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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