By Lee Sykes
September 2005
This is an independent review of Scott McCulloch's News Articles Module for DotNetNuke® V3.1. The review looks at the module for its features, useability, functionality, ease of use, stability, value for money.
We demonstrate different ways you can use the module within your website and offer suggestions relating to other uses you could find for this module, apart from managing news and articles.
Module Details
News Articles for DotNetNuke 3.x is a fully featured article manager for DotNetNuke. The module has evolved since version 1 of DotNetNuke, and has been used on many sites around the world.
Key Features
- Articles consist of:
- Title
- Categories (You can select multiple or none at all)
- Summary
- Publish & end dates (Optional)
- Image (Optional)
- Any number of sub-pages
- Featured
- Articles can be filtered, listed and displayed in various configurations
- Search articles through a pageable interface
- Security Roles within your portal can be given submission and approval capabilities
- Approvers and authors are notified (via email) when an article has been submitted / approved, which is configurable
- Ratings and Comments
- RSS feeds for:
- Category
- Author
- Top 25 most viewed
- Layout is customized through html templates similar to portal skinning
- Emails are customized through html templates
- Articles can be added to any number of pages, (even the same instance), and have different filtering settings.
The sub-headings within the module review include the following:
- Introduction
- Purchasing and Subscription
- Installation
- Setup / Configuration
- Categories
- Email Templates
- Adding Articles
- Further Configuration options
- The Search Facilities
- Bonus Module ‘Latest Articles’
- Search Engine Compatibility
- The Templates
- Verdict
- Pros and Cons
- The Module In Action
Video Tutorials
Alongside the review are 6 flash video walk throughs / tutorials totalling 30 minutes to demonstrate the modules features and possible uses.
Video 1
- View how other websites have implemented the module
- The modules main features
- How to install the module
Video 2
- View how to setup and configure the module
Video 3
- View how to add Categories and use the Email Templates
Video 4
- View how to add / edit articles
- Re-order the pages and how the approval options work
Video 5
- View how to add a copy of the module to several pages
- How to filter the articles by category
Video 6
- View how to add links to websites
- Pages within your website
- Files on your website
- The search facilities
- Bonus module, “Latest Articles”
Throughout these six videos we work through practical examples of using the module with a mountain bike website, this demonstration provides different uses you can find for this module.
Purchasing
To purchase this module, you need to pay a subscription fee to Scott McCulloch's website.
Starting at $24.95 Subscription Fee
Purchase this module from:
http://www.ventrian.com
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