A large number of DotNetNuke portals have a dependency on third-party modules. Being a "third-party module developer," I am interested in finding out how much of an impact modules make on the decision to upgrade to DNN3.

If every module you use on your DNN 2.x portal has a 3.x-compatible version available (for free) on the day DNN 3.x is released, would you upgrade your portal to DNN 3.x?

There is a lively discussion on the DotNetNuke Core Team forums about DNN stylesheets. If there is one area of DNN that I don't care much for, it would be in how DNN handles stylesheets. It's a bit messy and leaves even the most CSS-savvy designer scratching their head about how/where/why a particular style was inherited by a particular element.

Personally, I don't think there is a need for host, portal, skin, container and module stylesheets. There should be one stylesheet used on the page and that is the skin stylesheet. All classes required by a page where the skin is applied should be defined in this stylesheet. While this may require a bit more work, it is definitive and portable.

Continuing my quest to have a fully-integrated version of DasBlog with DotNetNuke, I have made some progress.

My original intent was to leave the DasBlog core untouched, but as I poked around, it became clear that this is not to be. I started by putting the DasBlog source in a folder structure that would allow seamless conversion of the DasBlog aspx pages to DNN controls. I created something like this:

/DotNetNuke/DesktopModules/Speerio_DasBlog/{main DasBlog web files}

/DotNetNuke/DesktopModules/Speerio_DasBlog/SiteConfig

/DotNetNuke/DesktopModules/Speerio_DasBlog/Themes

etc.

After several false starts in getting the IIS application mapping correctly, I had a DOH! moment. I moved the DasBlog web.config into /DotNetNuke and made /DotNetNuke into an application. That worked...almost...got a bunch of compiler errors, but at least I was making progress.

The source of the errors was that in several places in the code, DasBlog uses Server.MapPath("somefolder/somefile"). Of course, this doesn't work too well if it's not in the app root. Time to break out the trusty and hard-working Search and Replace and replace all such instances with "~/DesktopModules/Speerio_DasBlog/". Lift-off!? Nope...no such luck. Ran into an annoying VS.Net bug that prevents strong-named assemblies from working properly some of the time. Google says lots of people are having the same problem and the known solution is to not have strong-named assemblies (what kind of solution is that?) or build twice. The assembly in question is FTB and since I am not at the point where I can yank it out, I opted for the build twice.

After more of this, I now have DasBlog working using the revised folder structure. Next step, blow away the DasBlog security and have it look to the HttpContext instead.

Although my graphic illustration skills range from crappy to mediocre, on occasion, I will surprise myself by creating something that looks cool. For the longest time, I used a program called Xara. I then switched to Illustrator when I got a discounted license. I have never really liked Illustrator, because although it is very powerful, the tools are not intuitive. Once you RTFM and figure it out, it seems obvious, but I have had to do it often enough now that I am fed-up and have decided to switch back to Xara.

Since I last used it (about two years ago), Xara has evolved signficantly and there are now a number of features that make web graphics amazingly easy to create. I am switching back. So long Illustrator.

Although I don't rent from BlockBuster, a news story on the D.C. NBC affiliate caught my eye. To stem the steady flow of customers to NetFlix, BlockBuster recently changed its late fee policy. Heavily publicized in a TV campaign, the ad clearly communicated the message that BlockBuster no longer charges late fees. Turns out that's only half the story.

If you don't return the movie within seven days, on the eighth day you own the movie. Your credit card is charged at the time. You can supposedly come into the store within 30 days and get back the money less a re-stocking fee.

What a scam!