Portal software

Homer

Perch
Portal. CMS. Whatever you want to call it. I've been looking at some Linux packages (free stuff) and have come to the conclusion that (at least for me) something like DotNetNuke on Windows is a much better solution to my needs. I looked at post nuke, php nuke, mambo and e107 on Linux. In my opinion, none of them comes close to the kind of things I can do with DNN. PHP Nuke and Post Nuke are very mature, have a huge following and have lots of themes and add-ons available, but I am comparing out of the box functionality. I put a reasonable amount of time into researching the Linux products and trying to do something with them and I just don't get the flexibility that I see with DNN.

DNN is moving forward very nicely with their development schedule and releases. I don't like the way that ASP.NET takes time to get started on the first visit to the site, but after that its very fast. I have not looked into what it would take to code for DNN, but I know how to code for asp.net and think I could handle it if I needed. One thing that kind of turns me off about DNN is that so many people are selling their add-ons - trying to make a quick buck. But using the out of the box modules and a couple free ones and it does everything I need it to do.

I stink at the visual part of setting up these sites, so I'm at the mercy of the theme developer. Mambo seems to rely a good bit on the theme to do simple things (like having a multi-level menu). Mambo was fast. But it was not flexible enough. Now, all I have to do is find some decent themes for DNN and I'll be set.

This is just my 2 cents and I thought I'd share them with you after putting some time into researching the Linux portal packages.
 
I have been doing a lot of research as well. I think DotNetNuke has the most promise in my eyes, but it is Windows only and as you said it is slow on the first visit ALSO to ANY page that hasn't been loaded in a while. I guess this is the interpreter doing it's thing. I need to find out how to make the cache or whatever it is called to last longer so that it doesn't have to recompile as often.

If you know asp.net you will be able to figure out how to code for DNN Modules... just find some tutorials and some tools that are used to simplify it a bit. I am new to it so I am still learning.

I have found some sites like kreco.com and several others that seem to load SLOW no matter what. I don't know if it is their servers or if it is DotNetNuke. I know it doesn't leave a good impression.

I guess one day I will find a sold linux version that would be easy to use and work with. Out of the ones I looked at I liked somewhat the Mambo and e107, but there it still isn't as nice to the DNN in my opinion... faster though.
 
DNN has to be "compiled" to run, that is why it takes a bit longer to generate on the first visit, or after IIS has reset.
 
gsaunders said:
I have found some sites like kreco.com and several others that seem to load SLOW no matter what. I don't know if it is their servers or if it is DotNetNuke. I know it doesn't leave a good impression.
gsanders, sounds like you and I think very much alike and maybe we're in the same situation. If you're talking about kreko (http://www.kreko.com/) I agree that their site runs very slow sometimes. The last 2 days have been very fast though. And they sell hosting. :rolleyes: It really doesn't give a good impression of their hosting services when their own website is so slow.

There are some caching settings in DNN but they won't cache for very long periods of time, like a whole day. I think there may also be a way to "pre-compile" a web page, but I'm not sure about that. I think the next version of the .NET framework is going to address some of these issues.
 
Stephen said:
DNN has to be "compiled" to run, that is why it takes a bit longer to generate on the first visit, or after IIS has reset.
Yes, it does something like that. At a minimum is is loading the DLLs from the BIN directory and running it through the Just In Time (JIT) compiler.

I think one big drawback with ASP.NET is that you must truly compile your app, on a dev machine, and upload it to the web host. You do not have the same flexibiliy as you have with ASP and PHP, where it is a "script" that you can make a quick chage to and you're done. Having to compile it makes it much more difficult for the average joe running a website who wants to make some minor change. I think they have fixed this in ASP.NET 2. I'm not sure though. I thought I saw a blurb about this somewhere.

You can read more on ASP.NET 2 here - http://beta.asp.net/QUICKSTART/aspnet/doc/whatsnew.aspx
 
I had the same problem. The reason is that the application domain times out every 20 mins if there is no activity, the first request after the timeout can force a recompile and reload of cache. Changing some settings in the machine.config file will solve the problem; unfortunately for me my hosting provider would not allow me to make this change. I found this utility to be useful.

http://www.spikesolutions.net/ViewSolution.aspx?ID=c2b7edc0-5de1-4064-a432-05f6eded3b82

Essentially it "Pings" my home page every few mins so the application domain does not time out. The utility can also be configured to ping more than one page so that auxiliary pages are fast too.
 
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