Just a few days ago the snowplow poles have gone into the ground along our roads.
This means two things: 1. the snow is coming, and 2. it’s conference season. Every year around this time of the year there is the main US DotNetNuke conference. This year it’s called DotNetNuke World. It’s in Orlando on November 9-11 and I will be attending. And just like 2007 and 2009 I will be presenting as well.
This year I’ll be speaking about localization in a session aimed at beginner and intermediate site administrators. So rather than a presentation on how to implement content localization in your module, with lots of code, I’ll hope to shed some light on the intricacies of how you can make a non-English DNN site and what you need to know about the mechanisms at work.
In the meantime there is a new version of DMX 6.0 on this site. This is the “release candidate”, or RC in short. This means it is done to a degree I’m happy it can be released, but I’m still holding off putting it in production. Why? Well, it is never a good idea to do a major release and then to leave the office for an extended period of time. Experience shows that no matter how much you test, you just never can tell (incidentally, that is why we always insist you back your stuff up before upgrading as well). A DotNetNuke module is just a single component in a very complex system. If we’d all be on a plain-vanilla DNN 05.06.02 site, with the default skin, my job would be easy. But we’re not. Variations in DNN versions, skins and third party modules (and their versions) means it is very difficult to predict what might happen once a module gets deployed. Sure, we all do our best to stick to coding practices that minimize risk of clashes, but it takes one fool or a simple oversight to have a mess. I’m pretty sure all has been ironed out with DMX 6, but while I’m in the US (I’m leaving tomorrow) I suggest you use it in staging only. It’d be really helpful if you could do a trial upgrade of an existing DNN installation with DMX to double check that all data is preserved.
Many of you reading this will be going to Orlando as well (I’ve heard it was sold out). I am really looking forward to seeing you there. Before the main event I’ll be passing by and speaking at the Orlando DotNetNuke User Group, or ODUG as it’s called. I love these types of events. User Groups are the “grass roots” of the wider community. Kept alive by the kind devotion of volunteers and aimed at helping beginning DNN’ers. I’m honored to be invited and very pleased to be able to meet the Floridians there. Given it’s just before the DNN World, I might bring my “internationalization posse” with me. Hope to see you at one of these events.
Peter