DNN Chronicles

Not so long ago, in a galaxy called DFW there was a need. A company wanted to deliver a software product using a single codebase for multiple tenants. The trick was that they wanted to do as much of it as possible over the web.

During one of our many design meetings, someone mentioned looking at DotNetNuke. We needed to deliver something that was almost like a portal, except that it was intended to deliver a set of functionality, not content. So I looked.

I was overly cautious about it at first. I always am about freeware. I have always felt that you get what you pay for. But from the release of DNN 3 this weekend, on this one I was wrong.

We have taken the step to declare that we are going to use DNN 3 as our platform. So over the next few weeks I will report the experience here. I hope that you get something out of it.

Here is a list of what our basic requirements:

1. Must be a multi-tenant system.
2. Must provide a better-than-average security framework, roles based.
3. Must be able to deliver new functionality with ease.
4. Must be able to support functionality in a single codebase across all tenants.
5. Must be able to manage different functionality to different tenants based on tenants needs.
6. Must implement industry best practices.
7. Must be highly preferment.
8. Would be nice to have some control over look and feel per tenant.
9. Would be nice to give some control over content to each tenant.
10. Would be nice to have a path to deliver the same functionality to devices other than a browser.
11. Must be able to support multiple languages from a single codebase.

There is a long grocery list of extended functionality that is specific to our service, so I won't expose those here. These 11 are the core points that made our decision to use DNN.

At first, I was thinking I would just write it myself. I have written web software that does all of this before. But the developers of DNN have really saved me tons of time, as well as delivering a state-of-the-art system. I have to admit that the way they did certain things is not how I would, but most of it is.

So, I have to get back to coding now, but when I get time I will start dissecting and checking off this list.

-Brian