DotNetNuke 3.2 & 4.0 Now Available

DotNetNuke® Web Application Framework embraces ASP.NET 2.0

“Changing the World Wide Web… one site at a time…”

Nov 7, 2005 -- Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc., a premier Microsoft technology solutions provider, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of two new major release versions of DotNetNuke®, the premier open source Web Application Framework for the Microsoft ASP.NET platform. These releases bridge the compatibility gap between ASP.NET 1.1 and ASP.NET 2.0 and offer a number of powerful new application features.

“Platform upgrades represent a significant challenge to any professional software product,” said Shaun Walker, DotNetNuke creator and maintainer.  “By pledging continued commitment for the DotNetNuke 3.x ( ASP.NET 1.1 ) code base while at the same time forging ahead with a DotNetNuke 4.0 ( ASP.NET 2.0 ) offering, I feel confident that we are delivering the maximum benefit to all community stakeholders. I am grateful for the assistance provided by the Microsoft Web Platform and Tools Team which enabled us to achieve these goals.”
 
DotNetNuke 3.2 continues to build on its rock solid ASP.NET 1.1 heritage, providing additional stability, security, and performance improvements as well as a number of key framework enhancements. DotNetNuke 4.0 ushers in a new project era, delivering parallel functionality to DotNetNuke 3.2, and providing the potential to utilize the full power of the exciting new ASP.NET 2.0 platform.

"This is really awesome! Having DotNetNuke running well on ASP.NET 2.0 on November 7th is going to be huge!" said Scott Guthrie, Product Unit Manager for the Web Platform and Tools Team at Microsoft.

The following new features and improvements are now available:

Client-Side Development Support -- Although AJAX ( Asynchronous JavaScript and XML ) has been getting significant industry hype lately, there are actually a substantial number of client-side techniques which developers can use to produce higher performance, more usable web applications. Based on the innovative work of DotNetNuke Core Team member Jon Henning, a specialist in client-side web development, the latest DotNetNuke release contains support for AJAX and advanced client-side behaviors which developers can leverage in their modules. In addition, the site navigation information for pages and actions have been abstracted into proper providers, allowing for more extensibility and easier migration to the SiteMap capabilities of ASP.NET 2.0.

Windows Authentication -- Based on community demand, we are pleased to announce the native integration of Windows Authentication support in DotNetNuke. This highly valuable contribution was provided by Tam Tran Minh of TTT Corporation and is based on his immensely popular TTT.Authentication component. Native Windows Authentication and Active Directory support enables DotNetNuke to interface with the users and groups defined within an Intranet environment, providing authentication and authorization services linked to a centralized security control point.

"Windows Authentication is vital to using the product in commercial and enterprise environments," said Steven Owens, Chief Technical Officer for SOwens Technologies, "Native support within DotNetNuke makes us that much more comfortable in knowing that we can provide a working solution for our clients, right out of the box."
 
Platform Compatibility -- One of the fundamental principles in DotNetNuke has always been legacy support. As part of the platform migration from ASP.NET 1.1 to ASP.NET 2.0, we knew that backwards compatibility, especially for module developers, was a critical project requirement. So we are extremely happy to declare that modules developed for ASP.NET 1.1 ( DNN 3.x ) work seamlessly in ASP.NET 2.0. This means that developers can maintain a single code base for their modules and target both deployment platforms. In addition to the great news about legacy support, there are some powerful new options for module development in DotNetNuke 4.0 on ASP.NET 2.0. The new Web Project model simplifies the configuration and debugging model for module developers and allows them to leverage the economical new tools such as Visual Web Developer and SQL Express. It is important to recognize the contributions of DotNetNuke Core Team member Charles Nurse for his tireless efforts in researching and delivering the optimal platform migration experience.

“I’m glad you were able to put together a compelling DotNetNuke package that ties right into Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Web Developer," said Omar Khan, Visual Studio Program Manager at Microsoft, "I think this will be a big win for both DotNetNuke module developers as well as the greater ASP.NET community. We really appreciate the time the DotNetNuke team has put into making this a reality on November 7."

Delivering on the promise we made earlier this year to provide an essential library of freely available, open source resources to augment the base portal framework, the DotNetNuke Projects are starting to gain momentum. Our pilot project, the DNN Forums, has made incredible progress in the past six months and demonstrates the level of quality and functionality we would like all Projects to exemplify. New Project offerings which are soon to be released or are now available for download include DNN Blog, DNN User Defined Table, DNN Gallery, DNN Repository, and DNN Store.

Availability and Pricing

DotNetNuke is available for free download. The full application source code and projects are distributed under a standard BSD open source license; providing the maximum freedom in both non-commercial and commercial environments. More information about DotNetNuke can be found by visiting http://www.dotnetnuke.com.

About DotNetNuke

DotNetNuke is an open source Web Application Framework ideal for creating and deploying projects such as commercial web sites, corporate intranets, online publishing portals, and custom vertical applications.  With a rapidly growing community of over 215,000 registered users and a legion of dedicated developers, DotNetNuke continues to strengthen its leadership position in the Microsoft market. More information about DotNetNuke is available at http://www.dotnetnuke.com.

About Open Source

The ideals which provide the foundation for the Open Source movement are outlined at http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php. The basic idea behind Open Source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, and people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

For more information ( press only ):

Shaun Walker
President / CEO
Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc.
(604) 504-0514
shaun.walker@dotnetnuke.com
http://www.dotnetnuke.com

DotNetNuke is a registered trademark of  Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems Inc. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.