I've received this question, can anyone help?

One final thing to ask about this cms: In other cms's that I've worked with you have been able to create custom content types so users can create specific content that gets added to the site. DNN can handle things like this easily right? Is there a certain extension I would have to buy or is it built in? If so can you please direct me somewhere on Enjoy creative to learn this topic? Thanks so much so far DNN Creative has been great!

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about custom content types but DNN has quite a powerful permissions system (mainly found in page settings and module settings) is that what you mean?

Bretts Reply:

by custom content types here is what I mean:

Lets say we want out client to be able to add manufacturers and their products to the website.
In my old CMS we would create two custom content types:

One called Manufacturers and the other called Products.

Once the content types are created, fields are added to them. These fields are based on the info the client wants to be stored in the database about these content types.

The manufacturers content type would consist of fields like Manufacturer name, upload logo image, phone number, address, etc.
The product content type would consist of fields like Product name, manufacturer, price, upload product image, product description.
The manufacturer field usually would have a reference/relationship to the manufacturers content type so the user will have a nice drop down list of any manufacturers that have been added to the website already.

Now that we have this, we can make one link in the clients dashboard to add Manufacturers and another link to add Products.
The client simply fills out the form to add and presses create as this content is added to the database. Then it can be pulled and be displayed in numerous types of ways. Each piece of content added has it's own page (in Drupal it's called a node). Through the content type display settings I would be able to choose what content I want to be shown to anonymous users, authenticated users, admins, etc. Also with an add-on/module called views you can really take these content types and display them in all types of ways because it runs queries from the database based on your selections. You can create relationships between content types, change sort orders, display things in grids, etc.
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So besides all of that gibberish let me get straight to the point. Would I be able to setup DotNetNuke for a client to have simple fields to add content like products and their manufacturers on the website. Then would I be able to take this content and display it within panes? I'm assuming in DotNetNuke I would be creating a custom extension which would allow me to add a specific module with fields for the user to add something like a product or manufacturer to the site. I see that the default modules allow the user to add simple content to panes like HTML. Or is this not how the logged in client would be adding content?

It wouldn't be called a CMS if there wasn't a way for an admin to setup user friendly ways for a client to add their content to the website. I was just wondering if you could explain in very brief detail what DotNetNukes way of doing this is. I'm sure there is some great extensions out there for things like this.

Take your time responding I am in no rush and have a lot more learning to do. I just wanted to see if the features were available.

Thanks for everything,

Brett

Here are some ideas. If these don't make sense or if you have other questions, please ask!

One way to approach this would be by using a DotNetNuke extension that is set up for ecommerce. There are several modules (extensions) available. NB_Store (available at nbstore.codeplex.com) is one such module. You would install the extension, add it to a page, and that will add the functionality to define and add products, etc. and display them.

There are other modules available: Catalook and Smith Cart are both commercial modules, but relatively inexpensive (both cost under $100, I think.)

You can use the Form and List module to create a simple product listing. Also, Ventrian.com's Property Manager module may be suitable.

Thank you for your response Joseph,
In my question to Andy I was just using Manufacturer and Products as an example of two random content types. It could be anything that my client would want to add to their site.
Here is another example:
Lets say I'm doing a website for a construction company and they want some of their biggest projects listed on a projects page. Some of the items that they want to show are (Project name, Project location, Project client, Project description, Project images).

I just want to know DotNetNuke's user friendly way for my clients to be able to add basic content to their website like in the example above.
I'm assuming as an admin/site developer I would set it up using things the form and list module and then they would add the content through this module into panes. Please correct me if I'm wrong.