It was a long day – 1.5 hours drive there and 1.5 hours back. I realise that business is not done in the office, but out with people, talking about new ideas and with some documents signed to allow freedom to talk, it was a really good time to meet and talk with people who drive this product. I was approached by their IT team just a few weeks ago to provide a CMS product to their customer base, so it's going to be interesting times in the coming 2 months.
With the release of 3.08 being the non beta version, DotNetNuke is maturing into a serious product that even some of the larger companies are looking at. This is because it continues to push boundaries through ongoing planning and development from experienced people all around the world.
I've not known any product/application in the open source environment gaining such momentum and interest and this final release of DotNetNuke 3 makes me wonder if I'll have a job!! It's great enough to use in it's current state without the need for skinning.
Of course skinning will make it more customised, but we now have a product that any IT department, or web developing company can show a client/employer/prospect, without having to apologise for the chunkiness. I confess I was always impressed with DotNetNuke and always saw through the standard interface to be something I was proud to promote and now even prouder that I've been able to put in some of my ideas and methodology that in the future, many people will benefit from.
My wonderful graphics guy spent a week with us, even though we had to rebuild his system because his hdd died, and we had to do a complete reinstall, and then he got a cold getting a chill one night with our changeable weather.
However, aside from that, I believe that he's got a good grasp on the fundamentals of graphically designing a skin for me. It was interesting to sit with him, and explain how we approach things and the oohs and aaah's and…I see… comments were coming through thick and fast as we came to the realisation – DotNetNuke is a unique product, very rigid in it's format, but stick within the guidelines and you'll have a fantastic site.
I will be turning my site into a more portal based environment with better access to information and actually designing a DotNetNuke site. I get so many questions on how to make things work, so will make attempts to address them as time permits.
At the moment, I'm juggling cooking Christmas dinner, we have on Christmas Eve in Danish Tradition, making creamed rice, finishing CHM file, getting my skins turned into V3, spending time with family and doing some cat sitting of two Tonkinese Cats.
Andrew & I will be spending Christmas lunch with one of my wonderful developers – Anthony B (and his fiancé) - he's the C# coder who talks in a technical tone that makes me stop and think just how clever the developers are in taking an idea that's come from the mind, and create an application that solves a problem, does a job, increases productivity… whatever.
On my site I will have extra colours/styles for the standard install as I build up a colour base. I would like to have all the documentation available in a searchable chm format and again, it takes a little time to juggle all these things.
I wish I could work faster.. But the reality is, with the rate the DotNetNuke is growing, I'll never satisfy the hungry audiences!
I wish all who read this, a great Christmas, an enjoyable festive time, and for those who don't have family or the right circumstances to make Christmas the best time for them, I'll have a thought for you!!
Regards and more snippets tomorrow.
Nina Meiers