DotNetNuke 3.3/4.3 FINAL Release

Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA (July 21, 2006)   DotNetNuke® ( http://www.dotnetnuke.com ) today strengthened its leadership position in the Microsoft enterprise market with the general release of a significantly enhanced version of its open source web application framework for ASP.NET. Based on scalable and robust Microsoft .NET technologies, DotNetNuke® 3.3/4.3 offers a mature web application framework that helps increase everyday organizational efficiency, with added capabilities including a fully extensible Profile management system, an overhauled Membership and Roles system, improved Document Management capabilities, and extensive Content Management productivity enhancements.

Thousands of organizations worldwide already deliver their web, intranet, and extranet solutions using the DotNetNuke® web application framework. For companies seeking to ensure the success and adoption of their strategic business initiatives, DotNetNuke® provides unparalleled extensibility in terms of application customization. This allows organizations to freely leverage the base application functionality and shift their focus to the implementation of their specific business requirements. With a simple upgrade path from previous versions of DotNetNuke®, the benefits of the latest version are readily available to both existing and new customers.

“Our ongoing commitment to deliver a superior web application framework has once again been fulfilled with this release,” said Shaun Walker, DotNetNuke® founder.  “In particular, the effort invested in enhancing the Membership, Roles, and Profile providers – the essential underpinnings of any professional web application -  will reap significant rewards for all members of our growing ecosystem. Delivering on our promise to actively support both the ASP.NET 1.1 and 2.0 platforms has been a challenging task over the past eight months but I am very pleased with the results. I am extremely proud of the Core Team, Project Teams, and Platinum Benefactors who have worked so hard to bring a high quality, competitive offering to market.”

Based on its liberal open source licensing model, DotNetNuke® is quickly becoming the Microsoft industry standard for enterprise web applications. The mass appeal of the open source model is largely based on the fact that it reduces the total cost of ownership and increases flexibility, factors which are crucial to the success of any organization. The exponential growth of the project ( currently 300,000 registered users ) is a testament to the fact that the application satisfies the broadest set of customer requirements, and has the most innovative and committed management team. For the past 4 years, DotNetNuke®'s capabilities have been aggressively driven by community feedback, strategic partnerships, and market demand. Any organization considering a new web, intranet, or extranet solution is strongly encouraged to evaluate the off-the-shelf capabilities of the free DotNetNuke® open source web application framework.

DotNetNuke® 3.3/4.3 includes a significant number of breakthrough enhancements which improve its versatility, performance, and productivity.  These include an extensible Profile management system, an overhauled Membership and Roles system, improved Document Management capabilities, and extensive Content Management productivity enhancements including support for “in-line” editing using AJAX.

The following is a handful of the new features and improvements in DotNetNuke® 3.3/4.3:

Membership, Roles, Profile Providers – Based on a variety of serious limitations in the default Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Providers, DotNetNuke® has been enhanced with an evolutionary set of equivalent abstract APIs and concrete implementations which provide greater extensibility, a richer feature set, and simpler administration.

Extensible Profile Management – Consolidating a wide range of community enhancement requests, the Profile service has been completely overhauled. Run-time extensibility enables site administrators to create and manage profile properties through a highly intuitive user interface. Profile properties are fortified with a broad range of attributes to help facilitate advanced business processes. Profile information is stored in a database format which allows for simple accessibility, searching, and extraction. Developers have the ability to create custom property editor controls as well as profile items which are specific to their modules.

Secure Folders – Building on the existing document management capabilities, a number of new storage options have been introduced at the folder level. Administrators can now create secure folders which can be locked down by role to prevent unauthorized access. In addition, folders can be designated for database storage if you wish to utilize the database rather than the file system for storage of specific documents.

Usability – Minor improvements to the content management capabilities have the potential for major productivity gains. Enhancements include AJAX-style “in-line” content editing, custom page templates, an improved interface for copying existing pages, and the ability to use the URL selection control from within the rich text editor.

Performance – Module settings are now cached to significantly reduce the number of database hits, caching logic was optimized throughout the application to eliminate threading issues, and a variety of modules were enhanced with improved module output caching techniques.

Activity on the DotNetNuke® Projects has been strong in recent months and as a result, the out-of-the-box capabilities of the DotNetNuke® application have been significantly improved in this release. New versions of almost every DNN® Module have been packaged with the core framework including  substantial revisions to DNN® Documents, DNN® Events, DNN® Feedback, DNN® Forums, DNN® IFrame, DNN® Repository, DNN® Store, DNN® Survey, and DNN® User Defined Table. Modules provide the functionality for advanced web site features; allowing you to directly engage your customers, collaborate on ideas, and allow interaction among visitors.

Pricing and Availability

DotNetNuke® is available for free download. The complete application source code is distributed under an enterprise-friendly open source license ( BSD ); 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®

“Our mission is to create opportunities and spread entrepreneurship to the world by providing a superior open source web application framework which cultivates a passionate developer community as well as a prosperous commercial ecosystem.”

DotNetNuke® is an open source web application framework ideal for creating, deploying and managing interactive web, intranet and extranet sites. With a rapidly growing community of over 300,000 registered users, a legion of dedicated professional developers, and an active commercial ecosystem, DotNetNuke® continues to strengthen its leadership position in the Microsoft enterprise market.

The DotNetNuke® project was founded on pure open source ideals. These principles permeate every aspect of the project and are fundamental to its business philosophy. At its core, DotNetNuke® believes that every organization, company, or individual should have access to high quality, functional software under the most liberal license possible, regardless of their industry focus, geographical location, culture, resources, technical aptitude, or financial capabilities. But the freedom does not stop there. DotNetNuke® believes that its valued members should have the right to optionally choose to support the project, by participating in premium service programs which are focused on their specific needs. The combination of these influences provides the basis for a strong and healthy core foundation, resulting in a vibrant community ecosystem that is ultimately supported “by the people, for the people”.

More information about DotNetNuke® is available at http://www.dotnetnuke.com.

About Open Source

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

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