I thought it was a timely date for me to decide - enough is enoough - my new site is a growing entity, ongrowing I should say as I find so many more wonderful features about DotNetNuke.. . I did find a glitch with the template which I need to fix up. It was in reference to the Portal Wizard template which is very cool. Basically it allows you to create a child portal, and apply a theme with content and images already setup. I realised when I did this locally, in a pre designed skin, it did in fact, record the custom skin, instead of using the proper default skin that comes with DNN.
I also applied some of the other features such as .. Search words, titles, descriptions, and it's a very strong feature of dnn.
One of the other amazing areas would have to be the module settings mode.. I actually installed a module - and then in the settings page, in 2.1.2 would normally take you to a separate page, well, in 3, it takes to you the page modules settings page, where you would change the module name, viewing parameters.. and down the bottom was the module setting as well. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if that's by design or actually an error, I think I'd have to see a couple of other modules in place before I passed comment on that.
In my new site - I've got some articles written - about modules, developers, and even gone into the specifics fo modules - the core installed ones, and what what free modules and paid for modules would be a comparison to it.. EG FAQ - there's the FAQ reloaded, and then there is Enhanceds FAQ's .. each one slightly different, but nevertheless, one might suiting your needs.
The trend of my new site is more towards usability. The actual skinning is covered,but I'd like to have that on skincovered.com where, as soon as the new xd is off my hands for a little bit, I can continue to get the new one up and running. Somehow I have to work out a way to earn some money out of this - because the charity is biting me sometimes with days of work learning and documenting things just to keep on top of the learning of dnn.
And in my usual lonnnnng winded style - (I can't help myself) I did a bit of a spill on the issue of snowcovered on the forum about support.. People complain about modules not doing their job, well, if there is no error, you can't complain about it, if it doesn't do the job, perhaps you didn't understand it enough..
Anways - here the post.. just so you can see what I've invested money in and what doesn't work.
>>>>
I couldn't resist it - Here's the contents of my snowcovered Purchases, of which only about 15 or so work or come close to meeting my expectations.. From a customer point of view - it's frustrating to say the least.. I'm not a deveoper, I can't possibly fix anything that isn't working - and now before I buy, I go to the developer's site, look at the forums, ask other people before buying anything..
...Well, I don't buy shoes, I buy domains and modules... *sigh*.. and now have contacts with developers, so don't know how many more I will buy on Snowcovered because it's all just getting a bit big and messy - the modules don't do what they should do. Looking at this,there is alot of money invested in modules and highlighted in Bold are modules that working without error, regardless of whether it met my expectations..
I have not submitted any skins for sale on Snowcovered, partially because of what Patrick - WWWCoder says - it's a walmart type of store - anything goes, even if it's not DNN related.
Here's some of my purchases.
ActiveAnnouncement DNN2 - ActiveAnnouncement2_pa.zip
ActiveForums 1.2 - ActiveForums1.2-Full.zip
Advanced Email and News Manager Enter - DNN 2.x - EmailManager2.0-Enterprise.zip
Advanced Email and News Manager Enterprise Edition - EmailManager2.0-Enterprise.zip
Adverageous Forums 1.3 DNN - AdverForums1.4.1.zip Aggregator 1.0 (wo Source) - DNNStuff.Aggregator.01.00.02.PA.DNN2.Release.zip
Calendar for XMod - XModCalendar_DownloadPackage.zip Calendar for XMod - XModCalendar11_ForXMod2_Download.zip
Calendar Pro 1.8 DNN - CalendarPro.zip
Calendar Pro 2.0 - 2.5 Upgrade - CalendarPro25Update.zip
CATALooK.netStore 1.2 DNN - CATSTOREFILES15woSource.ZIP
Classifieds DNN 2.0 (PA Version) - PA -- DNN 2.0 PA_cs_classifieds.zip
Contact Manager 3.1 - Contact Manager 3.1 DNN2.0.zip
CSS Skins 2.0 DNN - CSS Skins 2.0 .3_DNN1.08-10.zip
Document Exchange 1.0 PA - DMX_01.00.10.zip
DynaMod - KB_DynaMod.zip EffData Skin for
CSS Skins 2.0 (Fixed Width.zip
FAQ Reloaded 1.03 - FAQV2-1.03.zip
FAQ Reloaded 1.05 - FAQV2-1.05.01.zip
FCKeditor Content Provider for Adv. Email Mgr - KB_FCKContentProvider.zip
Form Creator 1.0 VB.zip Form Creator 1.5 DNN -
Form Creator.zip
Gooddogs Repository 2.0 - Gooddogs.Repository.2.0.5.Source.zip
HazeTech Date Time - PA Only - HazeTech_DateTime_PA.zipITSCS Manage Users PRO 3.0 (PA) - ITSCS.ManageUsers_PRO_3.1.0.6_DNN_2.x_PA.zip
ITSCS Manage Users PRO v.2.0 for DNN 2 & 1 (PA) - ITSCS_ManageUsers_PRO_2.0.0_DNN1.x_DNN2.x_PA_Release.zip
KnowBetter Email Scheduler for Advanced Email & Ne -
KnowBetter_EmailScheduler.zip
KnowBetter Email Scheduler for Advanced Email & Ne -
KnowBetter_EmailScheduler.zip KnowBetter Email Scheduler for Advanced Email & Ne - KnowBetter_EmailScheduler.zip KnowBetter Email Scheduler for Advanced Email & Ne - KnowBetter_EmailScheduler.zip KnowBetter Templates Pro for Adv. Email & News Mgr - KnowBetterTemplates_Pro.zip
Lefthand Navi 2.0 DNN2 -w source - leftnavi2_1.pa.zip
magicGadget 1.0 for DNN2 - magicGadget.zip
magicStripper 1.0 - magicStripper 1.0 Developer.zip
Over and Out Images - OverandOutImages.zip
Page Manager 1.0 DNN2.0 - Page Manager for DNN 2.x.zip
PayPal IPN 2.0 for DNN 2 - SantryPayPalIPNSource.zip
PayPal IPN 2.0 for DNN 2 - SantryPayPalIPNSource.zip
Photo Album 3.0 - PhotoAlbum 3 Source And PA.zip
Portal Store Credit Card 6.0 DNN - Portal Store Credit Card.zip
Portal Store DashBoard 6.0 DNN - Portal Store Dashboard.zip Rating System
DNN 2.0 - DNN 2.0 PA_ReviewingSystem Source.zip
Refer-A-Friend 1.0 DNN.zip
Resource Directory Manager for DNN 2.x -
SantryResDirMgr3.zip
RKRounded Containers DNN2.0 - RKRoundedContainers.zip
SiteLog Provider - KB_SiteLogProvider.zip
Skin and Container Construction Kit 1.0 for DNN 2. -
SkinsAndContainersConstructionKit1[4].zip
Smart PopUp 1.0 With Source - SmartPopUpWithSource.zip|
Snapsis CSS Editor - Snapsis.CSSEditor.1.0.2.zip
SolPart Menus Construction Kit - Menus_Kit_Download_1.zip
SolPart Menus Construction Kit - Menus_Kit_Download_2.zip
SolPart Menus Construction Kit - Menus_Kit_Download_3.zip
Speerio File Manager Pro (Host Edition) - Speerio File Manager Pro DNN 2.0.0.zip
Speerio Page Rating Pro (Host Edition) - Speerio Page Rating Pro v1.0.zip
Spider Crawler 1.5 - SpiderCrawler.zip
Spider Crawler for DNN - SpiderCrawler.zip
SSL Module - SSL_ModulePA_1_0.zip
StepXToolbar - StepXToolBar_Install.zip
TextLayout 2.2 Source Pack - TextLayout202SourceAndPA.zip
Trigger Text 1.0 DNN2.0 - TriggerText 1.0 DNN2.0.zip
Watch Dog 2.3 DNN2.0 w-Source - WatchDog2.3.zip
XmlSmith CSSTAB & CSSNAV - XmlSmithCSS1.0.zip
XMod 1.0 - XMod131_DownloadPackage.zip
The rest of these modules - especially the calendar stuff, well, I've given up on.. and found the AV Calendar was fantastic.Some of the modules don't do what they say they can do, fullstop.
Some of the modules killed my installations Some of the modules are very bad cross browser Consistent errors are apparent with some developers, particularly when they code without considering NON US date formats Some of the developers I now deal with direct which is very helpful - active forums, dnnstuff, catalook are just three off the top of my head who are keen to get their products working correctly.
What infrastructure could Snowcovered possibly put in place to bring this all into line? As I have a developer account, I can log into snowcovered, upload the patches/fixes and then email all of those who have purchased to log in and pick up the patch.. some choose to do this from their site, and others from Snowcovered, so it does get messy.
Between the money invested, the hours lost, I call it part and parcel of learning about DNN, modules and developers. You don't hear me complaining on the forums about modules that don't work, even though highlight are several that do have some issues, but considering the price of them, I just cut my losses and move on.
THANK GOODNESS DNN is a good as it is as it still keeps me coming back for more!! And out of the many lemons listed here, there are some real gems that make you so dang happy!
And 3 will certainly raise the bar somewhat, however, alot of developers won't sell the source, so it makes it a bit of a catch 22 doesn't it..
Nina Meiers
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So there you have it .. my thoughts for the day.
Thanks for dropping in..
Nina Meiers