In December the DotNetNuke project made a large upgrade to our issue tracker which had been stuck on an old version for the last couple of years.  We have been using Gemini from Countersoft for the last 6 years and it has served us well.  Unfortunately, earlier versions were having performance problems with the amount of issues we were tracking across all the module projects along with the Core framework.  Countersoft made a decision when moving from 2.x to 3.x to completely overhaul the security model.  If you ever had to use Gemini 2.x for a large project like ours you would have found that the task for migrating the old security settings was enormous.  We had over 40 projects each with security configuration affecting hundreds of users.  As a result of the shear amount of work involved, we avoided upgrades long past the time when an upgrade was warranted.

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I am pleased to announce that DotNetNuke 5.2.2 has been released.  DotNetNuke 5.2.2 is a monthly stabilization release and includes a number of fixes aimed at improving the overall stability and performance of the platform.  Over the last year we have been undergoing a lot of changes behind the scenes in how we manage the DotNetNuke release process which I’ll be discussing in a separate post.  The result of all that effort is that our releases are becoming more predictable and with greater emphasis on testing.  This particular release reflects those process improvements.  As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the ChangeLog.

Major Highlights

• Fixed issue where tabname lookup's were case-sensitive and caused problems when loading controls.
• Fixed issue where Captcha control did not include a value for the Alt attribute.
• Fixed issue where the Create New Module wizard allowed the user to select an invalid 'Owner' folder.
• Fixed issue where uninstalling a module with 'delete files' unchecked deletes the files anyway.
• Fixed issue where GetMappedDirectory would log an exception during install.
• Fixed issue where the Starter kit was missing the HTML module.
• Fixed issue where the source package did not include the HTML module.
• Fixed issue with missing databaseowner and objectqualifier tags in the 5.2.1 SqlDataProvider script.
• Fixed issue where portal templates ceased working in 5.2.1.
• Fixed issue with page quotas where GetTabCount stored procedure had not been updated for localization changes introduced in 5.2.0.
• Fixed issue where Host email test fails but no email addresses are listed in the error message.
• Fixed issue where temp files were left if extension installation was cancelled.
• Fixed issue where Captcha was not regenerated if login failed.
• Reverted syntax that grants stored procedure permissions to previous version, as GRANT EXECUTE TO was problematic on shared hosts.
• Fixed issue where vendor registration email did not contain the vendor name.
• Added the ability to specify a custom animation function for the Visibility Widget.
• Updated title and help text to make optional for forcing a captcha for associating logins clearer.
• Added documentation to the Dynamic Module template that is displayed when a new module is created using the template.

Security Fixes

• None

Updated Modules/Providers

• No modules or providers have been updated in the 5.2.2 packages.

As with any release, we recommend you perform a complete file and database backup before performing any upgrade on a production website and that you first conduct a trial upgrade on a staging version of the site.  Following these guidelines will ensure that you are able to recover should any unforeseen problems arise during the upgrade process.

NOTE: System requirements have changed in DotNetNuke 5.2.0. DotNetNuke requires SQL Server 2005 or above and .NET 3.5 SP1. Please ensure you are running a supported version of SQL Server and .NET before installing or upgrading to DotNetNuke 5.2.2.

In late 2007, Nik Kalyani created what I think is one of the coolest new DotNetNuke features to arrive in quit a while – DotNetNuke Widgets.  Nik recently started work on a multi-part blog series on Widgets.  As he explains, DotNetNuke Widgets are a powerful client-side counterpart to the server based extension model exemplified by DotNetNuke Modules.  Where a module generally consists of code that is executed on the server, a widget primarily consists of JavaScript to be executed in the browser.  This is not to say that a module can’t include rich client functionality or that widgets can’t include server-side code:  indeed both options are certainly possible.   With widgets the focus is on building functionality that is easily added through custom object tags.  You can emit these tags from a Module, in a Skin or directly in an HTML module.  Anywhere you can add HTML to the page output, is a place you can add a widget.

With any new technology there is always the question of why someone would use it.  Why would someone not just add custom JavaScript or use an existing widget framework (there certainly are a lot to choose from)?  I have used a number of widgets and scripts on my pages and in general I don’t find that they are particularly geared for use by many of the non-technical users who ultimately edit and maintain DotNetNuke websites.  Most widgets and scripts require a certain level of technical knowledge by the end user, and in many cases, they impose some dependency on a third party website.  DotNetNuke Widgets attempt to resolve these issues and many others.  Since widgets are first class citizens in the DotNetNuke extensibility model, they can be packaged, versioned and installed just like any other DotNetNuke extension.  This eliminates any dependency on a third party website since many widgets are fully self-contained.  Also, because the widget is created on the page with a simple Object tag, they are much easier for a non-programmer to understand and add to the page (there is still some room for improvement which I hope to address in 2010).

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I am pleased to announce that DotNetNuke 5.2.1 has been released.  DotNetNuke 5.2.1 is a monthly stabilization release and includes a number of fixes aimed at improving the overall stability and performance of the platform.  We continue to significantly enhance our testing effort with each release.  The 5.2.1 release benefited from an improved testing procedure that included several iterations of Load and Performance testing.  While we recognize that there is always room for improvement, we hope you’ll find that this release represents another significant step forward and further improves an already great product.   This release includes a number of fixes related to upgrade and installation scenarios.  Over the next couple of stabilization releases we will continue to focus on improving this critical part of the product.  As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the ChangeLog.

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The last 7 years has been a very exciting time for the DotNetNuke team.  This period has been marked by constant change.  Sometimes the changes were positive and helped move the project forward, and other times the changes did not achieve the desired results and thus became a learning opportunity.  During this period we have had almost 80 core team members and project leads, had 5 major releases, hosted the project on 3 different open source websites, had 3 different project forums, and used 3 different source code management systems (hat tip to the reader who can name the websites and SCMs) .  We have also launched a company, created a commercial version of the project, and hosted conferences in North America and Europe.  All in all, it has been a pretty busy time, marked by lots of changes.  There have been 3 constants throughout the life of the project – Shaun Walker has always been the leader of the project, DotNetNuke has always been offered under a BSD open source license (we’ll conveniently ignore Shaun’s brief flirtation with a different license in 2003), and we have always operated a closed repository.  Today I am happy to announce that one of those is changing.

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I am happy to announce that DotNetNuke 5.2.0 has been released.  This release comes after an extensive beta testing period and a corresponding effort by our internal testing team.  As one of our quarterly feature releases, 5.2.0 includes a number of new capabilities.  We have improved some of the module creation and packaging tools, improved our module caching support and added Page Output caching for our Professional customers.  These are just a few of the many changes and fixes in this release as indicated below. As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the ChangeLog.

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Last year at OpenForce, DotNetNuke Corporation was on the verge of closing our first round of funding.  2006, 07 and 08 were challenging years as we struggled to find a business model that would support our company of 6 and allow us to grow.  Shaun, Scott, Nik and I formed DotNetNuke Corp. with the goal of building a company that would allow us to better manage the project and improve DotNetNuke with access to increased resources.  With the investment we received in 2008 we have been able to grow the company to nearly 30 employees and contractors.  As we have brought in additional employees, it has allowed us to further focus our efforts rather than running around trying to do everything ourselves.

One of our first people we hired after OpenForce last year was Cathal Connolly from the core team.  Cathal joined Charles Nurse who already worked for DotNetNuke Corp and brought his deep understanding of DotNetNuke security to the company.  At the same time we began to build out our engineering office in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada – not far from Vancouver.  We quickly hired Sarah Darkis and John Lucarino who both had prior experience working with Shaun and who also had extensive experience working with DotNetNuke and ASP.Net.  This was our engineering team for the better part of the first 9 months in 2009.
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For the past 7 years, the DotNetNuke project has provided various packages for users to simplify different installation and upgrade scenarios.  Each package was built to address specific requests from the community.  We have recently begun receiving requests for symbol files (.pdb files) and xml comments.  As a result of these requests, starting with DotNetNuke 5.2.0, we will be releasing a new Symbols package with each release.

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One of the benefits of Open Source development is that you have a lot of community members to kick the tires and make sure everything is working correctly before you finalize a release.  In the past DotNetNuke has limited our beta releases.  Usually it would start with a small internal team and move from there to a selected group of public beta testers.  We generally did not hold wide open public betas.  This year we are changing all of that.  We have added many resources to the team that allows us to better manage the beta testing process.  We are also busy adding new tools to make this process much more automated.  As a result, we are better able to handle wider releases and more frequent releases.

I am happy to announce that DotNetNuke 5.2.0 Beta is now available for download.  You can find out more information on the Beta Testing page on DotNetNuke.com.  This is just one of many changes you will see in the coming months to open up the release process.  We believe these changes give people greater visibility into the state of the project, and foster greater community involvement and are excited to be making these positive steps forward.  We will be announcing even more changes at OpenForce Connections.

Please note: Do not apply beta test software to production websites.  Always ensure you backup files and data before attempting any upgrade.  You will not be able to upgrade automatically from one beta build to another, or from beta builds to the final release. Beta testing software is for testing purposes only.

After we released DotNetNuke 5.1.3 last night, a community member discovered a packaging error in the release.  Specifically the DotNetNuke WebControls 02.02.00 package was not properly integrated.  This package was added in 5.1.2 and included some additional defensive coding to help harden the DotNetNuke Web Controls against potential security issues.  The latest web controls package does not fix any specific security vulnerabilities, but rather improves the baseline security posture of the platform and makes it more difficult for a hacker to find and exploit vulnerabilities.  As a result of the mispackaging we felt it was prudent to release a new version to address this issue and ensure that the community and our Professional customers had a version which included these enhancements.

Upgrading to 5.1.4 is not necessary, but it is recommended.  The changes included in 5.1.4 help keep you safe from future attacks and as such is the recommended version for all of our users.  if you are running 5.1.2 or 5.1.3 you can gain these same benefits by downloading and installing the latest version of the DotNetNuke Webcontrols project (02.02.00) from CodePlex (http://dnnwebcontrols.codeplex.com/).

This incident highlights one of the great benefits of Open Source software in general, and the DotNetNuke community specifically.  Because the community has access to the product source code they are able to perform a more thorough review of each release. Many of our community members take pride in the fact that they have a direct hand in helping to improve DotNetNuke.  I want to personally thank Jan Olsmar for quickly identifying the problem and bringing it to our attention so that we could correct it in a timely manner.  None of the proprietary software companies I have worked in had access to such a passionate and knowledgeable community and as a result I don’t think those proprietary products were as good as they could have been.

This packaging issue also highlights another important topic – Quality.  Over the course of our history, DotNetNuke, like many Open Source products, has faced many challenges in ensuring the quality of our releases.  Overall, I think we have done a fairly good job, but I know we can do better.  We have had some releases, like 5.1.3 where our processes broke down and mistakes were made.  We are currently undergoing some changes to the DotNetNuke core team and the DotNetNuke Corporation team to help meet these challenges and further improve the quality of our releases.  I will be speaking more on this topic at DotNetNuke OpenForce Connections where we’ll be making some exciting new announcements in this regard.  Until then know that we are working hard to address our challenges and that we greatly appreciate the continued support and assistance of the entire DotNetNuke community in ensuring that we put out the best product possible.