When teams are faced with a new project for a static site or web application development, they must ask themselves several important questions related to the functionality and features they are looking for in a platform. User management, permissions and roles, configuration and registration are essential among these considerations. However, not all content management providers (CMS) can satisfy these common requirements effectively and efficiently. This is where a CMS like DNN Platform comes in, which shines in its ability to address these common needs.
What is DNN Platform?
DNN Platform (formerly DotNetNuke) is an open source content management platform (CMS) based on Microsoft's .NET framework, which has been very popular among the development community for its ease of use, scalability and security, since its creation in 2002 by Shaun Walker.
The DNN Platform web application development framework gives developers the opportunity to use the ASP.NET programming language, Windows Server and SQL, allowing them to create and manage websites tailored to their needs simultaneously.
Because of its robust features, strong community and scalability, DNN remains a formidable choice in the .NET ecosystem due to its robust features. Today there are more than 1 million websites and applications built on this technology, including small businesses and Fortune 500 companies such as KIA, NASCAR, Motorola, Bank of America and others.
What is DNN Platform used for?
- Blogging site
- Static business web site and applications
- Community forums
- E-commerce website
- Customer portal
- Intranet portal and more
How does DNN differ from other .NET-based frameworks?
Umbraco, Orchard and Oqtane are other CMS content management systems based on .NET frameworks that, over the last few years, have gained popularity among development teams, however, some of the features that differentiate DNN from the rest are:
Community and support
DNN has a large community of developers and users, which has grown steadily since its launch. It offers a wide range of resources, modules, documentation and extensions that facilitate adoption, learning and support through various forums and events. Compared with other CMS such as Oqtane, (which is the most recent), the constant changes and updates that the platform has, could have an impact on the learning stability.
Easy to use
DNN's interface is fully GUI (Graphical User Interface) which means that an end user, unlike other providers, does not require additional commands to execute an action or customize content.
With DNN, users can navigate through the portal to create, develop, deploy and manage the website with the cursor. Because the learning process is so easy, many content marketing and SEO departments rely on DNN for their daily work.
A feature-rich, multi-site and extensible platform
DNN allows developers and end users to easily customize functionalities through modules, extensions or third-party APIs through its modular architecture in a more versatile and extensible way than other providers, which does not fully use other frameworks such as Blazor in the case of Umbraco.
On the other hand, the experience and maturity that DNN has for so many years in the market, has proven to be one of the most stable, reliable and secure options than other CMS.
Security
With a solid foundation in .NET and continuous upgrades, the platform has a robust user, role and permissions management system, authentication controls and additional options such as Active Directory and OAuth authentication that makes it easy to manage security on websites.
Scalability and Localization
With DNN it is possible to implement a distributed architecture or on the Azure cloud platform for better scalability. As a result, core operations can be managed with the highest quality and minimum service level, and the website can be scaled up or down immediately reducing deployment costs.
On the other hand, the localization offered by DNN allows any company operating internationally to translate its site into the local language of other countries and regions.
Products based on the DNN platform: Evoq Content and Evoq Engage
In addition to the complete CMS system, there are two other products based on the DNN platform designed to deliver engaging customer-facing web experiences:
Evoq Content: DNN Corporation's content management system (CMS) facilitates the publication, management and administration of content on websites. Search engine optimization (SEO), image management, document management and rich text editing.
Evoq Engage: A content management and customer experience platform, it is designed to enhance user engagement and personalization of the customer experience by including all the features of Evoq Content, plus other social media integrations, gamification, audience analytics.
Why choose DNN for custom software development?
Using DNN for creating custom software can be very beneficial for any project, especially when combined with ASP.NET. It can provide an exceptional user experience, where DNN handles the content part and ASP.NET handles the logic and other functionality.
In addition, being a free and open source CMS, its source code is publicly available and can be modified by the developer community around the world.
If you are interested in starting a new project and want to know more information about DNN Platform and its benefits, do not hesitate to contact us. At Intelequia we have an expert .NET development team that will be happy to advise you.