Dot Net Nuke is a framework for development - and comes with a number of core Modules.
Core Modules provide a large number of functions and features many of which come standard with the basic Cracker Brandware installation. You can think of them in the same way as extras on your new car.
There are many other modules available and the Cracker Team is continually developing enhanced feature plug-ins. A complete add-ons list will be published soon (Register here to be notified via email).
The current list of modules available are:
Announcements
The announcements module is a basic module used for displaying news items on your site. During all DotNetNuke® versions, the module did not change very much, but starting from DNN 3.3.0, some new features have been added, with more to come.
Blog
Weblog (aka "blog") is arguably one of the most popular categories of applications on the Internet today. Naturally, this makes a Blog module a very important part of the DotNetNuke family of free BSD modules. The DotNetNuke® Blog has been built by Hans-Peter Schelian basing on his former NewBlog module and is actually a collection of related modules which comprise all the working parts of a Blog.
Chat
Contacts
The Contacts module allows users to store a list of contacts and relevant related information.
Documents
The DotNetNuke "Documents" module presents a list of files within DotNetNuke for download by end users. Documents can be stored within a DotNetNuke portal, or accessed from an external website or portal. Access to documents can be secured using the core role-based security from within DotNetNuke, including "secure storage".
Events
The DotNetNuke® Events Module is a module which produces a display of upcoming events as a list in chronological order or in calendar format. Events may have additional information and links can be set to automatically expire on a particular date, or re-occur by any specified number of days, weeks, months or years.
The Events module can be configured to appear in two different modes, the first, which is the default, is as a calendar and the second as a list of events. In order to use the list mode you have to add two events modules, the first one is a normal calendar but the second one is added as a list which references the first module.
The module contains functionality to allow users to enrol for events. To enable this you have to change the "enrolment settings" under "event settings" (in the Module settings) and select "Permit Event Enrolment". You then edit the actual event and make sure its enrolment settings are set to "Allow Enrolment". Users clicking on an event can then see a hyperlink saying "you are not enrolled for this event - press the link to enrol". After clicking on a confirmation message they are then enrolled.
The administrator can choose whether the enrolment is moderated or not. However as of DNN version 4.3.4 there is no easy way for the admin to see who has applied to enrol for an event except by editing that event again, at which point they will see a list of those awaiting confirmation. It would be nice to have some kind of report of those awaiting moderation.
The module also allows people to be notified about upcoming events.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The FAQ module allows you to create a list of questions & answers. All questions are hyperlink buttons and will expand when clicked on. Only one answer is displayed at any given time.
Feedback
Currently this module functions as a simple interface to allow the exchange of emails to a site administrator.
Forum
The barebones definition of a forum is the ability for people to start threads and reply to other people's threads. However, most forum software provides considerably more than this. Most forum software allows more than one forum to be created. These forums are containers for threads started by the community. Depending on the permissions of community members as defined by the board's administrator, they can post replies to existing threads and start new threads as they wish. A forum administrator typically has the ability to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum. These moderator privileges are often able to be delegated to other forum members. The reasons for having these abilities are often to allow peace to be maintained and the rules to be enforced.
Gallery
When most people think of a gallery, they think of an art gallery. A place where art is displayed and people go there to view it. The gallery module is a very similar concept except the people don't need to go anywhere but the internet to view the items on display.
Back to the top >
Help
A new Online Help System has been written that consists of two modules that communicate via Inter Module Communication (IMC). The Chapter module is the familiar DNN Tree with each chapter added as a node of the tree. The user navigates the tree as per usual and clicks the chapter of interest. This action populates the Tutorial module by sending the ID of the chapter clicked on via IMC to the Tutorial module.
IFrame
The IFrame is a browser feature which allows you to display content from another web site within a frame. Within the content of DotNetNuke, the IFrame module allows the embedding of an internal/external URL within the module. Current module features support controlling width, height, title, border, and overflow scrolling.
Links
The links module is designed to display user links in several different formats and styles.
Map
The Dotnetnuke:Map project is an initiative crafted from very popular smash up DotNetNuke Module, originally called GoMap. The module, using the Google Maps API, provides the ability to pump any custom data into the Google Map in a number of unique ways.
Media
Whilst the images module currently does what it is supposed to do, that is display an image, the plan is a lot bigger.
News
The DotNetNuke® News Project, also referred to as the ‘News Feeds (RSS)’ module, allows for the display of a ‘news feed’ on a DNN page. The current production version (03.01.00) allows for an administrator to select any form of news feed (RSS, Atom, XML), as well as a custom XSLT template file, and display the results.
Reports
The Reports module provides a simple, but flexible, view on data from your DotNetNuke Database. SuperUsers (aka "Host" users) can develop Reports by building a SQL Query that returns a table of data. The module will then take that data and render it in a grid.
Repository
The Repository Module can be used to store a collection of files, images, links or text on a server running the DotNetNuke® framework. In addition to storing basic object information, the Repository module also allows you to store detailed information such as author name and email address, a summary and/or a detailed description, file size and download counts and provides community features such as a User Rating system and User Comments.
Store
E-Commerce is what has caused the internet explosion that made the Internet what it is today. One of the most desired features of a quality web portal is to be able to sell goods, be it products, services, mementos, etc, the ability to sell on the web is still the main reason for having a website today. DotNetNuke Store is the answer to this need. The DNN Store out of the box allows you to sell products using either Authorise.Net or PayPal.
Survey
This module provides an option to execute a survey consisting of a number of questions amongst visitors and display the results on the fly. Question Types are single choice and multiple choice. There are didactical versions for DNN4 using VB.Net and C#.
Text/HTML
The Text/HTML Module provides for the input of simple or HTML-formatted text. Simple text is input in a standard text box and a filter converts carriage returns (paragraph breaks) to HTML breaks. HTML formatted text can be edited using the HTML Text Editor, that has been installed using the HTML Editor provider interface, by default the FreeTextBox.
User Defined Table
Core Module "User Defined Table" allows the creation of a list of records with fields, that can be specified by the page admin. The module creates automatically an appropriate input form and optionally supports customisable formatting by using a XSL file for rendering.
Users Online
The DotNetNuke "Users Online" module presents information about the users in your portal.
Wiki
The Project is currently adopting KTomics Wiki module, that has been donated by the author.
XML
The DotnetNuke XML module is based on XML and XSL. XML module helps to connect DotNetNuke to the world. It is one of the 10 original modules which have been released as part of the IBuySpy portal. During the last years it has not passed much evolution, though the world has not stopped turning.