system.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/1.jpg"></p><p> After some considerations, we decided to develop an extension for DNN which integrates smoothly into DNN's powerful role system. The extension hooks into DNN's role system and extends it by dynamically managing role memberships. We quickly noticed that this idea could be thought a bit further: Instead of simply combining users from different roles into a new one, why not use more criteria such as the existence and value of request parameters and cookies, as well as the a user's geo location?</p><p> We needed a means that allows an administrator to express rules in a simple, well-known way. We decided to go with XML. Each rule is represented by a simple to use XML tag. We also added the logical operator tags &lt;AND&gt;, &lt;OR&gt;, and &lt;NOT&gt;, so one can combine multiple rules.</p><p> An easy example of how to use XML to create a dynamic rule is the following one. It checks if the HTTP GET request parameter "campaign" is set to "google" or if the cookie "goodCustomer" is present. If so, the rule evaluates to TRUE, so the user is added to a specific DNN role. Notice that the &lt;requestParam&gt; rule support regular expressions, so one has maximum flexibility in defining the desired outcome:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><em>&lt;or&gt;<br>&lt;requestParam name="campaign" pattern="^google$" method="get" /&gt;<br>&lt;cookie name="goodCustomer" /&gt;<br>&lt;/or&gt;</em></p><p> The result is called <a href="https://weweave.net/s/dnn-dynamic-roles" target="_blank">DNN Dynamic Roles</a>. The module requires DNN CMS v07.03.00 or newer and <a href="https://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-dynamic-roles" target="_blank">can be obtained from the DNN Store</a>.</p><p> From time to time, we publish some HOWTOs and tips in our <a href="https://weweave.net/blog/" target="_blank">blog</a>. If you have any questions, feel free to <a href="https://weweave.net/s/contact">contact us</a>.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/193/25/108225/2.jpg"></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:18 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-horacio-judeikin-from-evotiva Vendor Interview: Horacio Judeikin from Evotiva <p style="text-align: center;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="dnnsharp" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/evotiva.jpg"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Horacio Judeikin</strong> from <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/evotiva/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Evotiva</a>. He is a well-known and respected seller and he's behind a great utility module called <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnbackup-730-backup-restore-and-clone-dnn-and-evoq-installations/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNBackup</a> and the storage provider <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnglobalstorage-240-dnn-folder-providers-amazon-s3-window-azure-dropbox-ftp-/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNGlobalStorage</a> among others.</p><p> One of the great things about DNN is that it has users from all over the world, and I'm very grateful when they take the time to do an interview that isn’t even in their native language! Check out this video interview and get to know more about Horacio and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/evotiva/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Evotiva</a>.</p><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7J79YU7fAMk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:19 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-an-update-in-terminology-dnn-skins-become-dnn-themes ​ An Update in Terminology: DNN Skins become DNN Themes <p>Have you noticed the change on the DNN Store? Last week, we updated the terminology on the Store to reflect a change from “skin” to “theme.”</p><p>The main reason for this change is to make it simpler and more intuitive for DNN users to find the products they are looking for. We recognize that although it is often an IT contact who installs a theme on a website, more and more, non-technical users are making the decision on what is purchased, and these users are more familiar with terms like “template” or “theme” than they are with “skin.”</p><p>After some internal discussion, we proposed this change to DNN Store vendors during a webinar in September, and it was met with positive feedback. As Store users, a few places you will notice the change include:</p><ul> <li>The navigation on the DNN Store and dnnsoftware.com</li><li>Tags on the DNN Store</li><li>Future blogs, newsletters, etc. from the DNN Store and DNN Corp.</li></ul><p>We encourage DNN Store customers, vendors, and members of the DNN Community to also adopt this change, as we think it will only help users find the quality products they are looking to use on their DNN sites!</p><p>We'd like to thank the vendors who have updated their product listings on the Store to reflect this change.&nbsp; Here are a few popular DNN themes:</p><ul> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-033-v310-responsive-themes-retina-megamenu-bootstrap-32" target="_blank">Responsive Theme 033</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/atlas-pro-21-30-color-pack-200-google-fonts-multipurpose-responsive-theme-skin-10-modules" target="_blank">Atlas Responsive Theme</a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/creative-v2-theme-ultra-responsive-10-colors-parallax-bootstrap-retina-dnn-6x-7x" target="_blank">Creative Responsive Theme</a><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-dnn-theme-033-v310-responsive-themes-retina-megamenu-bootstrap-32" target="_blank"></a></li></ul><p>Do you have any questions or feedback? Please use the comments below!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:20 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/want-to-attend-dnncon-convince-the-boss- Want to Attend DNNCon? Convince the Boss! <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/220/64/108764/Attend DNNCon2014.JPG"></p><p>Anyone that has been to DNNCon will tell you it is the best way to stay on top of what is happening in the DNN Community. If you’re having a hard time convincing the boss to send you, we have come up with the top 8 reasons to attend.</p><p><strong>Top 8 Reasons your Boss Should Send you to DNNCon 2014</strong></p><p><strong>1. You will become a stronger asset to your company.</strong><br> This conference isn’t just about networking; it’s a professional development event focused on DNN. You will learn how to streamline processes, build customer engagement, and increase productivity.</p><p><strong>2. You will help your company stay current.</strong><br> With <a target="_blank" href="https://dnncon.com/Schedule.aspx">sessions</a> focusing on marketing, content strategy, responsive design, e-commerce, and mobile, there will be an abundant amount of information for you to take back to the office on Monday.</p><p><strong>3. You will be with your peers.</strong><br> DNNCon is the heartbeat of the DNNCon community. The event is a commitment to collaboration, software innovation, and development. Every DNNCon attendee is either a longtime DNN enthusiast or interested in adapting the CMS into their current efforts.</p><p><strong>4. You will make valuable connections.</strong><br> From networking events like DNN After Dark to sessions with leaders in the Community, you’ll meet seasoned DNN users with unique skills and experiences to share.</p><p><strong>5. You will have plenty to share with your co-workers.</strong><br> When you return to the office on Monday you will have a lot of useful notes about the event plus a list of key business contacts.</p><p><strong>6. DNNCon is a FREE Conference.</strong><br> Attending the conference and events is FREE. This means that the only expense to your boss is your flight, hotel, and meals you eat outside of the conference. Not too shabby, huh?</p><p><strong>7. You will learn about newer, better solutions.</strong><br> In a tech-related industry, we hardly have the opportunity to stay on top of changes. Just as soon as we master a tool, something new is introduced and we have to adapt all over again. DNNCon is all about new ideas and techniques, and will help you gain an edge over your competition.</p><p><strong>8. The bottom line: DNNCon is an investment in our company.</strong><br> You will learn skills that will have a lasting effect on your work, from using responsive design to accelerate your market success to integrating EVOQ social into your client’s projects.</p><p>From creativity to business to leadership to the latest technology, DNNCon covers it all. <a target="_blank" href="https://dnncon.com/EventRegistration">Register now</a>, and we look forward to&nbsp;seeing you there!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:21 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/you-are-the-one-are-you- You are the one, are you? <h2>The DNN community playing field</h2><p> <img alt="The DNN Community Playing field" height="199" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/249/73/1273/2014-10-07%20DNN%20Store%20Community%20blog%20Level-playing-field.jpg" style="float: right; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" width="436"> DNN has a long history of professionals working together to produce the best open source CMS and web application framework possible. The <strong>DNN community</strong>. </p><p>I am part of this community for more than 10 years now and I love it. </p><p>I have made friends, worked together and learned a lot: about web development, about producing a real application for a large audience and more, much more. My real involvement came when one of the DNN core team members at that time (ErikVB) asked me to pick up the responsibility for the <a href="https://dnnevents.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">DNN Events</a> module back in 2007. I used this module for a website of a sports organisation, found some bugs and fixed them. And in my intention to give something back to the community, I picked up that responsibility. ErikVB helped me to get started and luckily enough I found some people to help me with this, most notably <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/activity-feed/userid/97447" target="_blank">Roger Selwyn</a>, who contributed a lot to the Events module over the years.</p><p>And after all those years: I still love to work together with community members, and some of them I call <strong>real friends</strong>.</p><h2>That can be your playing field as well</h2><p>There are a lot of things that can be done in and for the DNN community. </p><p><strong>Simple things</strong> (a design, some test work, a script edit, update a description on CodePlex, answer questions, validate an issue), <strong>community things</strong> (join a user group meeting, follow a hangout, talk about your experience), <strong>simple development stuff </strong>(fix a bug in module), <strong>less simple development stuff </strong>(add a feature to an existing open source module), <strong>welfare stuff </strong>(donate your module, tool or skin to the community by making it open source), and <strong>more</strong>.</p><p>How can you become a real community member? And enjoy the friendship that comes with it? Well, most simply stated: someone asks you to do something, you work together with others to get things done. It is as simple as that.</p><p><strong><span style="font-size: large">So now I ask you: will you join me and </span></strong> <a href="mailto:community@dnnsoftware.com?subject=Can I do something in the community?"><strong> <span style="font-size: large">become a community member</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-size: large">?</span></strong></p><h2>What's on the table?</h2><p>I see several opportunities to give something back to the community:</p><p><strong> <img alt="The DNN Community Playing field" height="223" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/249/73/1273/2014-10-07%20DNN%20Store%20Community%20blog%20Giving%20Back.png" style="float: right; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" width="303">Refresh DNN core modules</strong>: there is a long history of powerful modules that were distributed alongside the DNN&nbsp;Platform, e.g. see the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forums/ForumID/207?GroupID=66" target="_blank">module forum</a> on DNNSoftware.com. A number of these modules can use some attention: update to DNN 7, check the lay-out, refresh the form pattern. Simple straightforward development tasks, but with a lot of positive effect. Have a look at: <a href="https://dnnannouncements.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Announcements</a>, <a href="https://dnnevents.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Events</a>, <a href="https://dnnfaq.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">FAQ</a>, <a href="https://dnnfeedback.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Feedback</a>, <a href="https://dnngallery.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Gallery</a>, <a href="https://dnnhelp.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Help</a>, <a href="https://dnniframe.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">IFrame</a>, <a href="https://dnnlinks.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Links</a>, <a href="https://dnnmedia.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Media</a>, <a href="https://dnnnewsfeeds.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">News Feeds</a>, <a href="https://dnnreports.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Reports</a>, <a href="https://dnnsurvey.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Survey</a>, <a href="https://dnnxml.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">XML</a> and tell me if you like to contribute to any of these.</p><p><strong>Replacement of the RadEditor</strong>: A lot of community members are not satisfied with the current HTML Editor that is supplied in DNN&nbsp;Platform (the Telerik RadEditor). Since the editor is replaceable, people have looked at the <a href="https://dnnckeditor.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">DNNCKEditor</a> as a better alternative. The provider principle of DNN makes this possible, but that being said does not mean that it is implemented and ready for distribution int he next DNN version. We are looking for team members who can do some work in this area.</p><p><strong>Make your module open source</strong>: make you module of skin or tool available on CodePlex or GitHub with a MIT license. That is how DNN started in the first place. Your module will become better if others can see it completely, make suggestions or even provide bug fixes. You do not know how to make it available on CodePlex or GitHub? No problem, we learned it the hard way and can help you to do it more easily.</p><p><strong>Answer questions</strong>: be active in one of the forums on dnnsoftware.com on a topic you are interested in and know 1% more than the others: getting started, development issues, modules uses, administration, installation, languages pack, skin design, etc.</p><p>But there is without doubt more, that can and must be done. Feel free to <a href="mailto:community@dnnsoftware.com?subject=I have a suggestion for community work">make suggestions</a>. Send a mail to <a href="mailto:community@dnnsoftware.com">community@dnnsoftware.com</a> and we will be in touch.</p><h2>You are in good company</h2><p>Anyone stepping forward here can be part of a team, with existing experienced community members to work together with.</p><p style="font-weight: 700; font-size: large">So I ask you again: will you join us and become a <a href="mailto:community@dnnsoftware.com?subject=Can I do something in the community?">real community member</a>?</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:24 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-kelly-ford-from-dnndevcom Vendor Interview: Kelly Ford from DNNDev.com <p style="text-align: center;background-color: #363535 !important;padding: 7px;"> <img alt="dnnsharp" src="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/dnndev_logo.png"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Kelly Ford</strong> from <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnndevcom/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNDev.com</a>. His famous module is called <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/xmod-pro-46-forms-and-views-for-databases/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">xMod Pro</a> and it is the 2nd module with the with most revenue of all times on the DNN Store!</p><p> Check out this video interview and get to know more about Kelly and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnndevcom/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNDev</a>. Something I was particularly curious about was how he was able to stay so focused on a single product all this time that he has been around the DNN ecosystem.</p><p> During the interview I have asked about some examples of websites that are using xMod Pro and here are a few of them that really showcase what can be done with it:</p><ul> <p><li><a href="http://www.locallivinads.com" target="_blank">Local Livin' Ads</a> - All features of this site has been built with xMod Pro</li> </p><li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/learn/project-history" target="_blank">A history of DNN</a> - The nice looking timeline as also been built with xMod Pro</li></ul><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ye0_4e6WdO8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:25 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/have-you-tried-these-free-dnn-modules- Have you tried these free DNN Modules? <p>In his blog a&nbsp;few weeks ago, Chris Hammond explained several reasons to <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/why-should-you-list-your-open-source-extensions-on-the-dnn-store">list your free/open source extensions on the DNN Store</a>, and we agree!&nbsp; It is our opinion that the more quality products that are available for Store users, the better - regardless of price! &nbsp;Although a higher price point may indicate a more robust feature set or priority support, many Store customers are looking for a simple extension that accomplishes a specific need, which can often be met with a product that is free on the Store. Here are a few we'd like to bring your attention to:<br><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnchat-signalr-based-chat-module-for-dnn-7" target="_blank"></a></p><ol> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnchat-signalr-based-chat-module-for-dnn-7" target="_blank">DNNCHAT</a>, a chat module for DNN 7, provides an interface for your site's users to interact.&nbsp; You can find a demo of the module in action at <a href="http://www.dnnchat.com/" target="_blank">www.dnnchat.com</a>.<br><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hammerflex-responsive-skin-for-dotnetnuke" target="_blank"></a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hammerflex-responsive-skin-for-dotnetnuke" target="_blank">HammerFlex</a> is a responsive skin for DNN 7 using Bootstrap V3.1.1.&nbsp; You can see it in use on the following sites: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.christoc.com/">http://www.christoc.com</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.chrishammond.com/">http://www.chrishammond.com</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.bicycletips.com/">http://www.bicycletips.com</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnchat.com/">http://www.dnnchat.com</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Quickly set up a feature rich discussion forum on your DNN site with <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-forums-v5">Active Forums.<br><br><strong><img style="width: 655px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Active Forums screen shot.png"></strong></a></li><li>The mission of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/2sxc-633-responsive-amazing-content" target="_blank">2sxc 6.3.3</a> is to "empower the content-editor to create great content" while saving the designer "a bunch of time and money."&nbsp; How&nbsp; does 2sxc do that?&nbsp; It allows the designer to create apps and templates with placeholders, which a content-editor can fill in later.&nbsp; Follow the previous link to learn more! <br><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/carrousel-flow-gallery-54-dnn-7-free-module" target="_blank"></a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/carrousel-flow-gallery-54-dnn-7-free-module" target="_blank">Carrousel Flow Gallery</a> is a free image gallery module.&nbsp; Now on V5.4, it has been around and receiving good reviews for several years.&nbsp; Here are a few things happy users have to say: "Works great! Simple, compact, and effective." and "I was looking for a gallery module and I tried all the free modules and to be honest, this is the best and [most] complete one I tried."<br><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unisols-social-sharing"></a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unisols-social-sharing">Unisols Social Sharing</a>, an easy to use and customize module, injects AddThis sharing buttons into your DNN pages.<br> <p><img style="width: 634px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Unisols Social Sharing.JPG"></p><p><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/aspose-net-word-processing-and-pdf-document-exporter-for-dnn"></a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/aspose-net-word-processing-and-pdf-document-exporter-for-dnn">Aspose .NET Word Processing and PDF Document Exporter for DNN</a> allows users to export online content into a Word or PDF document using Aspose.Words by adding <strong></strong>"Export to Word"<strong></strong> and <strong></strong>"Export to Pdf<strong></strong>" buttons to any location on the page.</li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/online-test-candidate-tests-exams-easily-set-up-question-and-answers-set-multiple-choice-answer" target="_blank"></a>Designed to be used by organizations when conducting interviews, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/online-test-candidate-tests-exams-easily-set-up-question-and-answers-set-multiple-choice-answer">Online Test</a> enables authorized users to create tests and set time limits during which the test must be completed.</li></ol><p>Any of these solutions look interesting?&nbsp; Follow their links to learn more, and then give them a try; after all, they're free!</p><p>There are also a few vendors who offer free add-ons for products sold on the Store. &nbsp;DNN Sharp has several <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp-free-modules" target="_blank">free modules</a>, including templates for Action Form, while&nbsp;<a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnndevcom" target="_blank">DNNDev</a> has made available many free Module Kits for XMod Pro, such as a <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/feedback-form-with-captcha-for-xmod-pro" target="_blank">Feedback form with CAPTCHA</a>, <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/calendar-fullcalendar-for-xmod-pro" target="_blank">Calendar</a>, and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/image-slider-slidesjs-gallery-for-xmod-pro" target="_blank">Image Slider.</a></p><p>Don't see what you're looking for? &nbsp;Check the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge">DNN Forge</a> for additional open source extensions, or take a look at these related articles for other product suggestions:</p><ul> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/try-them-before-you-buy-them-5-modules-that-offer-free-trials">Try Them Before you Buy Them: 5 modules that offer free trials</a><br><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/-bang-for-your-buck-5-highly-rated-modules-for-50-or-less"></a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/-bang-for-your-buck-5-highly-rated-modules-for-50-or-less">Bang for Your Buck: 5 Highly-Rated Modules for $50 or Less</a></li></ul> urn:store:1:blog:post:26 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/why-dnn-partners-and-store-vendors-are-voting-for-dnn-in-the-2014-people’s-choice-cms-awards Why DNN Partners and Store Vendors are Voting for DNN in the 2014 People’s Choice CMS Awards <p>As you probably know, DNN has been nominated in the 2014 CMS Critic Awards. In <a target="_blank" href="http://awards.cmscritic.com/past-winners/">2013</a> we were honored to receive several awards:</p><ul> <li>Critic’s Choice Award, Best Social Networking Solution for Evoq Social</li><li>People’s Choice Award, Best Small to Midsize Business CMS for Evoq Content</li><li>Runner up, Best Open Source CMS for DNN Platform</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="http://awards.cmscritic.com/vote/">Continue this tradition by voting for DNN in the 2014 People's Choice CMS Awards!</a></p><p>Although any award is an honor, the People’s Choice Awards are particularly meaningful, as they represent both the strength and the support of our Community of users.</p><p>We are thrilled to have received nominations again this year. DNN Platform is nominated in both the Best Free .NET CMS and Best Open Source .NET CMS categories, while DNN Evoq Content is nominated for the Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS. We hope that your experiences with the DNN Platform and Evoq solutions are similar to the Partners and Store Vendors below, who have shared with us why they voted for DNN in the 2014 People’s Choice CMS Awards:</p><ul> <li>“The Evoq Content platform provides a great mix of off-the-shelf functionality and <strong>ability to customize</strong> so that we can build solutions that are worthy of our clients brands.” - Ron Valentine, Director of Sales, IT</li><li>“The DNN Platform and Evoq provide a solid and <strong>proven platform</strong> for all web applications that we develop for clients. DNN has an ecosystem where a tremendous amount of add-ons is available, so we can solve almost every need of customers with standard components.” - Ernst Peter Tamminga, CEO, XCESS</li><li>“There is not a web application platform that can compare with the <strong>flexibility</strong> that it provides for any business or website – and it grows with you as your site becomes more successful” – Will Strohl, Director of Product Development, Hotcakes Commerce&nbsp;</li><li>"DNN has continued to innovate their product in a way that many CMS platforms that are targeted at small/medium business do not. It is always the go to choice for us when a client needs the <strong>power of an Enterprise Capable CMS at a not-so enterprise price.</strong>" -Sabrina Wall, Director of Account Services, Arrow Consulting &amp; Design&nbsp;</li><li>“DNN Platform is hands down <strong>the best choice in .NET CMS sphere</strong>. It has been our only choice for any web presence for our clients for past 5 years; both open-source and commercially supported variants.” – Mandeep Singh, CEO &amp; Founder, mandeeps.com</li><li>“We voted for DNN because over the last 10 years, it has proven that it is <strong>a trustworthy and reliable platform</strong> that you can build your business on. The best part about DNN is that it is powered by an absolutely <strong>awesome community</strong>, which in practical terms that translates into a CMS with mass appeal and a lot of functionalities. <br>Speaking of functionalities, there is little chance that you will ever plan to build something that DNN cannot handle. As DNN has been around for a while, it's stable, and DNN fans are fortunate to have many excellent solutions available to extend its functionality. The modules available have multiplied exponentially and have seen phenomenal growth and maturation. DNN is definitely the first stop if you're looking for something that's proven. We would say that DNN can literally change lives. Once a CMS is able to have that kind of an impact, you know that it is truly great." - Ionut Grecu, DNN Sharp</li><li>“I voted for DNN because it's <strong>easy for non-technical admins to manage but truly capable of complex functionality</strong> when needed!” - Candace Santos, Data Springs</li><li>“DNN is the <strong>best for developing integrations and customizations</strong> and with all the plug-ins and modules available, it makes it even more <strong>powerful and flexible</strong>.” - Chad Nash, CEO, Data Springs</li><li>“As a senior DNN developer and provider for DNN products, we think we have the right to say that DNN is clearly an incredible CMS platform for people that want to create an ideal website easily. It’s <strong>user friendly, multi-website supporting, easy to install and localize, open source, and has been accepted widely</strong>. We would definitely vote for DNN! –DNNGO</li></ul><p>As you can see, there are many reasons to <a target="_blank" href="http://awards.cmscritic.com/vote/">vote for DNN</a>! Have you voted yet? Cast your vote here; then use the comments below to tell us why you voted for DNN in the 2014 People’s Choice CMS Awards! And feel free to download the image at the top of this page, make it your profile image on dnnsoftware.com, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and encourage other DNN supporters to vote.</p><p>Note: This blog was originally posted to the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog" target="_blank">Community Blog</a> on dnnsoftware.com.&nbsp; </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:27 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-dnn-news-and-events ​ DNN News and Events <p>As you may know, there have been many new and exciting things happening at DNN in the last month. Haven’t heard all the news yet? Keep reading below for the latest updates and events from DNN.</p><p>First, there are a few new additions to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com">dnnsoftware.com</a>:<span></span></p><ol><li><span></span>The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/learn/roadmap">DNN Platform Roadmap</a> lists planned releases with their expected dates and focus areas. Check this page to find out what you can expect in future versions of the Platform, and when you can expect them!&nbsp;<p><img style="width: 721px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/DNN Platform Roadmap.png"></li><li>The <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events">Community Events</a> page is your one-stop-shop to see upcoming Community events, such as conferences, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155052/dnnhangout--september-2014--peter-donker-introduces-us-to-the-blog-module">Community Hangouts</a>, webinars etc. You can learn more about this page in Joe Brinkman’s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155046/community-events">recent blog</a>, and if you know of an event that needs to be added, please let us know! <p><img style="width: 728px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Community Events.png"></li></ol><p>Many of the recent changes/additions have been designed to give the DNN Community a greater role in managing both the DNN Platform and the Community itself, and <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155039/a-brave-new-world" target="_blank">four Working Groups have been established</a> (comprised of members from both DNN Corp and the DNN Community) to discuss plans for the following areas:</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155032/architecture-working-group-kickoff">Architecture Group</a>, led by Charles Nurse</li><li>Website Group, led by Ernst Peter Tamminga</li><li>Localization/Internationalization Group, led by Peter Donker</li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155053/introducing-the-dnn-training-working-group">Training Group</a>, led by Will Strohl</li></ul><p>Whether or not you have been very active on dnnsoftware.com in the past, as Store users, you are an important part of the Community, and we hope you will remain/become an active member of the Community of DNN users! One simple way to get more involved is to attend our next webinar - &nbsp; </p><p>Mark your calendars for next Tuesday, September 16 at 9:00 AM PDT to join Will Morgenweck, VP of Product Marketing, DNN and Mitchel Sellers, CEO and Director of Development, IowaComputerGurus for a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/about/resources/webinars/why-upgrade-the-benefits-of-moving-to-the-latest-release-of-dnn/view/webinar">webinar about the benefits of moving to the latest release of DNN.</a> Topics covered in the webinar include:</p><ul><li>The importance of upgrading</li><li>Where to find upgrade tools</li><li>How hosting providers and partners can help</li><li>10 things to do BEFORE you upgrade</li><li>How to obtain the proper version of DNN and schedule planned maintenance on your website</li><li>When (and how) to back out of the upgrade</li><li>How to validate your DNN Modules during the upgrade process</li><li>QA and Validation to know the upgrade worked</li></ul><p>Would you like to get more involved in the DNN Community?&nbsp; Leave a comment below with any particular areas of interest!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:28 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/mark-your-calendars-dnn-store-vendor-webinar Mark your Calendars: DNN Store Vendor Webinar <p>DNN Store Vendors, mark your calendars for Wednesday, September 10, 2014 from 4:30 – 5:30 pm PDT for a webinar with Will Morgenweck and Beth Firebaugh to discuss updates and news regarding the DNN Store and Community and DNN Platform and Evoq solutions.</p><p>Register to attend here: <a target="_blank" href="https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/676239074">https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/676239074</a>, and feel free to leave any questions below, or contact <a href="mailto:elizabeth.firebaugh@dnnsoftware.com">elizabeth.firebaugh@dnnsoftware.com</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:29 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-interview-bogdan-litescu-from-dnnsharpcom Vendor Interview: Bogdan Litescu from DNNSharp.com <p style="text-align:center"> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/134/46/26246/dnnsharp-v1-200.gif"></p><p> This is an interview I have recorded with <strong>Bogdan Litescu</strong> from <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNSharp.com</a>. One of his modules, <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-35-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Action Form</a>, is amongst the top selling modules on the DNN Store and his modules have become quite popular with the more technical users in the DNN ecosystem.</p><p> Check out this video interview and get to know about how he decided to become a module vendor, how he knows what to build next and what are his plans for the future of his modules and his company - <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNSharp</a>.</p><p> During the interview I have asked about some examples of websites that are using their modules and here are a few of them that really showcase what can be done with DNNSharp's modules:</p><ul> <p><li><a href="http://www.cuipo.org" target="_blank">Cuipo</a> - They've built the whole shopping experience with <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/my-tokens-240-custom-dnn-tokens-with-razor-and-spark-support/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">My Tokens</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-35-the-easiest-and-most-flexible-form-builder-for-dnn/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">Action Form</a></li> </p><li><a href="http://www.schooldude.com" target="_blank">SchoolDude</a> - They are using <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/my-tokens-240-custom-dnn-tokens-with-razor-and-spark-support/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">My Tokens</a> intensively</li> <p><li><a href="http://www.netready.co.za" target="_blank">NetReady</a> - 90% of their MLM software was built using <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnn-sharp/r/73311e2a326b411fbbb4" target="_blank">DNNSharp's modules</a></li></ul><iframe width="950" height="534" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/chk6NPD79Cw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""> </iframe> urn:store:1:blog:post:30 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/why-should-you-list-your-open-source-extensions-on-the-dnn-store- Why should you list your open source extensions on the DNN Store? <p> One of the best things I love about the DNN platform is the ease of building, releasing, and updating Extensions for your website. If you need custom functionality you can either build something yourself, or likely find something that someone else has developed previously that might fit your needs.</p><p> If you are an extension developer for DNN (previously DotNetNuke), you have many options for how you can get those modules into the hands of potential customers. If you want to get your modules into the hands of as many different users as possible, you can’t just stick to one distribution mechanism, you need to reach out and try to get your extension available in as many places as possible.</p><p> Some of the ways for distributing your modules include: 1) Hosting on your own website, 2) Hosting on GitHub, 3) Hosting on Codeplex. The often overlooked one however, especially for free and open source modules, is 4) <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/?r=c476149f7c7a4886b519">The DNN Store</a>.</p><p> The Store is a great marketplace for DNN extensions, and while it primarily is used to “sell” extensions, there was even a time free extensions were discouraged or even removed, that is not the case anymore. You can list your extensions, modules, skins, or even providers, to get your products out in front of more customers. Some of the benefits of doing so</p><ol> <p><li><strong>More exposure –</strong> Besides searching on Google, the Store is the single most accessed place when people are looking for an extension for DNN. </li> </p><li><strong>Customer downloads -</strong> By uploading your extensions to the Store, people can “purchase” them, with $0 pricing. This allows for those customers to easily find those downloads again in the future, as products that they have purchased and download them again. </li> <p><li><strong>Customer updates –</strong> You can put out a new release of your extensions, and using the Patch tools provided within the Store you can easily get that patch out to customers as well. </li> </p><li><strong>Customer email option -</strong> After someone purchases one of your modules, you can have the Store automatically send them an email with information related to the module, resources on how to use the module, what your support policy is, etc. </li> <p><li><strong>Customer list –</strong> One of the biggest benefits of people purchasing your extensions, you can build up a customer list. What you do with that list might vary. </li> </p><li><strong>Referrals –</strong> Finally, and one of the biggest items, is the ability to earn some cash from your free extensions? How you might ask? Referrals, if you link to the Store with <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/make-money/referral-program?r=c476149f7c7a4886b519">referral codes</a> included in the links, if a customer actually pays for a module, in addition to downloading your free extensions, you can earn a percentage of that sale. You won’t likely get rich from this, but if you do things right you can get yourself a bottle of Jack Daniels here or there!</li></ol><p> One thing I would highly suggest, if you are selling modules, DO not use the Store as a way to get people to “try” your modules, and then point them to your own website to do the selling. That is just not cool.</p><p> Please be sure to check out some of my free extensions in the Store: <a href="http://cjh.am/1mGBQby">HammerFlex</a> and <a href="http://cjh.am/dnnchat">DNNCHAT</a> being the two most popular extensions I have there. And yes, to be upfront, those links have referral codes embedded in them!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:31 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/the-dnn-referral-module The DNN Referral Module <p><em>This blog was originally posted to the DNN Community Blog on October 28, 2013 by Nathan Rover.&nbsp; Nathan has been building sites using DNN for the last 9 years and has worked at DNN Corp for over 3 years.&nbsp; As part of the Engineering Team, he currently works on projects for both the DNN Store and dnnsoftware.com. &nbsp;</em></p><p>In an attempt to simplify participation with the referral program on the Store, I have developed a new free and open source module that anyone can use, but is specifically designed with the referral program in mind. In the module settings, there is a field where you can enter one of the referral codes from the store. Once populated with a code all of the links generated in the module output will automatically have the referral query sting value/pair added.</p><p>The module can be configured in a few basic modes and will automatically obtain the product data via a server side web service call to the store. The following render modes are currently available (more may be added based on feedback).</p><ul> <li>Top Selling Modules – This is the same list of products that can be found on this page <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/top-sellers/top-modules">http://store.dnnsoftware.com/top-sellers/top-modules</a></li><li>Top Selling Skins – Like Modules, this is the same list as found here <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/top-sellers/top-skins">http://store.dnnsoftware.com/top-sellers/top-skins</a></li><li>My Products – This mode is intended for store vendors and will allow them to display a list of the products that they currently have listed in the store. Once selected, they will need to also provide a vendor Id.</li><li>Dynamic Search Results – This mode allows you to configure the module to listen for a particular query string parameter. If that parameter is detected, the value will be executed as a full-text search on the store. The results will then be shown in the module. Using this you could place this module on the DNN search results page or a page with the blog module and have it listen to the “search” parameter. Then say, if for example, a visitor to your site searched for the term “SEO”, the referral module would display the top search results from the Store that relate to “SEO”. When utilizing this mode, the module also supports a “fall back” search. Any of the other 4 modes can be configured as a fall back that will be shown in the event that the query string parameter is not detected or the dynamic search yields no results.</li><li>Static Search Results – This is similar to the Dynamic Search Results, only you can specify in the module settings what you would like to set the search value to. If you had a page on your site dedicated to help desk software, you could place this module then configure it to display products based on the search results for “Help Desk”. This would allow the module to display the most relevant content to your visitors.</li></ul><p>There is also a setting to limit the number of results pulled from the server. By default this is set to 5, but you can change this number to whatever you would like in order to customize the output to best fit your site. It's important to note that many of the search methods have a server controlled maximum result set of 100. This is by design to help keep server load to a minimum. Along the same lines, the results of each mode are cached on the server side, but an additional layer of caching is available in this module. The module can cache the results on your site. Using this will reduce the number of service calls sent to the store and will ensure that this module doesn’t slow down the load time of your site.</p><p>The module output is constructed server side and uses three templates to allow you full control over how the products are rendered. The first template is the “Primary Template”. This is the outer container for the results, and the only token in this template is [RowTemplate]. When rendered, that token will be removed and replaced with all of the rendered row templates. The next Template is the “Row Template”. This template supports only one token; however, it can be repeated. So, for example, if you would like to display one item per row and you are using a div based layout, you would use “&lt;div&gt;[ItemTemplate]&lt;/div&gt;”. However, if you are using tables and would like to show three items per row, you would use “&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;[ItemTemplate]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;[ItemTemplate]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;[ItemTemplate]&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;” The module will automatically do the math, and if you set it to display twelve results using the previous template, it would create four rows with three items each. Using the previous div template example, it would make 12 rows with one item each. The third template is the “Item Template”. This is used to control how each item is rendered. This template currently supports nine tokens, which are as follows:</p><ul> <li>[PackageName] – This is the name of the package as it would appear in a product list on the Store.</li><li>[PackagId] – This is the unique ID number for the package.</li><li>[PackageLink] – This is a full friendly URL to the product details page on the Store. If a referral code is provided, it will automatically be added to this URL.</li><li>[PackagePrice] – This is the list price for the item. It will be formatted in US dollars (as that is the currency used on the Store) with a $ symbol.</li><li>[PackageIcon] – This is a URL to the package icon which will be located on Amazon S3 storage.</li><li>[PackageRatingNumber] – This is a number between 1 and 5 that represents average review rating of the product.</li><li>[PackageRatingImage] – This is a URL to the image used to represent the average review rating. Like the package icon, these images are hosted on Amazon S3 storage.</li><li>[VendorName] – This is the name of the vendor who created the product.</li><li>[VendorLink] – This is a URL to the vendor profile on the Store. If a referral code is provided, it will automatically be added to this URL.</li></ul><p>There is also a fourth template that will allow you to control what is shown in the event that the module has no results to display.</p><p>As you can see, this module is capable of supporting horizontal and vertical rendering, table or div based rendering. If you want to get even more creative, you can include the right jQuery and make a product carousal or flip book. (If you do, please send me a link. I would like to see it!) I tried to keep the module as flexible as possible in the hope that everyone who wants to use this module will be able to customize it to fix the style and layout of their site.</p><p>Some additional notes about this module: it’s fully localized, even the default settings are localized. However, currently English is the only option. If anyone produces a translated resource file, let me know, and I'll include it in the package. The minimum required version of the DNN platform is 5.1.0. The minimum required version of the .NET platform is 3.5. The module is Azure compatible and passes EVS without error or warning. <a target="_blank" href="http://evs.dnnsoftware.com/results.htm?fileId=585af9db-64c3-4ad7-83c2-3eb282eeb9c2">http://evs.dnnsoftware.com/results.htm?fileId=585af9db-64c3-4ad7-83c2-3eb282eeb9c2</a></p><p>The latest release of the module can be downloaded here: <a target="_blank" href="https://dnnreferralmodule.codeplex.com/">https://dnnreferralmodule.codeplex.com</a>.</p><p>The source code is available on GitHub here:<a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/NateDawgCC/DNNReferralModule">https://github.com/NateDawgCC/DNNReferralModule</a>.</p><p>Anyone who is interested in making enhancements to the module is welcome to fork the code on GitHub. Any questions or issues with the module can be sent to me directly at <a href="mailto:Nathan.Rover@dnncorp.com">Nathan.Rover@dnncorp.com</a>. If you would like more information about the DNN Store referral program, please check out this page:<a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/make-money/referral-program"> http://store.dnnsoftware.com/make-money/referral-program</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:32 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/azure-compatibility-for-dnn-store-modules Azure Compatibility for DNN Store Modules <p>Beginning with DNN 6.0, all editions and versions of DNN have included support for Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform. As more and more DNN sites are hosted on Microsoft Azure, it has become important that DNN extensions are also Azure compatible. The goals of this brief article are to:&nbsp;</p><ol><li>Highlight how DNN Store customers can determine if a module is Azure compatible, and&nbsp;</li><li>Instruct DNN Store vendors how to obtain certification of Azure compatibility for their DNN Store extensions.</li></ol><p>DNN Store customers can determine if a module has been tested for Azure compatibility by looking in the top section on the right hand side of the product’s listing. If a module has been determined to be Azure compatible, an “Azure Compatible” badge will display, as pictured below.<br> </p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Azure Compatibility 1.png"></p><p>If a module has not been tested for Azure compatibility, the section will indicate “Unknown Compatibility,” as follows: <br> </p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Azure Compatibility 2.png"></p><p><br>Azure compatible modules on the DNN Store include:</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cart-viper-320-ecommerce-store">Cart Viper Ecommerce Store</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-userfiles-202-flexible-file-and-documents-manager">DNN User Files</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnbackup-730-backup-restore-and-clone-dnn-and-evoq-installations">DNNBackup</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnglobalstorage-240-dnn-folder-providers-amazon-s3-window-azure-dropbox-ftp-">DNNGlobalStorage</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnupgrade-121-accelerate-and-automate-dnn-upgrades">DNNUpgrade</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dynamic-registration-50">Dynamic Registration</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/event-planner-registration-module-300">Event Planner and Registration</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/form-master-responsive">Form Master Responsive</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy">Hotcakes Commerce</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-64-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store">Revindex Storefront</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-shopping-cart-v65-ecommerce-store">Smith Cart Ecommerce Store</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/xmod-pro-46-forms-and-views-for-databases">XMod Pro</a></li></ul><p> DNN Store Sellers, if you have a module that you would like to be certified as Azure compatible, please take the following steps:</p><ol><li>Verify the extension through EVS (Extension Verification Service) <a target="_blank" href="http://evs.dotnetnuke.com/">http://evs.dotnetnuke.com/.</a><ol><li>Note: To learn more about EVS, take a look at these blogs: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/147439/extension-verification-service-evs">Extension Verification Service (EVS)</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154576/extension-verification-service-evs-update">Extension Verification Service (EVS) Update</a> </li></ol></li><li>Contact DNN Store Staff through the helpdesk or <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a> to have the module installed on an Azure test site. DNN Store Staff will test the module and let you know if any errors result. If everything checks out, the Azure compatibility badge will be updated.</li></ol><p>Take a look at the following links for additional information on DNN and Microsoft Azure:</p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/134655/dotnetnuke-60-welcomes-sql-azure">DotNetNuke 6.0 welcomes SQL Azure</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/134654/dotnetnuke-and-windows-azure-understanding-azure">DotNetNuke and Windows Azure: Understanding Azure</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154972/launching-a-dnn-microsoft-azure-website">Launching a DNN Microsoft Azure Website</a></li><li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154968/creating-a-dnn-installation-on-windows-azure-websites" target="_blank">Creating a DNN Installation on Windows Azure Websites</a></li></ul><p>Let us know if you have any questions. Are there any module you’d like to see become Azure compatible? Are you successfully using any DNN Store products on an Azure hosted site?<br></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:33 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile-mandeepscom Vendor Profile: Mandeeps.com <p>This week we talked with Mandeep Singh of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/mandeepscom">Mandeeps.com</a>, developer of highly-rated and top-selling products like <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-content-v440" target="_blank">Live Content</a>, <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-blog-v214" target="_blank">Live Blog</a>, and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto" target="_blank">Porto Skin</a>.&nbsp; Keep reading below as he answers questions about Mandeeps.com's products, experience with DNN, and more.</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span></span>Describe your professional (and/or personal) experience relating to DNN. How long have you been using/developing for DNN?<br></strong></p><p>We’ve been using DNN since IBuySpy Portal days, and our first module was offered for sale on Snowcovered.com in 2004. Since then, we’ve been developing extensions for DNN Platform.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>What first brought you to DNN, and what has kept you actively developing products for the community?<br></strong>In early 2000’s, my personal website was running on PHPNuke, and I was looking to migrate to an ASP.NET solution. DNN seemed like a great choice with an ever growing community. I introduced DNN to a Warehouse Management company and started writing custom extensions for it, which eventually led to commercial module development. We’ve been passionately developing extensions since then because the DNN community continues to grow stronger every year. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Tell us a little about the products you develop<br></strong></p><p>Our DNN Modules include Content Management, Content Publishing, Content Approval Workflow, Email Delivery, and several utility modules. We also offer some of the bestselling DNN Skins.&nbsp; (Pictured below is <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto" target="_blank">Porto Skin</a>, currently the top selling skin on the DNN Store.)</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Porto Skin.JPG"></p><p><strong>If you were to tell a potential customer why they should purchase your products, what would you say?<br></strong>Take our product for a spin – try out a fully functional demo, and let our products speak for themselves. Our products are fully featured, intuitively easy to use, and we back that with exceptional support when you need it.&nbsp; (Pictured below are a few recent reviews for Mandeeps.com's products.)</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Live Tabs Review.JPG"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Live Content Review.JPG"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Live Blog Review.JPG"></p><p><strong>Can you tell us a little about your development process and how you decide what to include in new releases. Do you have any plans for new features or products you can tell us about?<br></strong>Our development process is mostly community driven. Most of the new features are requested by our clients which are added to new releases. We also keep in sync with the latest technologies and continuously update our products. We have several new modules and skins in the pipeline. We’re working on a new Slider module for which we’ve partnered with one of the leading vendors in Web/Animation domain. We also have a Forms module coming up to complete our DNN Essentials collection. Pair our collection with one of our skins and you have a complete functional website in minutes. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>What advice would you offer someone who is creating a DNN site?<br><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com"></a></strong><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com">www.dnnsoftware.com</a> offers immense resources to get you started. Master the basics including administration and content management, and then head over to DNN Store to extend your site. Be sure to pick a good hosting company such as PowerDNN that can assist you along the way. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>What advice would you offer someone who is interested in developing modules/skins for DNN?<br></strong>DNN has an exceptionally passionate community that’s eager to assist. Start by reading numerous blogs &amp; tutorials that are available all over the web. There are numerous development templates that can get you started. Head over to DNN Forums when you have a question, and the community would be happy to assist. Reach out to us if you have questions, need help with development or training, and we’ll be happy to guide you as well. <strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong><em>Thanks, Mandeep, for taking the time to answer our questions! &nbsp;Store users, do you have any additional questions for Mandeep?&nbsp; Use the comments below to learn more!</em><br><strong></strong></p><ol><ol></ol></ol> urn:store:1:blog:post:34 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-top-notch-responsive-skins ​ Top-Notch Responsive Skins <p>About a month ago, we looked at <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/1745">DNN Store Customers’ Must Have Modules</a>, modules that consistently receive high ratings from customers in regards to the value of the product, as well as the quality of support, and we’d now like to take a look at some skins that similarly receive praise from their users. With customer comments that include, "I went from blank site to basic content in under 30 min" and "the best skin I have used in the last 10 years," if you are choosing a responsive skin for your DNN site, these 5 would be a great place to start:</p><ul><li><span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-029-v250-responsive-multi-purpose-retina-5-home-layouts-mega-menu">Skin Pack 029</a> by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnngonet">dnngo.net</a></li></ul><p><img style="width: 932px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Skin Pack 029 Review 1.png"></p><p><img style="width: 932px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Skin Pack 029 Review 2.png"></p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/porto">Porto</a> by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/mandeepscom">Mandeeps.com</a></li></ul><p><img style="width: 929px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Porto Review 1.png"></p><p><img style="width: 929px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Porto Review 2.png"></p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cleanweb-skin-responsive-retina-unlimited-colors-typography-site-templates-dnn5-6-7">CleanWeb Skin</a> by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/bestdnnskinscom">bestdnnskins.com</a></li></ul><p><img style="width: 930px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/CleanWeb Review 1.png"></p><p><img style="width: 931px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/CleanWeb Review 2.png"></p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-033-v240-responsive-multi-purpose-retina-css3animations-shortcodes">Skin Pack 033</a> by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/dnngonet">dnngo.net</a></li></ul><p><img style="width: 938px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Skin Pack 033 Review 1.png"></p><p><img style="width: 938px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Skin Pack 033 Review 2.png"></p><ul><li><a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/discounted-unlimited-skins-colors-responsive-banner-module-fonts-dnn-6-7">Nevo</a> by <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-list?searchtext=wavecreation">WaveCreation</a></li></ul><p><img style="width: 933px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Nevo Review 1.png"></p><p><img style="width: 924px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Nevo Review 2.png"></p><p>We hope you've found these skin suggestions helpful and would love to hear what your favorites are. Please comment below with any other recommendations for top-notch skins and details on what makes them great!</p><p>Follow these links for additional information on <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/1748/10-requirements-i-look-for-when-picking-a-skin">choosing a DNN skin</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/1746">tips for using responsive skins</a>, and the <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/1706/reviewing-your-purchases-creating-reviews-benefits-customers-vendors-and-yourself">importance of reviewing your purchases.</a></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:35 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/module-performance-set-yourself-apart Module Performance: Set Yourself Apart <p>With a plethora of modules on the market today, it is often hard for users to select the "right one" for their solution. Help yourself, and help your customers by setting your modules apart in one of the most important ways, performance. Not all DNN sites are large; not all DNN sites are small; that's the beauty of the platform. This major difference should not be ignored by those developing modules for DNN. Lets look as some simple tips & tricks to help us set our modules apart.</p><h2>Why Performance</h2><p>Before I get into my specific recommendations I thought it would be prudent to discuss WHY I feel that this is such an important aspect to consider. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you might remember the various posts I have been making over the past six or so months about performance tuning DNN. I've had a large number of new clients come along, and they have been looking to improve the speed of their site. In every one of these situations, from the person looking to optimize for the seconds of load time to the person looking to handle 50,000 concurrent users, the root cause of the performance issues were two fold. First was configuration of DNN, to which I've already blogged about extensively. The second was the performance of third-party modules used.</p><p>The purpose of this post is to discuss areas to help anyone developing DNN modules to allow their modules to extend the functionality of DNN without impacting site performance.</p><h2>Manage jQuery & jQuery UI Properly</h2><p>I'll start with a really simple one. This item isn't only a performance thing, but can be a site stability issue as well. Since DNN 6.0.0 and later there has been an API method to include jQuery and jQuery UI. These are used internally for DNN to handle their use for administrator functions. As a third-party module developer, if you need to use jQuery or jQuery UI in your modules, you should use the API to request it, rather than manually linking to your own copies of the libraries. This is for two major reasons. First of all, for performance we reduce 2 HTTP requests on every page load. Secondly, for site stability we avoid client-side issues that arise with having two versions of jQuery loading at the same time. This can cause site functions to become unusable. </p><p>This advice goes to Skin developers as well. Don't include jQUery in your skin, include a call to DotNetNuke.Framework.jQuery.RequestRegistration(); if you have to. Make your packages easier to manage, and become a better DNN Citizen all at once! Awesome.</p><h2>Use DataCache If You Can</h2><p>Yes, it takes a bit longer, however one of the biggest things that you can do to improve the performance of your modules is to investigate the usage of cache. In this case I'm talking first about the DataCache. This is the cache strategy you can use for internal items and not directly related to the UI element. You can cache things such as web-service responses, SQL Query results etc. This can be something you manually do, or if you are using DAL2 you can get it out of the box.</p><p>The key here: reduce how much your module chatters to the database. The less calls to the database, the better!</p><h2>Test & Support Module Cache If You Can</h2><p>This is a further extension to the data cache. Module cache is the ability of DNN to store the generated HTML that your module creates and sends that as part of the response for a set period of time. This allows all of your code, AND database calls to be bypassed for the configured amount of time. This is only used when the page is viewed by a non-authenticated user and should only be used if the users do not interact with the page, but can be very helpful for performance. </p><h2>Test Your Module Under Load</h2><p>This has to be the biggest and most important of all items. Don't just throw your module out there, go out there and test it with some users. Look at the things that it does and how it impacts the site performance. Does your module chew CPU? Does it abuse the database? Does it leave lots of open SQL Connections? Test it under stress and know how it goes. Then, once armed with that information use it to your advantage, share the results and brag about it! </p><h2>Lets Succeed Together</h2><p>The biggest point of this article is this: if as a module developer you are concerned about performance and the rest of the ecosystem is also concerned about performance, we can make DNN a truly unique platform, with a collection of modules that not only accomplish a goal, but that can expand rapidly with a site to handle sites of all shapes and sizes!</p><p>This post has been cross posted to my <a href="http://mitchelsellers.com/blogs/2014/07/06/module-performance--set-yourself-apart.aspx" target="_blank">Personal Blog</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:36 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/10-requirements-i-look-for-when-picking-a-skin 10 Requirements I look for when picking a Skin <p style="text-align:center"><p> After reviewing skins on a weekly basis for the past 3 years, I have seen and assessed over 1000 skins personally. Just trying to give a bit of background as to why you should keep reading this article and find out how I go about assessing a skin to use on a DNN site.</p><p> The good news today is that skin sellers have really raised their game and are producing stunning skins, not only from a design point of view, but also from a technical perspective. If you look back just about 2 years ago, it was quite a different scenario, so the majority of skins promoted by the DNN Store on their weekly newsletter already cover the "Must Have" requirements quite well.</p><p> I have broken down my skin requirements into two lists:</p><p> <strong> </strong></p><h4><strong>Must Have:</strong></h4><p> <strong>1 - Demo:</strong> If a skin doesn't have a demo, how are you going to be able to assess it? Just check thumbnails? A demo is not optional! It is a mandatory requirement.</p><p> <strong>2 - Responsive:</strong> There will be controversies about this requirement, but let me ask you this: Would you like to have your site looking nice on a tablet or a smart phone? I bet that 9 out of 10 people will say "Yes" to that question.</p><p> With the exponential growth of Internet usage via mobile devices, of course you want your website to shine on those devices too. Someone may say that not all sites need to be responsive, and I agree, but if you are a skin seller and you are not catering for the mobile audience, I will have to question the type of product you are putting out. Most likely, with so many great alternatives out there, I will put their skin on the side as the last option.</p><p> <strong>3 - Page Template:</strong> Have you come across a beautiful skin demo before, and after you purchase it you realized you would have a lot of work in front of you before you could see something similar on your own site? I know the feeling. I have been there too. Remember this: A skin is just the skeleton of a page. The actual content needs to blend with the skin to create that awesome site.</p><p> With all that said, this is where the "Page Template" or "Content Template" comes in place. This is the sample content that can be loaded onto the site together with the skin to give you the same results as you saw on the demo, and it should be provided to you as a starting point for content population. If you see a very nice demo, you should expect to find in the skin page something that says it comes with "Portal Templates", "Page Template" or "Content Template". With that you know you will be able to reproduce the nice content you were sold on.</p><p> <strong>4 - Version Compatibility:</strong> This may sound obvious, but you have to ensure the skin you are buying is compatible with the DNN version that you are using. If you have a brand new DNN site, this is not a problem.</p><p> But if you are buying a skin for an existing DNN site, you should check its version and see if the skin is compatible with your version. Usually skin sellers are very good at identifying which DNN version the skin is compatible with, but in case it is not there, just drop them a note via the "Ask a Question" link located on the top area of the DNN store page.</p><p> <strong>5 - Modules:</strong> I would classify this one as a "Must Watch Out". Sometimes we are checking a skin demo and we see this nice banner slider, image gallery, contact form and even a blog module. You should keep in mind that if you expect the modules you saw in the demo to be included with the skin, you need to buy the appropriate package.</p><p> This might seem obvious to some users, but it is usually not that clear to me whether the module I like is part of the purchase or not. How do you know if the skin comes with the module you like? Check the skin package options. If that is not clear enough, which at times it is not, ask the seller which version includes that module.</p><p> <strong>6 - License Terms:</strong> This is an important one that is quite overlooked. Some skins will come with restrictions in terms of its usage. All skin terms will cover the basic usage: at least one site in one DNN installation. But if you are looking to use the same skin on multiple sites in the same DNN or on multiple DNN installations, then you should make sure the option you are purchasing will allow you to use it that way. If it doesn't cover your case, reach out to the seller and see if they can provide you with a license that will cover your needs.</p><h4><strong>Nice to Have:</strong></h4><p> <strong>7 - Flexible Color Scheme:</strong> Not a show stopper, but it would be a big plus if the skin has a control panel where you can set your own color scheme. It is quite impossible to find a skin that has the exact color scheme of your brand or corporate identity. So a skin that allows you to pick and choose the colors for different elements will help you a lot. You will not need to mess around with style sheet files yourself, therefore, saving you a lot of time.</p><p> <strong>8 - Animations:</strong> This one should be on a "NOT Nice to Have" list. This is my personal taste talking now. I understand that sellers want users to see all they can do in terms of making their skins fancier than the next guy, but there are some sellers that go overboard here! You can get dizzy with so many animations going around on their skins such as Icons spinning around and Text moving from all sorts of directions. Mouse-over that, you may think you are playing a game! Come on! A touch of animation is good but too much, and you will get your site's visitors just distracted. It’s just my personal taste.</p><p> <strong>9 - Bootstrap:</strong> First, what is Bootstrap? It is an html, css, javascript framework that you can use as basis for creating web sites or web applications. For more information, go to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)</a>. In the last 2 years, Bootstrap has become a widely adopted UI framework, and it promotes standardization and usage of simple HTML code. One of its main advantages is that it makes your site responsive as well.</p><p> Of course a seller could flag their skin using it, and at first look it would be hard to find out whether it truly uses Bootstrap or not without going into the technical aspect here, but let's assume the sellers are telling the truth about that. Just checking the 7 new skins promoted on the DNN store newsletter this past week, 6 out of 7 skins were already using Bootstrap framework. As you can see the skin creators have really adopted that on their new creations.</p><p> <strong>10 - Good support:</strong> I think this is quite important but hard to be sure about. Pretty much all skins I have purchased I had to get in touch with the seller to ask questions about certain features of their skins.</p><p> You should check their feedback to see if they have positive reviews. Although that doesn’t guarantee a good support experience, it can be a helpful indicator. You can also try their support by asking questions about their skin before buying it. See if they respond in a timely manner. If they don’t, you should not expect a different experience after the purchase. I would walk.</p><p> How about you? What is your "Must Have" and your "Nice to Have" lists? Do you have a "NOT Nice to Have" list? Let us know on the comments below.</p><p>This post has been cross posted to <a href="http://www.dnnhero.com/Article/tabid/212/ArticleID/304/10-Requirements-I-look-for-when-picking-a-Skin-for-DNN.aspx" target="_blank">DNNHero.com</a>.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:42 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/quick-tips-on-using-responsive-skin Quick Tips On Using Responsive Skin <p> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/051/11/47411/Responsive design.jpg"></p><p> As technology and innovation improved, smartphones became more powerful, affordable and common; it is no doubt that small screens (smartphones, tablets and laptops) have become your preference. In order to grow and gain more popularity for business, every client wants to create a mobile website. There are a few essential things: one design for the mobile devices, another for the tablets, and the design must work with all screen resolutions.<br>&nbsp; <br> As a DNN Development Team with six years' experience, we (<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: initial;">DNNGo</strong>) have found a workable solution to cater to the consistently developing browsers and internet devices-taking advantage of responsive design with HTML 5, CSS3 and Bootstrap technology to make your website work with various devices and screens.</p><p> <strong><br> </strong></p><h3>What is Responsive Web Design?</h3><p> <br> Wikipedia defines Responsive Web Design (RWD) as “a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).”</p><p> No matter what screen resolution you are using, the page will fit the user’s screen resolution, image size and relevant scripts. In other words, the page has the ability to respond to a user’s device environment. Responsive web design allows the layout of a site to adapt to small and large screen devices in order to share the same code base and content without the need for separate website properties. This way, we don’t need to develop new versions for the changing devices.</p><p> Responsive design has been mentioned a lot since 2012; all kinds of Web responsive designs are getting more and more attention. &nbsp;The “make people forgot their device dimension” concept pushes responsive design development, which means Web design will come up with more responsive design elements: UIKit, Bootstrap, Adobe Edge Inspect, Foundation, SimpleGrid and Responsive Testing.</p><p> All the skins we have on the DNN Store are developed on Bootstrap, are able to work with various mobiles, tablets and PCs, and have great flexibility.</p><h3>What is Bootstrap?</h3><p> <br> Bootstrap is a front end, open source tool for creating websites and web applications, it was developed by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton at Twitter and is one of the best CSS frameworks for developing and designing content management systems. It has two versions-Bootstrap 2 and Bootstrap 3. Currently, the latest version is 3.0.</p><p> Below are some of our skins developed on Bootstrap 2:</p><p> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-033-v240-responsive-multi-purpose-retina-css3animations-shortcodes/r/7ab93d48c5e846d6b199">Unlimited Responsive DNN Skin 033</a> <br> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-036-v220-responsive-multi-purpose-retina-short-codes-megamenu/r/7ab93d48c5e846d6b199">Unlimited Responsive DNN Skin 036</a></p><p> Below are some of our skins developed on Bootstrap 3: <br> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-responsive-multi-purpose-045-v200-retina-shortcodes-bootstrap3-megamenu/r/7ab93d48c5e846d6b199" target="_blank">Unlimited Responsive DNN Skin 045</a> <br> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-responsive-multi-purpose-043-v200-retina-shortcodes-bootstrap3-css3animations/r/7ab93d48c5e846d6b199" target="_blank">Unlimited Responsive DNN Skin 043</a> <br> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-responsive-multi-purpose-042-v210-retina-shortcodes-bootstrap3-css3animations/r/7ab93d48c5e846d6b199" target="_blank">Unlimited Responsive DNN Skin 042</a></p><p> For more info on Bootstrap Grid system, please see links below: <br>Bootstrap 2: <a href="http://getbootstrap.com/2.3.2/scaffolding.html#fluidGridSystem" target="_blank">http://getbootstrap.com/2.3.2/scaffolding.html#fluidGridSystem</a> <br>Bootstrap 3: <a href="http://getbootstrap.com/css/#grid" target="_blank">http://getbootstrap.com/css/#grid</a></p><p> <strong><br> </strong></p><h3>Some tricks on using responsive skin:</h3><h4> 1. How to set images in HTML module to be responsive?</h4><p> In Bootstrap 2, you don’t need to add any additional coding, the images are able to adapt the width of parent elements, since bootstrap 2 contains the following CSS code snippets:</p> <pre>img{ max-width:100%; } </pre><p> While in Bootstrap 3, it doesn’t include the code snippets above, you need to add additional .img-responsive class. Here is the code snippet:</p> <pre>&lt;img src="..." class="img-responsive" alt="Responsive image"&gt; </pre><p> <strong><br> </strong></p><h4> 2. How to make modules in various devices hide/display?</h4><p> Not all modules can work with responsiveness; under this case, we need to hide the module in mobile device.</p><p> In Bootstrap, responsive class is included, and it is able to hide/display the content.</p><p> Below is a table of the available classes and their effect on a given media query layout (labeled by device).</p><p>Bootstrap 2:</p><p> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/051/11/47411/bootstrap2.png"></p><p> bootstrap 3:</p><p> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/051/11/47411/bootstrap3.png"></p><p> By taking advantage of these class, you will be able to hide the module in mobile devices very easily.</p><p> Log in to the site under admin role, click the Settings button in the upper right corner of the module, and find header and footer sections in Advanced Settings.</p><p> Add code &lt;div&nbsp;class="hidden-phone"&gt; in Header section. And add &lt;/div&gt;&nbsp; in Footer section, just like below:</p><p> <img src="/Portals/0/Users/051/11/47411/module.png"></p><p> If you are using Boostrap 3 skin, you need to add code &lt;div class="hidden-xs"&gt; in Header section and add &lt;/div&gt;&nbsp; in Footer section.</p><p> In the same manner, you can display this module in mobile devices, while hiding it in tablets and PCs.</p><h4>3. How to use Bootstrap Grid system?</h4><p> Bootstrap includes a responsive, mobile first fluid grid system that appropriately scales up to 12 columns as the device or viewport size increases.</p><p> Also we can use Bootstrap Grid system to create a responsive layout very easily.</p><p> For example: <br> We can add the following coding to HTML module.</p><p>Bootstrap 2:</p> <pre>&lt;div class="row-fluid"&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span8"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre> <pre>&lt;div class="row-fluid"&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre><p>Bootstrap 3:</p> <pre>&lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-8"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre> <pre>&lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt;...&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre><p> Also we can create some additional pane layouts. <br> For example:</p><p>Bootstrap 2:</p> <pre>&lt;div class="row-fluid"&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane1" id="Grid4_Pane1" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span8"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid8_Pane2" id="Grid8_Pane2" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre> <pre>&lt;div class="row-fluid"&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane1" id="Grid4_Pane1" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane2" id="Grid4_Pane2" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="span4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane3" id="Grid4_Pane3" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre><p>Bootstrap 3:</p> <pre>&lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane1" id="Grid4_Pane1" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-8"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid8_Pane2" id="Grid8_Pane2" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre> <pre>&lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane1" id="Grid4_Pane1" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane2" id="Grid4_Pane2" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="col-sm-4"&gt; &lt;div class="Grid4_Pane3" id="Grid4_Pane3" runat="server"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre><p>We hope you have found these tips useful. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions on responsive skin experience, please send feedback to us using the comments section below.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:43 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-store-customers’-must-have-modules DNN Store Customers’ Must-Have Modules <p>We've blogged before on the <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/1706/reviewing-your-purchases-creating-reviews-benefits-customers-vendors-and-yourself">importance of reviewing your DNN Store purchases</a>.&nbsp; The most obvious reason for this is that detailed reviews are very helpful for future customers when making a purchase.&nbsp; Perhaps you are comparing blog modules or ecommerce solutions; the feedback from previous purchasers can likely cause you to choose one product or another.&nbsp; <strong>Today, however, we'd like to take a look at some DNN Store customers' reviews to find out what they think are must-have modules.&nbsp; As you consider solutions for your website, our customers would recommend putting these at the top of your list!</strong></p><ol> <li>DNNDev's <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/xmod-pro-45-forms-and-views-for-databases" target="_blank">XMod Pro - Forms and Views for Databases</a><br> <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/XMod Pro Review 1.png"><br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/XMod Pro Review 2.png"></li><li>Evotiva's <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnbackup-722-backup-restore-and-clone-dnn-and-evoq-installations" target="_blank">DNNBackup</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnupgrade-121-accelerate-and-automate-dnn-upgrades" target="_blank">DNNUpgrade<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/DNNBackup Review 1.png"><br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/DNNBackup Review 2.png"><br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/DNNUpgrade Review 1.png"></a></li><li>DNN Sharp's <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/my-tokens-240-custom-dnn-tokens-with-razor-and-spark-support " target="_blank">My Tokens<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/My Tokens Review 1.png"><br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/My Tokens Review 2.png"></a></li><li>EasyDNNsolutions' <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-635-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds" target="_blank">EasyDNNnews<br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/EasyDNNnews Review 1.png"><br><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/EasyDNNnews Review 2.png"><br></a></li><li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/data-springs-collection-70 " target="_blank">Data Springs Collection</a><br> <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Data Springs Collection Review 1.png"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Data Springs Collection Review 2.png"></li></ol><p>We hope you've found this compilation helpful and would love to hear what your go-to DNN solutions are.&nbsp; Please comment below with any other must-have module suggestions and details on what makes them great!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:44 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-101 DNN 101 <h3>What is DNN and What can it do?</h3><p> If you are an IT company or web design agency then maybe DNN is just what you are looking for to create great websites for your customers. </p><p> Imagine delivering a robust CMS solution for you clients which empowers them and gives them the ability to manage their own website. DNN provides an intuitive web interface that allows your clients to manage and create their content. DNN can deliver your client's site optimized for the for mobile, tablet and desktop browsers to give the best possible experience.</p><p>DNN has been around a long time and is stable, secure and robust. The perfect CMS solution to build client sites on. If you've tried early versions of DNN, then you should take a fresh look at the latest version since its changed and improved a lot.</p><h3>What about my clients point of view?</h3><p> Your clients will love the fact that DNN is easy to use and provides a consistent interface when managing all the various different content types on their site.&nbsp;By using DNN for your clients, they get a lot of great features all as standard: SEO optimization, easy content management, robust security and support for cloud deployment.</p><p> DNN is the leading CMS application on the Microsoft .net platform with over 750,000 installs, &nbsp;trusted by large corporates, SME and individuals to run their websites.&nbsp;</p><p>Modules are the concept used in DNN to create different types of page content and site functionality. When you first install DNN you get a host of great modules as standard. To add more modules the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/">DNN Store</a> has thousands of additional modules covering pretty much every possible requirement.&nbsp;</p><h3>Taking it to the Next Level</h3><p> Here comes the best bit: the community edition of DNN is available for free. So for no outlay, you can start creating great CMS solutions for your clients. You get a lot of features as standard with the free community edition, which makes it a perfect fit for most clients.</p><p> The DNN eco-system contains a rich array of modules and skins that for a modest fee can provide pretty much any type of functionality your client desires.&nbsp;Is your client looking to take <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/event-planner-registration-module-300" target="_blank" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: initial;">event bookings online</a>? No problem, there is a module for that. Looking to run an <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cart-viper-310-ecommerce-store" target="_blank" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: initial;">online store</a>? No problem, you are covered on that too.</p><p> If you have a client with a requirement which can't be fulfilled with an off the shelf module, then you can easily locate DNN developers that can create you a custom module.</p><h3>Bonus Tips for For Creating a Great Site</h3><p>1. Pick a skin which is responsive, this means the site will look great on all screen sizes. Twitter Bootstrap 3 is a great framework, so make sure your skin is based on that. </p><p>2. When picking modules from the Store, always look at the reviews, ask questions to the developers and take up any free trials. </p><p>3. Don't necessary judge a product based on the price. A higher price doesn't necessary mean a better product or more features.</p><p>4. If you are looking to try DNN for the first time, an easy way to host is to create an Azure Website with DNN; then you can take it for a test drive.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:45 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile-easydnnsolutions Vendor Profile: EasyDNNsolutions <p>If you've been using DNN for even a short time, you've probably heard of <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/vendor-profile/easydnnsolutionscom">EasyDNNsolutions</a> and are likely using one of their modules, but did you know that EasyDNNsolutions had originally started developing their own CMS?&nbsp; Keep reading as Damir Kapustic of EasyDNNsolutions, developer of highly-rated and top-selling modules like <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnngallery-61-image-gallery-video-gallery-and-audio-gallery">EasyDNNgallery</a>, <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-635-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds">EasyDNNnews</a>, and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnrotator-605-image-video-and-html-slide-show">EasyDNNrotator</a>, answers questions about EasyDNNsolutions’ experience with DNN, the products they develop, advice for DNN users, and more.</p><ol> <li><strong>Describe your professional (and/or personal) experience relating to DNN. How long have you been using/developing for DNN?</strong><br>About the same time the first version of DNN was released, we started developing our own CMS solution for our web design clients' needs. Although we were very successful with projects where our own CMS solution was implemented, we realized it was not the right way to go, as it wasn't cost effective to develop all the functionalities our clients needed. In early 2007 we literally learned about the existence of DNN, and our first DNN project was to develop a cargo exchange service. Ever since then, we've used DNN for all our projects.</li><li> <strong>What first brought you to DNN, and what has kept you actively developing products for the community?</strong><br>When we were deciding on the proper CMS solution for our web design company, the same reasons were crucial that made thousands of other web design companies around the world choose DNN. It's a brilliant product whose functionalities can very easily be enhanced, thanks to a multitude of modules and skins. When there is no ready-made solution for a specific purpose, such solution can be developed in the form of a module. An additional attraction for us was the fact that the product has been developed based on Microsoft's technology.<br>As we've had ample experience in developing web solutions, gained over numerous projects, we are intimately familiar with the needs of both companies and individuals in industry, so it was our great desire to develop our own solutions we could then provide for the global market to use. We recognized the areas where the offer was inadequate as well as an area that was familiar to us, as we had already developed similar solutions. After a year and a half of development, in July 2010, we released the first version of our EasyDNNgallery module. The module immediately became very popular with users, so it opened a path to the rest of our modules, which were also warmly received by users and are currently among the most popular modules out there.</li><li> <strong>Tell us a little about the products you develop. Have you seen any particularly cool or unique implementations of them?</strong><br>We are lucky in the fact that new DNN sites using our products are appearing daily. It is not rare for our customers to surprise us with their brilliant implementations. We are proud of every web site using our products and grateful to users for each module they have purchased from us, allowing us to continue developing our products.<br>Our products are used for a large scope of web sites, from simple presentational sites, over blogs, all the way to complex news portals, which are our specialty.</li><li> <strong>If you were to tell a potential customer why they should purchase your products, what would you say?</strong><br>We would tell a potential customer that behind our products there is an experienced company with a team that continuously works on product development and user support. We are constantly enhancing our products, quickly fixing reported bugs, keeping them compatible with current versions of DNN and other technologies in use. We will gladly provide answers to all your questions or help you with the actual implementation. It is our wish to be a reliable partner to all our customers.</li><li> <strong>Your products are some of the most sold and highest rated on the DNN Store. One customer recently commented in a review: “I have been using EasyDNNgallery and EasyDNNnews for several years, and am very happy with these products. They have improved with each new release, adding functionality and settings flexibility.” Can you tell us a little about your development process and how you decide what to include in new releases. Do you have any plans for new features or products you can tell us about?</strong><br> <p><img style="width: 488px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/EasyDNNnews_The_ultimate_tool_for_pulishing_survival.jpg"></p><p><br>When developing our products we follow our own ideas, but nevertheless we acknowledge all the remarks, suggestions and desires from the part of our customers. Many functionalities we have implemented were a direct result of the feedback from our customers. Naturally, we cannot make every single wish come true, since there are so many of them. As our team is continuously developing our products, our customers in near and not-so-near future can count on plenty of new options in all our products.<br>Our goal is to enable our users to implement great solutions while spending as little time and effort as possible. Our focus over the next period will be on the ease of implementing both simple and complex solutions.</li><li><strong> What advice would you offer someone who is creating a DNN site?</strong><br>I would encourage them to be curious, to explore and experiment with DNN and modules, as their acquired knowledge will pay off abundantly. Whoever masters DNN can carry out first-class projects, such as can hardly be carried out in many other systems, or such as require a lot more effort to be invested.</li><li> <strong>What advice would you offer someone who is interested in developing modules/skins for DNN?</strong><br>I would advise them that it is only possible to succeed if you are focused on quality and innovative solutions, accompanied by good customer support and a serious relationship with clients. There is still a lot of space for new products. The diversity and abundance of available solutions contribute to the well-being of the entire eco system.</li><li> <strong>What do you think are the most important trends in website design/development? Are there any blogs or resources you read on a regular basis to keep up with current trends and technology?</strong><br>As can be expected, most trends in web design depend on the device which is used to access the web. As there are daily more and more devices with various screen sizes, Responsive web design has obviously become a standard. This has in turn set in motion other trends aimed at enhancing user experience at responsive pages. This refers to design, menus, typography, font size, content presentation… We take these trends into consideration in our product development.<br>We gather information on new technologies and trends from everywhere around and through different channels. As our team is multidisciplinary, with individuals pursuing different interests, we share the most interesting subjects from each field with each other.</li><li> <strong>Is there anything else you want to tell us?</strong><br>I recommend to everyone still searching for the suitable CMS for their web design business, or looking for a solution for their own site, to go for DNN. By its potentials and its quality DNN definitely belongs to the very top of CMS solutions, yet DNN is more than just CMS, it has correctly been called a platform. There are very few other systems (if any at all) providing such diverse possibilities of use, followed by easy implementation and a relatively easy learning curve.<br>DNN can help businesses and organizations of all sizes to enhance their business operation at low cost. If you are the person in charge of IT in your company or organization, by all means consider DNN as the solution for your intranet. If you are a company or an individual looking for a business opportunity, you must be aware that around the world there are dozens of millions of companies which are potential DNN users.</li></ol><p>Damir, thank you for your thoughtful answers to these questions, and thank you to everyone at EasyDNNsolutions for what you add to the DNN Community!&nbsp; Store Users, please use the comments below if you have any additional questions for EasyDNNsolutions.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:46 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/providing-feedback-through-the-dnn-store-how-the-store-can-enhance-customer-and-seller-communication Providing Feedback through the DNN Store: How the Store can enhance customer and seller communication <p>As I mentioned in our first DNN Store Blog post, our goal in creating a blog on the DNN Store was that it would “become a resource for Store sellers, customers, and the DNN Community as a whole by providing information about products sold here, the sellers who develop them, and the community that uses them.”</p><p><strong>But not only do we want to use this blog as a means of giving valuable information to the community, we also would like to collect information from Store users through the blog</strong>; this information will help us better understand our sellers and customers and what we can do to enhance the Store. So, please keep reading, and start commenting, because this blog is all about learning more about you – the DNN Store user!</p><p>Let’s consider this scenario: you’re a Store customer, and you have just bought a new module or skin. You’ve installed it on your site, and it’s working well, but as you spend more time using the product, you think: “Wouldn’t it be great if it could do <em>this</em>!” or “The only thing that would make this product better would be<em> that</em>.”</p><p><strong>How do you provide this feedback to the product’s developer? Do you create a support ticket with your feature request? Do you leave a review on the Store (as pictured below)?</strong></p><p><img style="width: 903px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Feedback 1.JPG"></p><p>It is obvious to us that many of the developers who sell products here on the Store care about their customers and the needs and feedback of these customers. Take, for example, ZLDNN to which a customer sent “2-3 suggestions for new features, some of which [were] not really easy” and implemented them all in the next release.&nbsp;</p><p><img style="width: 914px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Feedback 2.JPG"></p><p>From customer reviews like the one below, we know that many products keep getting “better and better,” and we know that this requires both customer feedback and developer commitment. What we don’t know is how these conversations most often occur. <strong>Customers, please take a minute to comment here about how you communicate your feedback to Store sellers. Sellers, how do you collect suggestions from your customers?</strong></p><p><img style="width: 936px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Review Feedback 3.JPG"></p><p>Thinking about a slightly different situation: <strong>customers, what do you do if you’re looking for a product that doesn’t exist?</strong> One example that comes to mind is a customer who was recently looking for a module to implement on his site with similar functionality as Ebay, where users could send and collect payments from each other. Although there are many ecommerce solutions available on the Store, nothing quite fits the requirements. <strong>Vendors, where do you look for ideas for new products?&nbsp;</strong></p><p>As we think about the value of feedback, it’s important to note that understanding the consensus around the feedback is also important, and this is where we would like to step it up a notch. The DNN Store currently offers a few ways to provide a product’s developer with suggestions - the helpdesk and product reviews, but there isn’t a way for vendors to gauge how many customers share the same opinions, or for a conversation to take place around these suggestions.</p><p>However, if you’ve seen <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Ph6CYdVyc&feature=em-subs_digest">DNNHero’s May News</a>, you may remember they discussed a public Wish List for the DNN Store, and we agree that this could be a very cool addition. Using the Ideas feature of Evoq Social (also used for the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/voice">Community Voice</a> on dnnsoftware.com) customers would propose ideas, which would then be voted on by other Store users. Ideas could include:&nbsp;</p><ul> <li>Feature suggestions for existing modules</li><li>New products DNN Community members would like to see</li><li>New products DNN Store Sellers are considering creating</li><li>Enhancements to the Store that sellers and/or customers would like to have implemented</li></ul><p>DNN has always thrived on participation from the Community, and we think this could be a great opportunity to foster additional communication among Store customers, sellers, and DNN Community members, so please take a minute to comment on the questions we've explored in this post:</p><ol><li>Customers, how do you provide feedback to a product’s developer?&nbsp; Sellers, how do you collect suggestions from your customers?</li><li>Customers, what do you do if you’re looking for a product that doesn’t exist?&nbsp; Sellers, where do you look for ideas for new products?</li><li>Would you like to see a public Wish List implemented on the Store?</li><li>Do you already have feature requests, ideas for new products, or improvements to the Store you'd like to share? </li></ol> urn:store:1:blog:post:47 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/5-reasons-active-directory-integration-is-essential-to-your-dnn-intranet 5 Reasons Active-Directory Integration is Essential to your DNN Intranet <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/144/92/8592/adpro_banner.jpg"></p><p>The AD-Pro suite of modules is the complete set of integration tools for companies using Active Directory - one of the most popular user directory and management servers in use today.</p><p>If your company uses Active Directory (“AD”) and are on the DNN platform, then there are 5 key reasons to consider integrating these two great products:</p><p><strong>1) SEAMLESS AUTHENTICATION FOR EMPLOYEES</strong></p><p>Make it easy for your users and let them log on to the intranet site using the same username and password as they use to log-on to your network. To make things even easier, you can enable auto-log in where your users simply browse to the intranet, and they will be automatically logged in.</p><p>The AD-Pro Authentication module authenticates users with their AD credentials directly against AD. AD passwords are never stored in DNN. Once your employee is authenticated, they will be automatically registered in DNN, and their profile updated with the latest information in AD. This information can be used to auto-populate forms and dynamic content on your site.</p><p><strong>2) ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE, CUSTOMIZABLE EMPLOYEE DIRECTORIES&nbsp;</strong></p><p>At its simplest level, an employee directory is a telephone book of contact details. Intranets are about people, and a directory allows employees to find people to help them with their job. </p><p>The AD-Pro User Directory module connects directly to your Active Directory and presents a searchable, filterable list of users with their latest contact information. You can control what information is displayed, and you can limit the directory to specific groups of users. For example, you can have a page that lists only IT Support Desk contacts, filtered against that security group in AD.</p><p><strong>3) TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF YOUR HELPDESK</strong></p><p>Let your employees manage their own user profiles and passwords from within the context of your intranet without them having to call IT every time they want to change simple things like their phone number or reset their passwords.</p><p>The AD-Pro User profile module lets users update both their AD profiles and their DNN profiles all from with DNN. This means they can add extra information to their user profiles in DNN (like “Sales Region” or “Interests”) without cluttering up your AD. </p><p>The Password Expiry Alert and Password Reset modules notify logged-in users that their password is about to expire - and allows them to reset their password from within the DNN Intranet.</p><p><strong>4) ACCESS CONTROL IN ONE LOCATION</strong></p><p>In addition to profile synchronization, AD employee security group information is mapped to DNN roles and permissions when the user logs in. This allows you to manage access to pages or to grant editing rights - directly from AD. For example, you can create a “”Leadership Team” section on your site - and if you get promoted, you will automatically be given access to the pages on the site where the rest of your team are. Your IT team can now remotely control access to site and content from where it should be - your Active Directory.</p><p><strong>5) ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ACCESS FOR ANYONE</strong></p><p>Your intranet doesn't have to sit inside your network - you can open it up to the internet to allow partners, suppliers and customers to access secure sections. These external users can have their access managed by the DNN security model, while your employees are managed by AD.</p><p>You have a number of choices when it comes to communicating with your Active Directory. You can direct connect internally or expose your site to the Internet by opening up your firewall or host your site with&nbsp;an external provider and connect back to an LDAP port connected to your AD. &nbsp;AD-Pro is Azure ready and can be installed on Azure cloud servers.</p><p style="margin-left: 220px;">-------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Fortune 500 companies, schools, universities and businesses worldwide use AD-Pro to integrate, secure and make accessible their intranets, extranets and community portals. AD-Pro can be installed on both the DNN Platform and Evoq editions (content and social), as it requires no changes to the core or web.config in DNN & Evoq and can be installed in minutes. Trial editions are available for all modules and you can save $345 by purchasing the complete bundle.</p><p>All AD-Pro modules are backed with professional support from Glanton through our help desk.</p><p><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-directory-complete-bundle-v2" target="_blank">Find out more about the AD-Pro modules for Active Directory and DNN Intranets</a></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:48 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/5-reasons-acitve-directory-integration-is-essential-to-your-dnn-intranet 5 Reasons Acitve-Directory Integration is Essential to your DNN Intranet <p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/144/92/8592/adpro_banner.jpg"></p><p>The AD-Pro suite of modules is the complete set of integration tools for companies using Active Directory - one of the most popular user directory and management servers in use today.</p><p>If your company uses Active Directory (“AD”) and are on the DNN platform, then there are 5 key reasons to consider integrating these two great products:</p><p><strong>1) SEAMLESS AUTHENTICATION FOR EMPLOYEES</strong></p><p>Make it easy for your users and let them log on to the intranet site using the same username and password as they use to log-on to your network. To make things even easier, you can enable auto-log in where your users simply browse to the intranet, and they will be automatically logged in.</p><p>The AD-Pro Authentication module authenticates users with their AD credentials directly against AD. AD passwords are never stored in DNN. Once your employee is authenticated, they will be automatically registered in DNN, and their profile updated with the latest information in AD. This information can be used to auto-populate forms and dynamic content on your site.</p><p><strong>2) ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE, CUSTOMIZABLE EMPLOYEE DIRECTORIES&nbsp;</strong></p><p>At its simplest level, an employee directory is a telephone book of contact details. Intranets are about people, and a directory allows employees to find people to help them with their job. </p><p>The AD-Pro User Directory module connects directly to your Active Directory and presents a searchable, filterable list of users with their latest contact information. You can control what information is displayed, and you can limit the directory to specific groups of users. For example, you can have a page that lists only IT Support Desk contacts, filtered against that security group in AD.</p><p><strong>3) TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF YOUR HELPDESK</strong></p><p>Let your employees manage their own user profiles and passwords from within the context of your intranet without them having to call IT every time they want to change simple things like their phone number or reset their passwords.</p><p>The AD-Pro User profile module lets users update both their AD profiles and their DNN profiles all from with DNN. This means they can add extra information to their user profiles in DNN (like “Sales Region” or “Interests”) without cluttering up your AD. </p><p>The Password Expiry Alert and Password Reset modules notify logged-in users that their password is about to expire - and allows them to reset their password from within the DNN Intranet.</p><p><strong>4) ACCESS CONTROL IN ONE LOCATION</strong></p><p>In addition to profile synchronization, AD employee security group information is mapped to DNN roles and permissions when the user logs in. This allows you to manage access to pages or to grant editing rights - directly from AD. For example, you can create a “”Leadership Team” section on your site - and if you get promoted, you will automatically be given access to the pages on the site where the rest of your team are. Your IT team can now remotely control access to site and content from where it should be - your Active Directory.</p><p><strong>5) ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ACCESS FOR ANYONE</strong></p><p>Your intranet doesn't have to sit inside your network - you can open it up to the internet to allow partners, suppliers and customers to access secure sections. These external users can have their access managed by the DNN security model, while your employees are managed by AD.</p><p>You have a number of choices when it comes to communicating with your Active Directory. You can direct connect internally or expose your site to the Internet by opening up your firewall or host your site with&nbsp;an external provider and connect back to an LDAP port connected to your AD. &nbsp;AD-Pro is Azure ready and can be installed on Azure cloud servers.</p><p style="margin-left: 220px;">-------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Fortune 500 companies, schools, universities and businesses worldwide use AD-Pro to integrate, secure and make accessible their intranets, extranets and community portals. AD-Pro can be installed on both the DNN Platform and Evoq editions (content and social), as it requires no changes to the core or web.config in DNN & Evoq and can be installed in minutes. Trial editions are available for all modules and you can save $345 by purchasing the complete bundle.</p><p>All AD-Pro modules are backed with professional support from Glanton through our help desk.</p><p><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/active-directory-complete-bundle-v2" target="_blank">Find out more about the AD-Pro modules for Active Directory and DNN Intranets</a></p> urn:store:1:blog:post:49 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/dnn-store-helpdesk-tips-and-dnn-platform-resources DNN Store Helpdesk Tips and DNN Platform Resources <h4><strong>DNN Store Helpdesk Tips</strong></h4><p>Store users - customers, potential customers, vendors, and anyone else with questions about the DNN Store and the modules and skins available on it can use the Store’s <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/help-center/help-desk">helpdesk</a> for pre- or post- sales support. This helpdesk allows you to contact Store staff, as well as the developers of products for sale on the Store.</p><p>Here are a few tips for using the helpdesk:</p><ol> <li>Are you comparing multiple products before choosing what to buy?&nbsp; Do you have a question about if a particular module fulfills your requirements?&nbsp; These questions can often be answered best by the module's developer.&nbsp; You can contact them directly with the "Ask a Question" link on the product listing (shown below).<br><br><img style="width: 761px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Ask a Question 2.JPG"></li><li>Selecting "Add a Ticket" under the Help Center tab will also allow you to create a ticket.&nbsp; Selecting the first option, "Product Name," will create a ticket directly for the module or skin's developer.&nbsp; Creating a ticket with one of the other options will send the ticket to Store staff.<br><br> <p><img style="width: 776px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Create a Ticket.jpg"></li><li>Customers and sellers on the DNN Store come from many different countries.&nbsp; As the person who creates a ticket and the person who responds to the ticket are often in different time zones, it is helpful to be as thorough as possible when creating your ticket.&nbsp; For technical support, be sure to include your order number, the version of the module you are using, details of any error you are receiving, etc., and upload screen shots.&nbsp; Providing this information in the beginning will often lead to a quicker resolution, as the developer or Store staff member will not have to ask for these additional details. <strong></strong></li></ol><h4>DNN Platform Resources</h4><p>Although our goal is to help our users as much as possible, this helpdesk is not intended for general support questions for the DNN Platform, so we’d like to take this opportunity to point our users to some dnnsoftware.com resources that you should find helpful:</p><ul> </ul><ol><li>Whether you are new to DNN, or have been using it for years, the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/videos">Video Library</a> offers a wealth of information.&nbsp; Check out video tutorials on subjects like redirecting website visitors to your mobile website using DNN, how to move a module to another page in DNN 7, and much more.</li><li>The <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forums">Community Forums</a> contain discussions among DNN employees and users.&nbsp; Search by keyword and within a date range to find information most useful to you, and subscribe to threads to receive notification upon update. </li><li>The <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/download/manuals">Online Manual</a> is available to provide information on installing, upgrading, creating, configuring, and maintaining DNN websites.&nbsp; Are you using an older version of DNN?&nbsp; Manuals for previous versions of DNN can be accessed from this page too.</li><li>Community members ask and answer questions about DNN though the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/answers">Community Exchange</a>.&nbsp; You can ask your own questions, search for answers to existing questions, sort by recent activity, most views, most answers, and more.</li><li>Comprised of entries from DNN employees and Community members, the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog">Community Blog</a> can be browsed, searched, commented on, and shared through social media.&nbsp; Recent blog posts include:</li></ol><ul><li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154982/spring-2014-dnnmvps">Spring 2014 DNN MVP's</a></li><li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154975/moving-a-dnn-install-to-microsoft-azure-websites">Moving a DNN Install to Microsoft Azure Websites</a></li><li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/154980/aspnet-file-change-notifications-and-dnn">ASP.NET File Change Notifications and DNN</a></li></ul><p>We hope this information will help you in using the Store and in getting any questions you have about DNN answered.&nbsp; In the comments section, we'd love to hear which of the resources above you have found most helpful when you have a DNN question.&nbsp; Are there any other resources you look to?</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:50 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/make-your-store-stand-out Make Your Store Stand Out <p> <strong> </strong></p><p><center></p><p> <strong></strong></p><p></center></p><p><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: -1px;">Make Your Store Stand Out</strong></p><p> When you choose DNN for your eCommerce website, there are a lot of factors you need to consider. While it can be a little overwhelming at first, don’t be discouraged! DNN ranks highest in ease of use, whether you are a seasoned developer or a first-time merchant staring your own online store. Use this guide to help you make your store stand out.</p><h4> <strong>Skinning</strong> </h4><p> The first thing your customers will see is the overall layout and design of your website. Whether you want a custom skin, or you find one you love out of the box, it is important to use one that has the look and feel you are trying to convey to anyone who visits your website. Customers will begin to associate with your brand if your website has a consistent design scheme.</p><h4> <strong>Your Home Page</strong> </h4><p> While the skin you choose is important, don’t forget about the landing page of your website-- or your “Home Page.” Because this is the first page many potential customers will see, DNN makes it easy to jazz up. You can pick from a multitude of home page slider modules, social media feed modules and blog plug-ins. Utilizing options like these are crucial in setting your website above the rest.</p><h4> <strong>Mobile-Friendly</strong> </h4><p> In this day and age, a significant amount of your web traffic could very well be mobile users. “Nearly two-thirds (63%) of cell phone owners now use their phone to go online, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.” This is a careful consideration to make when considering all things website related. You will want to make sure that your skin is mobile friendly and shrinks down proportionately on smartphones and tablets. Also, when finding modules on the DNN store, you should always make sure the modules are workable across all smartphone platforms.</p><h4> <strong>Choosing Your Module</strong> </h4><p> The significance of choosing the right &nbsp;module for your eCommerce store cannot be overstated. While there are plenty of options for DNN, you want to make sure you are selecting the right software for you and your website. Not every module will be a good fit. Some things you may want to take into consideration are features that you need and what integrated payment gateways you might use. Take some time to think about merchant accounts and payment gateways. Some modules have hosting packages and others do not. The most important thing in selecting a module for your online store is utilizing a free trial. Here at Smith Consulting, we always encourage a “fly before you buy” mentality because there is no sense in purchasing software you won’t be able to use.</p><h4> <strong>Applying It</strong> </h4><p> When you start adding these elements up, it shows how many pieces of a puzzle can come together to make one really attractive and functional website. We encourage you to try out <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/smith-shopping-cart-v65-ecommerce-store"> SmithCart </a>or our hosting and let us know what you think. We offer free 15 day free trials for all of our modules. Whether you are just starting out, or looking to revamp your existing site, with DNN it can be easy to make your store stand out.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:51 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/top-6-reasons-why-you-should-keep-your-dnn-modules-up-to-date Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Keep Your DNN Modules Up To Date <p> We all know that modules are a major part of why DNN powers thousands of websites around the world. The ability to extend DNN to meet just about any need is a powerful motivator for choosing DNN over other alternatives. </p> <p> With over 1000 DNN modules listed in DNN Store alone, there’s no question that the modules arguably are the most powerful tool in DNN’s toolbox. </p> <h3>Update?</h3> <p> Any good software releases upgrades on a regular schedule with the basic purpose of fixing bugs and adding new features. DNN modules are no exception… </p> <h3>A DNN Module Is Not An Egyptian Pyramid</h3> <p> It’s true! You build the pyramid and there it is, a lovely structure of stone. It's done. It can endure for millennia. </p> <p> By contrast, a DNN module is never done. Because of the dynamic nature of web, where technologies are changing rapidly, DNN modules also must evolve, whether that means new features, less bloat, or both. </p> <p> Even though new versions of DNN modules are constantly released, too many module users still use older versions. Why? Well, maybe because they need concrete arguments to justify the price, time, or fear of the unknown, other than the usual “because it’s a new better version.” </p> <p> Therefore, I have put together 6 reasons (in no particular order) why DNNizens should update their modules. </p> <h4>Added Functionality</h4> <p> If we take a look at some popular modules in DNN Store, the contrast between the early versions of them and the latest versions is stark; early versions were simple with very limited functionality, while the latest versions can be moulded to create incredibly cool stuff. </p> <p> Just take a look at <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnnews-635-blog-article-events-documents-classifieds-and-rss-feeds">EasyDNNnews</a> module by EasyDNNsolutions or <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/sunblognuke-6x-unique-blog-news-articles-module-with-dnn7">SunBlogNuke</a> module by SunBlogNuke.com… </p> <p> A perfect example is also the popular <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/action-form-34-the-easiest-form-builder-for-dnn/r/840a964d512b4073bb2f">Action Form</a> module. The initial release was barebones containing only the minimal amount of features needed to create simple forms. Updates to the modules have greatly expanded on this idea, adding innumerable powerful features, integrations with external services and much more. </p> <p> Many of the present day features of these DNN modules that we take for granted were introduced gradually, many of them based on customers' feedback. </p> <p> So if you neglect to update your DNN modules to the latest version, you might miss out on a number of useful, new features and added functionality. </p> <h4>Bugs And Security Fixes</h4> <p> We all know that any software that is as popular as DNN will become a target for hackers. DNN modules are susceptible to bugs and security issues, too. Unfortunately, sometimes a bug will be found that hackers can use to their advantage to access and/or deface a DNN portal. </p> <p> Most of DNN module developers are quick to react to these security exploits, releasing an update containing a quick fix for the problem. In this way, the sites that continue to run the old versions of a fixed DNN module will still be susceptible to attacks from savvy hackers, who abuse the security hole. </p> <p> So make sure to update your DNN modules regularly to minimise the number of bugs in it and to keep your DNN portal safe against potential attacks from hackers. </p> <h4>Better Performances</h4> <p> Not only do updates to your DNN modules provide extra security measures, but they also just provide a better functioning system. Over time and with added use on the market, small glitches may be discovered that inversely affect performance. Once these issues are fixed, your modules may seem cleaner and faster performing, depending on the fix needed. </p> <h4>Continued Development and Updates</h4> <p> Module developers usually continue to update their modules’ coding to improve the overall design to keep up with current web trends. </p> <p> They will also keep the modules up to date with the latest release of DNN. This ensures that you won’t get stuck with an incompatible module down the path and no chance of getting any help (when you have active customers and members, this is a situation you DO NOT want to get into). </p> <h4>Customer Support</h4> <p> Developers offering DNN modules tend to stand behind their modules and provide good customer support for a determined period of time. It won’t last forever. An update will be required then to keep the same level of service. The developer can’t really stand behind his modules and answer your questions if he is not getting paid in some way. </p> <h4>Competitive Edge</h4> <p> The updated versions of most of DNN modules usually offer more functionality and superior back-end usability. This can give you an immediate advantage over your competitors. </p> <p> If your competitor is using the latest version of a DNN module and you are only using an older version (knowing that the latest version is better), then you need to acknowledge that your competitor has better tools than you do. It is hard to win against an opponent who has superior technology! </p> <h3>Closing...</h3> <p> Updating your DNN modules may necessitate time or money. However, it will be worth it in terms of security and efficiency. And while you may be perfectly content with the features of the current version of your DNN modules, the new versions might have some additional features that you and your visitors will appreciate. </p> <p> So, DNNizens, make sure to update your DNN modules in order to have the most recent, best performing, and most secure version in use for your website. It is more than beneficial to do so – It is just plain smart, especially for those wanting to use the modules to build a business web presence. </p> <p> Thankfully, the discussion does not end with me. Now it’s your turn. I’d love to have your thoughts on this! </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:52 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/3-features-every-dnn-module-must-have 3 Features Every DNN Module Must Have <p> DNN has always had a myriad of extensions to meet almost any business requirements. So many that it’s always a challenge to decide on one module from many competing products.</p><p> Consider the following checklist before clicking on “Checkout” for your next DNN Module(s):</p><ol> </p><li><strong>SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION</strong><br> <strong></strong><br> Your site is your store front, and it’s imperative that it’s always accessible. DNN Modules that overlook SEO considerations have the potential to not only decrease your SERPs ranking but to remove them altogether from search results.</p><p> <strong> </strong> </p><p> <u>DUPLICATE CONTENT:</u><strong>&nbsp;</strong>Make sure that the module does not duplicate content. For example, if the module uses query parameters such as <a href="http://www.yoursite.com?ItemId=12">www.yoursite.com?ItemId=12</a> or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.yoursite.com?article=dnn-module-features">www.yoursite.com?article=dnn-module-features</a> then every unique URL should have a distinct Page Title, Meta Description & Keywords.&nbsp; </p><p style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; display: inline !important;"> <u>FRIENDLY URLs:</u> </p><p style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; display: inline !important;"> &nbsp;The single most effective SEO consideration is to ensure that the module integrates with your Friendly URL provider and creates friendly URLs. This is no longer a concern with introduction of improved URLs beginning with DNN 7.1. <br> </p><p style="display: inline !important;"> <br> <u>AJAX</u>:&nbsp; </p><p> Make sure AJAX is limited to&nbsp;back end&nbsp;interaction and not used as a primarily driver of content.&nbsp;Automatic content fetch on page scroll is great but if not implemented correctly would result in content that’s not indexed by search engines. If the module uses AJAX extensively then ensure that the URL Hash (such as <a href="http://www.yoursite.com#section-1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">www.yoursite.com#section-1</a>) is changed with every change in content presentation, and Hash URLs exist in static/root document to be indexed by search engines. </li> </p><li><strong>PERFORMANCE&nbsp;<br> </strong> </p><p style="display: inline !important;"> The average web users’ attention span is under 7 seconds, so it’s crucial that the DNN Module is performance optimized and renders as quickly as possible. <br> <br> <u>CACHING</u><strong>:</strong>&nbsp;Every DNN Module should implement caching to replace frequent&nbsp;round trips&nbsp;back to the database and / or file system. <br> <br> <u>CLIENT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:</u></p><p style="display: inline !important;">&nbsp;Introduced in DNN 6.1, CRM framework allows the site to load much quicker by combing all JavaScript & CSS resources into composite files, reducing the number of HTTP requests required to render a page. Ensure that the DNN Module implements the Client Resource Management framework.&nbsp; </p><p style="display: inline !important;"><br> <u>JQUERY FRAMEWORK:</u><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="display: inline !important;">Confirm that the module integrates with DNN API to request jQuery or jQuery UI framework rather than injecting their own scripts, which results in increased page size and conflicts across other modules and components. </p><p style="display: inline !important;"> <strong><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></b></strong><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br> </b> </li> </p><li><strong>USER EXPERIENCE</strong><br> <strong> </p><p style="display: inline !important; font-weight: normal;"> It’s a given that the DNN Module must have the required features that meet your business requirements. It’s imperative that it also has a satisfying user experience. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong> </strong> </p><p> <strong></strong> </p><p><u>INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE:</u><strong>&nbsp;</strong>Make sure the User Interface is intuitive and easy to follow. If you as the admin/integrator can’t accomplish basic tasks without looking over documentation again and again, then it’s likely your clients / end users will be calling you over and over again as well.</p><p> <u>WELL DOCUMENTED:</u><strong> </strong>Make sure the module includes documentation with easy to follow screenshots and/or videos.&nbsp;<br> <strong></strong><br> <u>EXCELLENT SUPPORT:</u><strong>&nbsp;</strong>Any software is as good as its support. Make sure the support is prompt and competent to address your business requirements. It’s always a good idea to start with a pre-sales question.</li></ol> urn:store:1:blog:post:53 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/5-tips-for-choosing-the-right-e-commerce-module 5 Tips for Choosing the Right E-Commerce Module <p>One of the primary reasons for any business to have a website is to earn money. Sometimes this act of earning money is indirect, such as generating a lead or building a brand presence. However, the other case is far more direct indeed – you want to sell products and/or services of some kind. In the latter, you will need some kind of e-commerce solution to manage transactions, products, promotions, and more.</p><p>The following tips are geared towards helping you make the right decision the first time you embark upon choosing your e-commerce solution. You might already be in another solution and already know this, but once you deploy your site with an e-commerce solution, it will be quite expensive and time consuming to move to another one.</p><h3>1 – DOES IT MEET YOUR BASIC REQUIREMENTS?</h3><p>Every e-commerce solution will appear to give you some kind of laundry list of features or capabilities. For most, this list ends up becoming a generic checklist of matching terms. Most often, you will need to dig deeper, but you need to at least compare your requirements list against the list of available features.</p><p>Don’t leave it there though. Basic requirements rarely covers the actual needs that the site will have. For instance, it’s not enough to know that you can create a promotion to entice customers with sales and coupons. What kind of other promotions can you create? What kind of qualifications can you apply to an offer or sale? Can you apply promotions to something very specific, such as a role, user, group of users, cart conditions, or more?</p><p>Dig deeper into your own requirements before you dig into the requirements in the cart.</p><h3>2 – CONTACT THE VENDOR</h3><p>Support is a word that gets thrown around like candy. Everyone touts their support, so how do you know if the support is actually worth paying for?</p><p>Contact the vendor at some point during you evaluation or selection process. See how long it takes for them to respond. Pay special attention to their responses and whether they answered your questions. Did the answer really meet your need? Perhaps even ask the same question to multiple vendors and compare the responses.</p><p>Another thing to think about is community-based support. You cannot always afford the price tag for an official support channel. Are you able to get support from a community? Are there other people contributing to it? Does this area look active? The popularity of the free support could be an indication of how much the product is being used by others like you.</p><h3>3 – CAN IT BE CUSTOMIZED AND UPGRADED?</h3><p>There is no such thing in any industry as software that works perfectly for your scenario out of the box. It simply doesn’t exist. You will always have a need to do something more specific with a payment provider, connect at very key moments with a CRM or ERP system, or need to talk directly to the e-commerce solution from another platform. These are incredibly common scenarios, but e-commerce solutions rarely make these kind of features accessible or easy to use.</p><p>Make sure your solution includes things like an API and other extension points to make sure that you not only can write code, but that you can also change as much of the customer views as possible. Ideally, you should be able to change everything about how the e-commerce solution works with a minimal amount of code and effort.</p><p>This shouldn’t take you off of the upgrade path either. All too often, an e-commerce solution will allow you to have the source code or make customizations to the code for you. However, once this happens, you can no longer upgrade to take advantage of bug fixes, security updates, or new features.</p><h3>4 – CAN YOUR CLIENT USE IT?</h3><p>You may end up finding something that checks all of the checkboxes in one way or another. This isn’t always enough. Probably the biggest checkbox of all is to determine whether or not your client or other users can use the solution as well.</p><p>Many e-commerce solutions are built by developers and involving a designer to help make the various features usable is an after-thought at best. Doing something as simple as creating a product, category, or promotion should be easy and you shouldn’t require a user manual to do it. The views that are used for managing your cart such as products, orders, and reports should be intuitive.</p><p>Remember… You are probably going to hand this off to another group of users to maintain. How many phone calls do you want afterwards? How much is your time worth?</p><h3>5 – TRY IT OUT!</h3><p>At the end of the day, no other tip will ever be as valuable as asking you to grab a trial (there better be one) and trying it out yourself. It should install easily, get you up and running quickly, and you should literally be able to begin managing your products in minutes. Any other result should be unacceptable. If it takes you longer to do this much, imagine how much longer it will be to manage other aspects of the store over time.</p><p>Grab yourself a copy of the e-commerce solution and take it on a test spin. Not just yourself, but your other users, developers, and designers. Get their input. Find out which solution is going to give you the best total cost of ownership and the best return on investment.</p><h3>6 – BONUS TIP</h3><p>Save yourself some money! This blog post comes at a very convenient time for us. For this month only, you can <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce/r/78057F7E7B704F66AC55?utm_source=HCC&utm_medium=banner-blog&utm_campaign=springforward">save yourself $200 on the purchase of Hotcakes Commerce</a> to help your spring-time budget. There is no better time to get your e-commerce project up and running in time for the fall shopping season. Don’t put it off and miss the sale. Get your Hotcakes license today!</p><p>We at Hotcakes Commerce certainly hope that these tips help you while you begin to put your plans into action for your next e-commerce project. Our awesome customers remind us of these things every day, so we couldn’t be more passionate about helping you out as well. No matter which solution you choose, make sure it’s the right one.</p><p>This blog entry is cross-posted from the Hotcakes Commerce blog.</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:54 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/better-than-a-wish-list-your-dnn-store-watch-list Better than a Wish List: Your DNN Store Watch List <p>Every so often, we receive a request from a DNN Store customer to add a Wish List to the Store; what these customers don’t realize is that <strong>we currently have something more powerful than a simple Wish List – A Watch List</strong>. I’d like to bring this unique feature to the attention to our users, and hope you all will find it useful!</p><p>Store users can utilize the Watch List to keep track of products they are interested in, receive notifications of new releases or price changes, and can create categories for these items. To manage your Watch List, select <strong>My Watch List</strong> under the <strong>My Account</strong> tab.</p><p><img style="width: 869px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Watch List 1.png"></p><p>Here you can manage your Watch List and create categories for the items you are watching. If you work for a website development company and are managing several projects, this may be of particular use to you. Create a category for each client/project you are working on, and add the products that will meet their requirements to that category.</p><p>Each product listing contains an “Add to Watch List” link, and selecting this will allow you to watch the product, assign it to a Watch Category, and even create notes about that product – what specific requirements it meets, any further questions you have about the product, features on its road map that you are waiting for, etc.</p><p><img style="width: 605px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Watch List 2.png"></p><p>Once a product has been added to your Watch List, you will receive email notification when new versions of that product are released, or when the price has changed. </p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Watch List 3.png"></p><p>Whether you’re anticipating the release of a new version, tracking a module’s price, or building product lists for clients, we’d love to hear how you are using the Watch List. What products are you watching? </p> urn:store:1:blog:post:55 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/reviewing-your-purchases-creating-reviews-benefits-customers-vendors-and-yourself Reviewing Your Purchases: Creating reviews benefits customers, vendors, and yourself <p>More and more, customers of online stores rely on product reviews when making purchases. They look to others’ experiences when making choices about what to buy, and this is no different for DNN Store Customers, who look to reviews to answer questions like:</p><ul> <li>Did the product do what was advertised?</li><li>Was it easy to install?</li><li>What is the quality of support I can expect to receive if I do run into questions?</li></ul><p>Here is an example of a detailed review of the popular <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dynamic-registration-50" target="_blank">Dynamic Registration module</a> that gives this kind of valuable information to other users:</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Dynamic Registration Review.jpg"></p><p>The most obvious reason to review your purchases is to note this information for other customers, knowing that at the same time these other customers are reviewing products you may consider in the future. However, there are other advantages to leaving product reviews here on the DNN Store.</p><p>First, leaving a review can be beneficial to a module/skin’s developer. Maybe you’ve found a bug that the developer didn’t know existed, or brought attention to an area of documentation that was lacking. Based on factors like experience or project requirements, different customers will have different experiences with the same products. Even if a product has been around for several years, one customer may point out something that the vendor hasn’t heard before, and this will help them develop a stronger product. Furthermore, if the developer sees that multiple customers have the same feature request (as pictured below), they may add this to the product’s road map, or place a larger importance on including it in a future release.</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/EasyDNNgallery review.jpg"></p><p>In turn, this means leaving a review can also be beneficial to you, the customer. Most developers care about their product ratings and want good (4 or 5 star) reviews. If they can remedy a situation that caused a lower rating/bad review, they often will, and if you’ve taken the time to give a detailed (and fair) review of their product, they will value your suggestions. Here are a few examples:</p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Dixit Review.jpg"></p><p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Nevo Review.png"></p><p>Customers will receive email prompts to add reviews 30 days after making a purchase from the DNN Store, and at any time, customers can submit reviews from the “Add Reviews” page of their account. With over 2000 transactions made on the DNN Store each month, customer reviews have the potential to be a great resource for the DNN community.</p><p>Have you made a purchase from the DNN Store recently? If so, take a minute to make sure you have <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/my-account/add-reviews" target="_blank">added a review</a>, and feel free to leave a comment here about what module or skin you would recommend for other DNN community members!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:56 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/try-them-before-you-buy-them-5-modules-that-offer-free-trials Try Them Before you Buy Them: 5 modules that offer free trials <p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Welcome to the DNN Store Blog!</strong>&nbsp; We hope this blog will become a resource for Store sellers, customers, and the DNN Community as a whole by providing information about products sold here, the sellers who develop them, and the community that uses them.&nbsp; If there is anything you'd like to read about, please contact us at <a href="mailto:store@dnnsoftware.com">store@dnnsoftware.com</a>.&nbsp; We would also like to encourage you to use the comments to communicate with Store Staff, sellers, customers, and community members.&nbsp; </p><p>You may have read <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/cid/427803/3-simple-criteria-for-choosing-modules-at-the-dnn-store">3 Simple Criteria for Choosing Modules at the DNN Store </a>from our company blog last week, and we'd like to expand on that in our first few Store Blog posts with a few suggestions when purchasing from the Store:</p><p><img style="width: 260px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/DNNStore_600x325.png"></p><p><em><strong>Let's say you’ve looked at the demo sites; you’ve read customer reviews; you’ve e-mailed developers to ask questions, but you’re still undecided which solution you want to purchase</strong>.</em> Or maybe you’re thinking about adding a feature to your site, but not 100% sure yet. Does this sound familiar? If so, this is where free trails come into play, and many products sold on the DNN Store offer free trials. Here we’ll highlight a few:</p><ol><li><strong>Canam Wiki</strong> – Designed for information collaboration, both the <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/canam-wiki-std-2">Standard</a> and <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/canam-wiki-pro-2">Pro</a> editions of this module offer 30 day free trials. With features that include DNN Search integration, tags/categories, WYSIWYG editor, comments, export/import, and footnotes, one customer reviewed this wiki module as “powerful and flexible” and commented that, “It's been easy to customize and organize. We've uploaded and adapted content from Word files, other wikis and web pages without any problems at all.”</li><li>Two popular modules by developer DNN Specialists also offer 30 day free trials:<ol><li><strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/the-reservations-module-70-online-appointment-booking-scheduling">The Reservations Module</a></strong> – Developed for online appointment booking/scheduling, this feature-rich module can be utilized for booking Doctor or salon appointments, meeting rooms, renting equipment, hotel rooms, and cars, or scheduling and prepaying for consulting hours. PayPal integration allows users to pay when making the reservation, and customizable features allow this module to meet a variety of needs.<br><br><img style="width: 586px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Reservations Module.JPG"></li><li><strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/the-help-desk-module-61">The Help Desk Module</a></strong> – Used for creation and management of support requests, this module’s features include attachments, ability to export to CSV, categories and subcategories, customizable e-mail notifications, role-based functionality, comments, and much more!</li></ol></li><li><strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/form-master-nextgen">Form Master NextGEN</a></strong> – Giving it a 5-star review, one user of this popular forms module wrote, “Love Form Master. I've been building websites for years and rely on Form Master for nearly all of them.” With its 30 day trial, you can test out features that include cascading drop down lists, multi-page wizard style entry forms, features for data validation and management, file uploading and handling, e-mailing, and much more.</li><li><strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/-actravia-40-super-customizable-module-for-online-booking">Actravia</a></strong> - A toolkit for event registration & payment management, Actravia is an ideal solution for schools, businesses, sports associations, or other membership organizations. With many features for events registration and CRM, you can download a 30 day evaluation edition for free.</li></ol><p>Are you looking for a solution similar to any of those listed above? Follow the links to their product listings to download a free trial today, and let us know what you think!</p> urn:store:1:blog:post:57 https://store.dnnsoftware.com/​-bang-for-your-buck-5-highly-rated-modules-for-50-or-less ​ Bang for Your Buck: 5 Highly-Rated Modules for $50 or Less <p>Last week we looked at 5 modules that offered free trials; another option if you’re new to DNN and not ready to spend too much money but still want to add valuable features to your site (or if you’re just working with a limited budget), is to purchase some of the less expensive modules. Here are 5 that have proved to be very useful to their customers:</p><ol><li>Priced at only $19.00, <strong></strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/users-roles-membership-admin-tool-40" target="_blank"><strong>Users, Roles, Membership Admin Tool</strong></a> is a low-cost user management module with features that include a user switcher, the ability to import and export users and roles with Excel, CSV, and XML, the ability to display a list of users from A to Z or by role, and the ability to search by role, username, email, first name, and last name. One reviewer commented, “It’s a must have module. It is so easy to navigate in, and it makes user and role management so much easier.”</li><li>A flexible and simple to use module for managing news on your website, <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unisols-simple-articles-404" target="_blank">Unisols Simple Articles</a></strong>, costing $29.95, has earned solid reviews not only for the module, but also for the support provided by its developer. With this module, articles can be linked to their own details, to a page or file on your portal, or to an external URL. Other benefits include 6 different styles to show the list of articles, the ability to have multiple instances of the module on the same page, and access to unlimited free updates.</li><li>For $49.95, purchase <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/custom-form-creator-35-with-ml-support-" target="_blank">Custom Form Creator</a></strong> and create custom or dynamic email forms. One customer said the following of this popular module: “Excellent form module. Super easy to use and setup. Great for making forms of all types...contact forms, appointments, request for proposals etc. Strong support from the vendor too.”<p><img style="width: 454px;" src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/Custom Form Creator.png"></li><li>Developed by EasyDNNsolutions, one of the most highly reviewed and top-selling vendors on the DNN Store, <strong><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnmailchimp-36-newsletter-and-e-mail-marketing" target="_blank">EasyDNNmailChimp</a></strong> is a newsletter and email marketing solution, which can be purchased for $49.95 and allows you to integrate your DNN website with MailChimp, a poplar e-mail marketing service. A recent review noted, “This is the way to handle bulk email such as newsletters, alerts, etc.”<p><img src="/Portals/0/Users/120/56/104056/EasyDNNmailchimp.JPG"></li><li>Concluding our list is<strong> <a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnglobalstorage-220-dnn-folder-providers-amazon-s3-window-azure-dropbox-ftp-" target="_blank">DNNGlobalStorage</a>.</strong>&nbsp; Priced at $50.00, this module expands your DNN storage options and allows for integration with Windows Azure, BOX, Amazon S3, Dropbox, FTP, Windows UNC, Rackspace Cloud Files, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, etc. One customer’s review expressed that, “everyone needs this module. Not only is it easy to set up and manage, it freaking works! The 1st time.”</li></ol><p>As you can see, high-quality products don’t always come with a large price tag; you could purchase all the solutions above for less than $200! Customers, what modules have given you the most “bang for your buck"?</p>