Recently we had to mix an old ASP application with DotNetNuke. This was for a members site. Members had to log into the ASP application which created a session variable. This session variable needed to be passed along to all pages within the members site. The members site was a combination of ASP pages in iframes and DotNetNuke pages. During login the session variables were set.

The variables were passed perfectly from page to page within the members site in Firefox and Google Chrome. In IE the users were constantly brought back to the login page saying their login failed. IE was not accepting the session variables.

The reason why this was happening in IE is P3P. I had never heard of this until now. Apparently IE is more restrictive about cookie privacy, and it implements P3P, so you have to explicitly tell it that the cookies from the Iframes ore OK.

P3P information – http://www.w3.org/P3P/

The fix was on every ASP page this code needed to be placed:

Response.AddHeader "p3p","CP=\""IDC DSP COR ADM DEVi TAIi PSA PSD IVAi IVDi CONi HIS OUR IND CNT\"""

Thanks to Dan for finding this quirk in IE!

In a recent project we did we had the need to integrate a classic ASP members site with DotNetNuke. The client had invested a lot of time and money into building an ASP based system to track their membership. They had a members only site that integrated with this membership application. When we redesigned their public web site it was not in the budget to redo the members only site or integration to the membership application. We needed a work around.

They had a complicated log in that checked if they had changed their password from its ordinal, validated that they had paid their dues, and determined what chapter they belonged to. Based on the login it displayed only their chapter information. We needed to integrate aspects of the membership application along with DNN pages that just contained documents for their reference.

We decided on iframes for integrating the membership application. They displayed the login, chapter rosters, profile information, membership search, etc. It worked well and even passed the session variables when navigating to DNN pages and back to the iframe pages.

The one issue we ran into was on the login page. Once the login was validated it needed to redirect the user the main page of the members site. If you did a standard response.redirect in the ASP code it brought the page in the iframe instead of loading the page as itself. That was not going to work. Second we tried JavaScript. While this worked great, it opened a new window on top of the current page. This was very confusing for many of the users. They kept calling saying nothing happened and it just says Login.

Code Example:

strLocation = "full URL here"
openlink(strLocation)
function openlink(link)
%>
<SCRIPT language='JavaScript'>window.open(' <%=link%> ');</SCRIPT>
<%
end function

We knew we needed a solution that replaced the iframe page with the correct page. After many tries the answer was finally found. This code breaks you out of the iframe.

Code Example:

strLocation = "full URL here"
openlink(strLocation)
function openlink(link)
<SCRIPT language='JavaScript'>parent.location.href ='<%=link%> ';</SCRIPT>
<%
end function

I have spent the past 3 days at the DotNetNuke World conference. This conference was the first for DotNetNuke Corp on its own. Previously their conferences has been held in conjunction with the Microsoft DevConnections conference. I think this was a great move for DNN. There was about 400 people there and 1000 online viewers for the keynote address. 

DNN has a new definition for CMS (content management system). C = Cloud Deployment, M = Mobile Optimization, S = Social Engagement. This is all part of their new mission. They have some goals for the upcoming year:

• User Experience Improvements
• Cloud Deployment
• On Demand
• Performance
• Social/mobile

There are over 10K modules currently on SnowCovered.com. This store will be undergoing a major overhaul in the future to re-brand it and add new functionality.

DotNetNuke has had a very successful year. Their release was DNN v6. This new version had major user interface changes and functionality changes. For all you programmers the back end was changed from VB to C#.

There are some big improvements for v6.

1. Extension Catalog - You can now purchase modules right in your web site and install it at the same time.
2. Cloud File Storage – The professional and enterprise editions now allow you to store files in offsite providers like Amazon and Azure.
3. SharePoint Connector – In the enterprise edition there is a connector that can connect your SharePoint and DNN web site to share files.
4. Mobile - DNN now has the ability to detect what screen resolution or device is coming to your web site. Based on this information the end user is automatically redirected to the appropriate site for that device. There are mobile templates that come with DNN now. The menu is optimized for small screen when using this template. When creating content there is a preview for most devices currently on the market. When a mobile device comes to your site you can redirect it to a page or site automatically.
5. Cross sites sharing – Users and content can now be shared between sites/portals. If you are responsible for more than one site you will have a single signon that wont log out when you go between sites.
6. Performance - DNN 6 has major speed improvements. It reduces client requests by 70% by grouping CSS and JavaScript to reduce page download times. This is not enabled by default.

Looking into 2012 these are the features that DNN will be working on:

• SnowCovered will become "DotNetNuke Store" with enhancements
• Cloud – demos and hosting
• Professional Edition –
  • Content approval
  • Granular permissions
  • Document management
  • Page Caching
• Enterprise Edition –
  • Staging environment
  • SharePoint 2010 connector
• Focusing on business sections – They want to have installs that focus on certain types of web sites like Intranets, Ecommerce, etc. These will contain the templates and modules needed for these types of sites.
• Social media – They will be integrating social media right in the base code.
• URL management
• SEO management

The enhancements in v6 take DNN to a new level in content management systems. The future plans for DNN are very exciting and I look forward to implementing these new functions.