Last night I had a great time giving a talk at the CapArea .NET user group. It was great to see and catch up with old friends, as well as meeting new people. My talk was centered around the new major release of DotNetNuke, version 6. There are a lot of new and exciting changes, and the best way to showcase them was to pull up version 6 right next to version 5 and contrast them with one another; that worked really well. I also uploaded the slides of the presentation on SlideShare for those who could not make it to the user group meeting last night but would still like... [More]

Today, Scott Willhite announced the release of a C# version of DotNetNuke in a blog post entitled DotNetNuke source in C#. Yeah, Really. If you haven’t read it yet, then I suggest you do so now and then come back and continue reading this post to find out what my opinion is on the subject. Now that the announcement is official, I wanted to also make my opinion public, here on my blog. Prior to this announcement, the core team had been discussing this move in a private forum. Opinions on the subject were many and on both sides of the fence. Let’s be clear though, t... [More]

Please note: This is a cross-post from my blog on DotNetNuke.com Last week I announced the release of the BETA of DNN Blog. Since then there has been a “silent” release of BETA 3, which included some fixes to bugs, and issues found by beta testers as well as some that we found ourselves internally. In this blog post I want to share a SQL script that we included in the Beta releases, one that received very little press, and as a result probably one that you never (rightfully so) paid attention to. The SQL script in question is located in the following folder: “Desktop... [More]

  Please note: This is a cross-post from my blog on DotNetNuke.com Hello folks and happy new year! A ton of progress has been made on this module since my last blog post back in September ‘09. That being said, I know how you feel, and that unless you have a functional version running on your own DotNetNuke instance you are bound to be a skeptic. Hey, I sit on the other side of the fence too, when it comes to modules that I am not involved in -  so believe me, I understand. If it serves for nothing else though, at least this announcement should p... [More]

In the past 4 weeks I have given the Mash-Up Your DotNetNuke Using RESTful APIs presentation at the following three user groups: 10/21 - Capital DotNetNuke User Group (CDUG) 10/28 - Frederick MD .NET User Group (FREDNUG) 11/10 - Orlando DotNetNuke User Group (ODUG) Needless to say it has been a very busy couple of weeks, but I truly enjoyed speaking at each of them and will certainly consider doing it again. The topic was also popular and well received by many, so much so that Will Strohl of ODUG wrote a very flattering blog post about the event in Or... [More]

Yesterday afternoon Hal Hayes and I were invited to speak at the SharePoint Technology Conference hosted and organized by the SharePoint User Group DC (SUGDC). The following is some information about the event: For two exciting days, you'll be eating, drinking,  talking and living Microsoft Office SharePoint  with Microsoft's Most Valued Professionals (MVP's) from across the country. There are tracks for developers, users, managers, and administrators. There will be time to network with some of the areas top employers where you will discover just how much ... [More]

While the first half of 2009 is almost behind us, there is a lot more community work left to get done. As I try to arrange my life-work-community schedule I see that I have quite a busy couple of months coming up yet. I am still waiting for responses from other community leaders and events such as the SDN/Open Force Europe, so I won’t list those here just yet. Meanwhile, here is what I’ve got lined up. 6/26/2009 Sharepoint User Group DC Session: Sharepoint VS DotNetNuke (3:00pm – 4:00pm) Prepare for the battle of the titans! Which platform is ri... [More]

On June 26th, I will take the stage once again at the Regional SharePoint User Group. I will be joining Hal Hayes in a battle that from the looks of it may rival “David and Goliath”. The event topic is labeled as follows: Prepare for the battle of the titans! Which platform is right for you? Each one has its uses depending on the audience. If you are interested in watching this battle in real-time the register for this event and join us on June 26th between 3:00PM and 4:00PM. Here is some more information: For two exciting days, you'll be eating, drin... [More]

The June Capital DotNetNuke User Group event promises to be yet another great meeting chuck-full o’great insight and information. DotNetNuke module development still remains one of the most requested event topics. On June 17th, Chris Busse will demonstrate how to mash-up external Web 2.0 web services with your modules to provide right user experiences. With the proliferation of "Web 2.0" sites and applications, such as Google Maps, Twitter, and Basecamp, has come the ability to programmatically interact with many sites using APIs (Application Programming Inter... [More]

Today Joe Brinkman announced the official OpenForce ‘09 Call for Speakers. Apart from being excited about the event and what it has in store, I particularly liked the way the topics were split into 4 simple and concise categories: Development Design Administration Open Source If you are an avid DotNetNuke user, then I am sure that you are asking yourself: how do I join in the fun? Well, Joe put it best by answering that question with the following quote: “Are you a DotNetNuke expert?  Do you like to share your DotNetNuke knowledge with the... [More]

PimpThisBlog.com is a place where you promote, publicize and socialize your content. Don’t be fooled, this is not yet another social bookmarking website, although it may look and feel that way to you. It's a simple to use and effective way to get your content noticed and FAST. All you have to do is let PimpThisBlog.com know that you have content that you wish to publicize and it’ll "pimp it" for you. PimpThisBlog.com will share your content, by syndicating it to various RSS readers, it will tweet your posts on Twitter (make sure you follow @PimpThisBlog to s... [More]

At last month’s Capital DotNetNuke User Group (CDUG) meeting we had the pleasure of having Tom Kraak give us a great presentation on Search Engine Optimization with DotNetNuke. Tom took the train down from his home town in Connecticut just to make the event – thank you Tom! Tom also accepted my invitation to spend the night at my home, but little did I know it would turn into an interview, and a long night! Tom and I share quite a few things in common, the most common one being our passion for DotNetNuke and Technology. The outcome of our conversation is a transc... [More]

I am very pleased to announce yet another exciting Capital DotNetNuke User Group (CDUG) event. Next week, on Wednesday February 18th, 2009, Seablick Consulting’s very own Tom Kraak will be driving down from Connecticut to give us an Intro to Search Engine Optimization with DotNetNuke. Here is a quick abstract and bio: Database-driven websites and content management systems such as DNN are traditionally labeled as "hard to optimize" or "outright bad" for search engines by many “SEO experts.” Don’t believe the hype! Explore how the basics of... [More]

If you live in the Washington DC area you cannot help but be consumed with the constant news about the presidential inauguration and related events. Never have been so many streets been closed, and never has the anticipation of the attendance of million people been so high. With that being said, and although I am not looking forward to the chaos that the inauguration promises to bring, I am very excited to have Joe Brinkman, DotNetNuke Corp. Co-Founder and Technical Fellow, come to our User Group to give a presentation on DotNetNuke and JQuery. Here is the abstract: ... [More]

I am pleased to announce the publication by Wrox Press of Wrox Blox Done in 60 Minutes:  Building a Custom DotNetNuke Membership Provider by yours truly. In this publication, I put down into more detail the topic which I presented at last year’s OpenForce08 / DevConnections conference. In this eBook (Wrox Blox) I demonstrate how to build and configure the DotNetNuke (DNN) Membership provider without modifying any core DotNetNuke (DNN) code.  By reading this publication you will soon see what a powerful tool this can be for gaining control over the DNN mem... [More]

It's finally here, version 03.50.00, chock full of new and exciting features and bug fixes. I wanted to take a moment to personally thank every member of the DotNetNuke team. Without their hard work and dedication, all this free software would not be possible. Well, what are you are waiting for? Go Download it here: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/tabid/125/default.aspx The Blog team has also made available some blog posts about the new features in version 03.05.00. I have compiled the list for your convenience, and here it is: Features and Enhancements: Upcoming Blog F... [More]

Sometimes, inspiration hits when you’re away from your desk. However, you don’t have to miss out on blogging about it! With the new DNN Blog Module (version 03.05.00) and it’s support for the metaweblog API, there are a variety of tools and technologies that make it easier to blog. One in particular is the ability to blog via email with a service like Blogmailr (www.blogmailr.com). Setting this service up is free and quick. Simply create an account at www.blogmailr.com. Once completed, log in and visit the “My blogmailr” section. Once there, click on “Add New Blog”... [More]

OpenForce '08 has finally come to an end :-( and I am now back home in Northern Virginia (Washington DC area). While at OpenForce, between the presentations, manning the DotNetNuke Community booth from time to time, and meeting a lot of great people, my work backlog begun to pile up. On my flight back home, I decided to make a list of things that I absolutely must accomplish today. The first thing on my long list of "to-do's" is to post the power point presentation and source code for my talk: Done in 60 Minutes: Building a Custom DotNetNuke Membership ... [More]

Last call! If you have not already registered, it's not too late! Seriously, if you work with DotNetNuke, or are even planning to use it for your enterprise then you cannot miss this opportunity. All the people that make DotNetNuke happen are going to be available to educate you, and support you with every question or concern that you may have on the platform. Great sessions will be given, great events are planned, great topics will be discussed, and need I even mention, it's Vegas Baby! If you are going to be there, make sure you hit me up... I'd love to meet you!

The latest release of DNN Blog, 03.05.00 includes MetaWebLog API support. This means that you can use any MetaWebLog capable client to post your entries directly to your blog without even going to the site itself. The most common clients that support MetaWebLog are MS Word, Windows Live Writer (WLW), MS OneNote and others. In this blog post I'll take you through the steps you need to take to setup Windows Live Writer. If you do not have Windows Live Writer, no worries, it's free and available for download here. Once you installed Windows Live Writer fire it up and fol... [More]

Recently I decided it was time to come up with a refreshed look from my blog. Since I use DotNetNuke to power my blog and my company's site, it meant that I had to build it in the form of a DotNetNuke Skin. Skins are not as simple to design as simple HTML pages, because, among many other things, one has to be knowledgeable enough with what DotNetNuke content tokens generate, and testing is not as simple as you would think. I had defined a few goals to abide by in the new design, and they were: It had to be simple It had to be clean It had to be CSS layou... [More]

For quite a while now, some folks in the DotNetNuke community have been experiencing a peculiar issue with localization on the Core DotNetNuke Blog module. While we worked on version 03.05.00 of the module, I ran into a ticket that I thought I had already fixed in a previous version release and marked it as fixed. Somehow, just like the villain in bad horror movie, this ticket was back! I and the entire Blog team tried to replicate the issue to no avail, so what to do? – We closed the ticket, and this time marked it as “Cannot Reproduce”. A couple of days ago, the vill... [More]

My company, Inspector IT, Inc. is proud to support OpenForce ‘08 and the DotNetNuke Corp by offering free product licenses. The free licenses will be raffled off to OpenForce ‘08 attendees during an evening event (To be announced). 3 product license will be raffled off for DNN Site Map and 3 other for DNN Dock Menu. Are you coming to OpenForce ‘08? If so, you may be one of the lucky 6 to win one of the following modules: DNN Site Map™ (3 Licenses) Look again, this is not just another Site Map. DNN Site Map™ is more that just another menu, it is a DotNetNuke Tab ... [More]

I am currently working on a new skin for my Blog, as well as revisiting the overall user experience of this site. Since I Tweet quite a bit, I figured that displaying the list of my latest 5 Tweets would be a neat idea. A couple of thoughts came to mind, including writing a module that would consume the Twitter API to retrieve my tweets. After doing some researching around, I found that there is a much much, much simpler way to do this with a little (already provided) JavaScript. First, add the following html UL element somewhere on your page: <div id="twitter_div... [More]

I was updating my professional profile on LinkedIn the other day, and I realized that there was a lot missing about what I do. In essence my profile contained a lot of the stuff I did for a living, but not was lacking all the work I do on volunteer basis. All the community contributions such as speaking, organizing, writing etc, was left out all together. I decided to start compiling a list of my community contribution and while I am sure I missed some things, here is what I came up with so far: Open Source Projects DotNetNuke Core Team Member DotNetNu... [More]