I am interested in evaluating module development tools, and it appears the field is limited to DNM Rad and OWS. I can find a website, dotnetmushroom.com, but when I click to the store, nothing is there. Has DotNetMushroom been kicked off the island?

For that matter, there is not much information available after ~2010. Is rapid application development no longer feasible with current versions of DNN?

Is OWS still a viable option, with versions of DNN beyond 4.x?

Are there other rapid application development options, other than XMOD? I am not interested in XMOD, as it is XML based, and I want the focus of my applications to be SQL tables, both existing DNN tables and new tables created by my custom modules.

Thanks for any guidance.

The DotNetMushroom site implies it's still available. But you are right - it is not visible in the DotNetNuke store. I've made an inquiry.

I don't think that rapid application development tools have ever had a big market. But, I do know at least one person who swears by them.

I believe that OWS is still developed and supported.

Hi All,

Thanks for the interest in DNM Rad and Craig I just replied to your email

Currently DNM Rad is not being sold on the dotnetnuke store since we as a company ventured into a new different area, and DotNetnuke per se was not included into our roadmap as a company. However as Worth noticed the website is still up, the reason is that we still want to provide support to our current clients. We are still discussing what should be the next step for DNM Rad, we had many requests to keep the module going however since DNM is part of a bigger a company, the decision is not totally up to me.

Having said that we do not plan to kill the module, but we are still undecided what should be our next step.

Thanks and Regards

Ruben
DotNetMushroom

This is the response I received:

"It is not available through DotNetNuke Store, however we are still providing support to our existing clients. Discussion are still being made of what should be the next step for our dnn module.

We as a company shifted completely from dotnetnuke since we ventured into areas that provided with a high return on investment. However due to the fact that there is still interest in the module we are still discussing how best to approach the next step.

But at least for now the module is only available to those who bought it already. Last but not least we took the module down purely for the fact that since we believe in customer satisfaction, we did not want to let dotnetnuke users buy the module and then we fail in providing the adequate customer service."

I appreciate the followup Joe, and the perspective. I guess my take would be, if I want to depend on a rapid application development tool for DNN, starting from scratch with no prior experience, I would go with OWS, even though it appears the DNM is a bit more robust.

Ongoing support is crucial with such a tool, as is the existence of a strong, interactive user base. I used XMOD a bit several years ago, and it certainly had good support and lots of collaborative users. I don't care to do application development on an XML model; much prefer traditional relational, with good object-relational mapping. I am still stuck back in the 20th century with my development experience, and that is where my comfort level lies.

Are there any other development tools I should be considering, other than just one of the Visual Studio derivatives, and perhaps LINQ? When I google DNN and Linq to Sql, I get a few references, but all are 3-4 years old. Is anything happening on this front more recently?

Thanks,

Worth

Linq to SQL has, it seems, run its course.

I have no idea what the development/support situation is with OWS. Presumably a review of their support forum will give you an idea as to how its use and the quality of support available.

For me, the best approach seems to be writing modules in c# or VB (depending on your skill level). Chris Hammond has a nice set of Templates for use in VS that create the bones of a fairly complete module. You'll find them on codeplex.com. If you look at ChrisHammond.com you'll also find good documentation. Also, there are some nice tutorials by Chris on his site(s) and also DotNetNuke.com in the Video Library. Chris' templates include versions for the old style data access layer and a new one for the (new) DAL2 approach.

Thanks Joe, I was coming to that conclusion, i.e. best bet is to write modules, and templates to support creating and building modules sounds like the way to go.

One last question - development environment. I will be starting from scratch, on a Windows 7 system. A quick search for "visual studio" turned up several options:

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web seems to be the latest and greatest. Any concerns with picking that one?

Visual Web Developer appears to be the 2010 version of same. Any reason to go with a prior version?

Any other options I should consider? I would like to stick with free versions, unless there is a compelling reason to go with $$.

Thanks very much for your on-target responses.

Worth

p.s. I found the following about status/future of OWS:
http://dnnuke.blogspot.com/2013/06/...them%21%29

Sounds like it is not dead, although the dependency on a single developer, despite his apparent dedication, would be a concern. The proverbial beer truck is always out there. Nevertheless I may give it a further look, as I am debating if my (long dormant) developer skills can be rejuvenated using modern tools, templates, and tutorials.

Worth

Sorry, the URL got trashed. Here is the correct one:

http://dnnuke.blogspot.com/2013/06/...o-ows.html

Thanks for the update regarding OWS. I have met Kevin Schreiner and he is one smart guy. so I'm glad to hear that OWS continues to be upgraded.

As for VS2012, the Express version should be good for most things. I'm not sure about this, but I believe that the Express version now supports compiled modules. You'll want to check that.

One more question...

I am planning to set up a fresh Windows 7 instance, and install only IIS, ASP.Net, etc. along with Sql Studio Express and Visual Studio 2012 Express for Web. Any pros or cons to 32-bit vs 64-bit? If there is no important functional difference, I will stick with 32-bit, but would I be giving up anything?

Thanks again for your helpful responses.

Worth

One more question...

I am planning to set up a fresh Windows 7 instance, and install only IIS, ASP.Net, etc. along with Sql Studio Express and Visual Studio 2012 Express for Web. Any pros or cons to 32-bit vs 64-bit? If there is no important functional difference, I will stick with 32-bit, but would I be giving up anything?

Thanks again for your helpful responses.

Worth

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As for VS2012, the Express version should be good for most things. I'm not sure about this, but I believe that the Express version now supports compiled modules. You'll want to check that.

Worth,

I would go with 64-bit. It's the modern thing to do. Also probably better performance, and the 64-bit OS will allow you to add more memory.