The release of DotNetNuke Version 6.x has sparked a lot of people asking “Should I upgrade?”. Ultimately only you can answer that, but the real question you should be asking is “What should I expect?”.
What Should I expect? The Good
DotNetNuke corporation and other fans have already elaborated on the new features in DNN 6:
- New Admin Interface
- Snowcovered & Forge Integration
- S3 and Azure File Storage (Pro Only)
- E-Commerce (Pro Only)
- Sharepoint Integration (Pro Only)
- DNN Core is now written in C#
But to be honest, for many of us, only the new admin UI will ever be noticed or used after an upgrade. Let me tell you about a few other things that you will see and use in DotNetNuke 6.
Performance
6.0 is just plain faster. Page loads are faster. We’re talking seconds, or even hundredths of a second, faster, but the fact remains that the performance improvement is noticeable.
Pages Module
The pages module has been replaced in DNN 6.x with a community-provided module. This module works 100x better than it’s predecessor and adds a lot more functionality, including:
- Drag & Drop sorting
- At a Glance view permissions
Those two features alone had me sold.
HTML Editor Manager
Since DotNetNuke has been using HTML Editor Providers there has always been a need to tweak the settings of those editors within the application. Another community project has been added to DNN 6 which enables you to modify the Telerik RadEditor settings:
- Enable / Disable options for settings like Font Styling, Alignment, Media, and more
- Portal and Role based settings
- Allow Javascript to be put into text/html
- Apply CSS Class drop down can be configured
What Should I Expect? The Bad
Upgrading to DotNetNuke 6.x will not always be the perfect dream. Many times it’ll work without any problems, but there are a few caveats that you should be aware of.
Old Configuration Settings
Old core configurations settings can cause issues with the new bells and whistles. Some of these settings will include:
- Control Panel will not show all the latest functionality.
- Default Doc Type will cause skin issues
- Html Provider will stop working
- Data will not be properly cached.
- Ajax functions and drop down menus may stop working.
Skins: Z-Index
The new admin interface uses a lot of hover and modal pop-ups. There can be fights with CSS z-indexing between your menu, content, or video, which can all be struggling to be on top. This could making your menu navigation impossible to use or leave you without the ability to administer your site if the wrong element is forcing itself on top.
Skins: Margins & Alignment
It is recommended that your site runs under a doctype of XHTML 1.0 Transitional to make all the interface features run smoothly. Doctype may not mean much to you, but essentially it’s how your browser knows to how to read all the CSS and present the page. Margins, display types, and element alignments are the most common issues that need tweaked when the doctype is changed.
Modules
Modules can be very particular about the version of DNN they run under. Research which modules you have installed and are using on your site. Be aware if those modules have recommended upgrades available and check the following:
- Is my module compatible w/ DNN 6?
- Are you eligible for free upgrades?
- How much will a module upgrade cost?
The most common problems with DNN modules are out-of-date references to core functionality and Javascript conflicts.
Hosting
If you're running an older version of DotNetNuke and want to jump to version 6.0, be aware of the hosting requirements. DotNetNuke requires ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 or higher and SQL Server 2005 or higher.
Should I upgrade?
Almost all of “The Bad” problems associated with a DNN upgrade can be fixed by a professional in just a couple hours. Unless any of the above conflicts are a deal breaker for you, I would generally always recommend having your site upgraded to the last version of DotNetNuke. DotNetNuke is a very active project and community, and things are changing and improving every day. I’d hate for you to miss out of those features.
To put it simply: Staying up-to-date makes it faster and easier to make future upgrades.