This month's presentation will cover three critical administration topics: a practical look at DotNetNuke Upgrades, the art of selecting and incorporating third party modules, and configuring DotNetNuke for performance. This presentation will focus on lessons learned from real world experience and is intended to engage both those that are new to DotNetNuke and long time community members.

1. DotNetNuke® Upgrades, Third Party Modules, and Performance Presented by Ian Robinson

2. DotNetNuke Announcements DotNetNuke Connections 2010 Speakers Announced European Day of DNN Sessions and Speakers Announced DNN 05.04.01 Released Portal Localization Blog 04.00.00 Released DotNetNuke Training Announced Events 05.01.00 Beta Available Core XHTML Forum DiscussionQA Team Recruiting

3. Presentation Agenda Upgrades Why & How Third Party Modules Build vs. Buy Buying Considerations Installing Performance Managing Features Effectively Configuring DNN

4. Why Upgrade? Features Private messaging was introduced in 5.3.1 Dependencies Third party module depends on newer version of DNN Security 5.3.0 & 5.3.1 Have “Critical” Security Flaw Bugs 5.2.3 corrected an issue “where security roles were not properly enforced between child portals”

5. Picking a Version Personally recommended Latest stabilization release 05.04.01 is currently latest version * Many prefer to lag behind a version or two 05.02.03 is generally recommended If you still can’t move to DNN 5 (why?) At least upgrade to 4.9.5 * 05.04.02 should be out soon

6. How do I Upgrade? Backup Entire File System Entire Database Verify Upgrade File System Complete Wizard

7. Extensions: Build vs. “Buy” * Options Buy and configure Often the cheapest and fastest Usually requires compromises Buy and customize Often gets you 80% of the way Still need means to customize (developers) Lose upgrade path Build from scratch Usually the most expensive option (resources, money, time) Don’t have to compromise * Extensions can, of course, be free, too

8. Finding Extensions Open Source The DotNetNuke Forge / Codeplex Commercial Snowcovered Showcase Sites (Indirectly) dnnGallery.net

9. Considerations Company Reputation Support Community Involvement Product Source Code License Technical Dependencies Key Features: Templating, Localization What is everyone else using? Why?

10. Installing/Uninstalling Extensions Be as informed as possible Readme files Instructions on the web site Other people’s reviews Forum posts Backup your site Extensions Install Wizard

11. Managing Features for Performance Manage Features Site Log Scheduler Event Viewer Authentication Providers

12. Configuring for Performance Configure Host Performance Settings Page State Persistence Module Cache Provider Cache Setting Authenticated Cacheability, (msdn reference) Compression Setting * Whitespace Filter *Advanced alternative: Configure GZIP in IIS

13. Other Performance Considerations Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) jQuery Use Yslowextension for FireBug Third Party Products PageBlaster Aptimize

14. Thanks to our Sponsors R2integrated for sponsoring our refreshments. Tekpub, JetBrains, Microsoft, and Intertechfor providing us with free software licenses, books, and training opportunities.