There are many modules out there on SnowCovered that you can purchase that allow you create and publish content. Often forgotten are the modules which allow you more easily manage your DotNetNuke installation. I call these Utility modules
Many of these modules are not as widely known and their creators don’t enough credit for the time savings they offer.
dnnWerk PageManagement
http://dnnpageadmin.codeplex.com/
This module is a replacement for the built in Pages module found on Admin > Pages. This module allows you to drag and drop sort modules as well as quickly modify page permissions and SEO details. You can also nicely see a list of the modules in use on this page.
dnnWerk Users
http://dnnusers.codeplex.com/
The most important feature of this multiple use module is the ability to export your users details to an excel file. If that was all this module did it would be great, but there is so much more. This module offers module view for replacing the DotNetNuke core user management module, profile, registration. Another excellent feature is it allows you to automatically login as the select user (great for testing roles & permissions).
WatchersNET.URLShorty
http://dnnurlshorty.codeplex.com/
The pitch of this module is it allows you to turn your website into a service like tinyURL or bit.ly. While those services are great and that functionality can be useful how about creating SEO landing pages like www.domain.com/BuyNow that points to www.domain.com/BuyNow/tabid/30/ctl/view/default.aspx. This module allows you to do exactly that. You can also track every time a URL is clicked on.
dnnWerk DNN 5 RadEditor Provider
http://radeditor.codeplex.com/
Since the RadEditor has been made available in DotNetNuke 5.x Text/Html module there has been a need to modify the editors configuration. This module makes certain features and issues easily manageable. These features include:
- Allows you to save JavaScript code.
- Make URLs absolute
- Enlarge the Height & Width of the text area.
- Remove MS Word garbage code when pasting from Word
- Include your Skin.css or alternative CSS classes to be used within the style selector dropdown.
- Remove specific toolbar options like symbols, media, templates.
Most importantly it allows you to set these options per Portal and/or per Role.
Oliver Hine - Advanced Control Panel
http://oliverhine.com/DotNetNuke/Administration/AdvancedControlPanel.aspx
This module is a control panel replacement which makes managing your sites pages and modules a dream. It’s difficult to explain exactly what it does for you at a glance but the time you will save adding and editing page settings as well as adding and placing modules is invaluable. Oliver also has several other great modules that I didn’t have room to add to my list. Most notably I will add is the Keyword Editor which works great in tandem with dnnWerk Page Management shown above.
DotNetNuke IdentitySwitcher
http://identityswitcher.codeplex.com/
This module extends one of the capabilities that the dnnWerk User module does. dnnWerk will allow you to login as a user but once you’re logged in as that user you will have to log out and back in as the admin. This may be annoying when testing complicated roles and permissions for several users. Placing this module on the page will allow you to jump back and forth between users.
Ultimate DotNetNuke Skin Object
http://ultimateskinobject.codeplex.com/
The only skin object module in my list. This is for advanced users who want to remove the Default.css, Portal.css from showing up in your DotNetNuke site and using only a single Skin.css to manage all your CSS classes. You can also inject other JavaScript libraries into the header to make sure they are available for your entire page.
WatchersNET.SiteMap
http://dnnsitemapui.codeplex.com/
This module allows you to create a nice sitemap page that lists out your entire DNN structure as well as use the more modern sitemap footer approach. I know this treads on a fine line between utility and content but I feel that sitemaps chore than content.