Another Reason I Dislike Using DotNetNuke

This is the reason.
It seems that DNN can never get a release right. They either break existing functionality, create more bugs, or remove functions without notification that they feel are deprecated. Of all the projects and CMSes I’ve ever participated in, DNN has to be the worst when it comes to releases. By far.
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Makes it extremely hard to test and deploy releases when they all have so many problems. And DNN’s response each time, “Our bad, we really need to do more testing. Look at all the things we’re doing to ensure more testing.” Doesn’t seem like they actually test anything, just set up more people and committees.

It also seems like they are more worried about sticking to a release schedule than releasing a stable product that has as few bugs as possible. (In some instances I’ve had to wait for several releases for them to fix functionality that was working but they broke with a release. What major software does this?)

3rd Party Risk

We use a CMS written in ASP.NET at work called DotNetNuke. We use this for our own sites as well as sites for our customers. Since it is a CMS you can find a plethora of modules and skins to extend the functionality of the core system. It’s a quick and easy way to gain functionality without having to write any code. Therein lies the problem.

When building sites we use many modules not written by us. 95% of the time that works out for us. The only time it is ever an issue seems to be when DNN changes the core (99% of the time they do this without notification) so that functionality is removed or they simply break existing functionality (test! test! test!). We have run into some instances where we’ve been let down by 3rd party modules. We used to use a calendar by a 3rd party developer. We found a large number of bugs, and at first the developer would fix them then get us a new build. After a while though, he started postponing fixes to major releases, that way we would have to pay an upgrade fee to get the fixes. Bad move. We quickly abandoned his calendar.

The latest example of this situation is a module by Coding Staff. We needed a module that would display a slideshow of user uploaded images on the site. We needed it to be simple and intuitive since our customers are not that tech savvy. We found their Ultimate DNN Banner. It did everything we wanted it to do and provided a simple, yet pleasant looking interface. I purchased the module and began adding images for a site I was working on. I ran into my first problem right away. If using the javascript/css animation (I try to avoid flash), the images would not appear in Chrome or Safari (and probably any other webkit-based browser). Every once in a while you could get them to appear, but most of the time the page would just have a large blank area where the banner was supposed to be. Ok, strike one. Let’s try the *shudder* flash version. Using the flash version allowed the images to show up, but that’s when I found the second bug. If the banner was near the top of the page and you had a drop-down menu structure with a lot of child pages, enough to overlap the banner, the menu would appear behind the flash banner. I’ve seen this happen with other flash modules in the past, especially in browsers that aren’t Internet Explorer.

I quickly notified Coding Staff about the issues, hoping for a quick resolution. After-all, this was for a client. It took 3 days to even get a response from their support. They requested a login to the website and I obliged. It took another 2 days for them to even respond to that. When they did, they said they found the issue and would be releasing a new version the next week. That was something I could live with considering the client’s site hadn’t gone live yet and if it did, most people use non-webkit browsers. Fast forward 2 weeks and guess what, still no fix and they are unsure when the fix might appear.

Therein lies the risk of using 3rd party modules/skins/developers. You really are left to the mercy of their product and support when you use them. Unfortunately, the problem of disappearing developers runs rampant in the DNN community. I have considered some of Coding Staff’s other modules and skins (they really do have beautiful products) in the past, but after this experience, I think I have to stay away from them. Very disappointed.

Update: They finally came back with a new build and it still caused a variety of errors on the site. They attributed this to the fact we are using a skin with the Solpart menu instead of the newer DNN Nav. I have two issues with this response.

1. Their product listing on Snowcovered says it works with DNN4. Why is that important if we’re using DNN5? Because the vast majority of skins created for DNN4 use Solpart as DNN Nav had limited functionality compared to other menu providers and as such was not widely used until V2 came out with DNN5.
2. There a great number of skins written FOR DNN5 that still use Solpart. Solpart wasn’t removed from DNN, and until it is, module and skin developers should either support it or clearly indicate that their products may not be compatible.

Lesson learned. I will never make a purchase from Coding Staff again, and I suggest you don’t either.

Why You Should Not Like Facebook’s “Like” Button

More information about the security implications of Facebook’s “Like” button have surfaced. It now appears that you don’t even have to log in to Facebook or click the button in order for it to track your browsing habits.

Even if someone is not a Facebook user or is not logged in, Facebook’s social plugins collect the address of the Web page being visited and the Internet address of the visitor as soon as the page is loaded–clicking on the Like button is not required. If enough sites participate, that permits Facebook to assemble a vast amount of data about Internet users’ browsing habits.

“If you put a Like button on your site, you’re potentially selling out your users’ privacy even if they never press that button,” says Nicole Ozer, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “It’s another example of why user control needs to be the default in Facebook.” Source

I hate sites that have Like buttons or present me with pop-ups asking me to login with my Facebook account. That is why I try to avoid those sites at all costs. My data and click path across the web should not be recorded by Facebook.

How Our Laws Are Made

Everyone knows the timeless Just a Bill song/video from School House Rocks, but how realistic is it? If you look at any legislation that is passed or shelved these days, the SHR version seems to be missing quite a few steps. Never fear, a great infographic was created to help clear up the bill process. I’ve embedded it below, click to enlarge.