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Jul
14
Written by:
Rodney Joyce
7/14/2006
The more technical amongst you may know that the reason there are 2 core version of DotNetNuke (3.x and 4.x) is because of the underlying .NET technology. DNN 4.x runs on Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0 (includes C# 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0) and was released last year in November. DNN 3.x runs on the old Visual Studio 2003 (looking somewhat dated now) and .NET 1.0.
There are some major changes in the compilation models and
hence the project/solution layouts, but this is beyond the scope of this blog.
Basically the DNN core team feel it necessary to support 2 distinct codelines
for legacy reasons and also to keep moving DotNetNuke forward on the latest
technology. I agree with this strategy (after all, a lot of us are depended on
our Hosting Providers as well as financial and other indirect costs), and an
upgrade to DNN 4.x is not always feasible or possible. Having said this, it
must be understood that this is a massive drain on resources (consider that
even with the most productive tools, 2 separate lines of code must be
maintained, developed, tested, QA’d and released. While not quite doubling the
resources required, there is definitely a massive disadvantage to doing this
and something else suffers to achieve this.
My personal view is that the sooner the core drop new
versions of 3.x the better. Before you burn me at the stake (all my websites,
including Smart-Thinker and PokerDIY.com are in 3.x still by the way), hear me
out.
The core can still release minor updates and bug fixes for
show-stopping bugs in 3.x. Once DNN 3.3.x is out and is Gold (3.3.2 – the
current version at the time of writing, is a Release Candidate only and should
NOT be used on live sites), then this is a very functional DNN version and I
believe all efforts should be focused on DNN 4.x only. This will increase
productivity massively and ensure the DNN project keeps (and gains) momentum. Users
of 3.x can either choose to stay on the current version (if it suits their
needs – that should not be a problem then), or can upgrade when ready (feasible
or possible). If a showstopper bug appears in 3.x then minor updates can be
released (probably for the next year or so – it does not make sense to do this
indefinitely as resource and the codebase will have to be maintained. Please
note that I have no more inside knowledge of the core workings than you – these
are merely my own personal opinions on how I feel the project should move
forward gracefully.
This is also the Smart-Thinker strategy for our modules and
moving forward with DNN and our module product suite. As a small team, we
simply do not have the resources to maintain 2 distinct lines of code and back
port (from a technical POV, this is what you need to do – you can’t simple
upgrade or share the code – they have very different compilation models and
architectures) code to the 3.x versions. It is essential that everyone can use
the Smart-Thinker product suite, so all existing modules will continue to be supported until we have no more 3.x
customers left (this is the key bit). New modules, for example, the
Smart-Thinker Scheduler – more on that later, will ONLY be released in 4.x and
will not work on 3.x. I apologise now if this offends anyone, but the time and
effort to work on the same product twice means other areas of growth would
stagnate and this would not be good in the long run. I’ve already had a lot of
requests from our Gold Developer subscribers for the source code in 2005! (Most
modules are sill in the 3.x version as they are compatible with 4.x, but this
means you are not getting any of the advantages of the .NET 2.0 framework – the
main one being a proposed 70% less code and increased productivity in Visual
Studio 2005. This means tighter code, more releases and better modules for you.
Which brings me onto another topic: development standards.
Recently I have personally been tightening up our development process with VS
2005 which should become apparent in the higher quality of Smart-Thinker
modules over the next few releases. We are in the process of implementing
Virtual Server and Virtual PC (this makes testing a lot easier as you can setup
machines in various states and test certain scenarios and then roll them back
with ease), 2005 Unit Tests (similar to NUnit, but integrated into the VS2005
IDE), continuous builds, Team Foundation Server (better source control,
development process etc). Hopefully all of these changes will be apparent to you
as the end user and will allow us to increase productivity and output. In the
last few months we have been waiting for the core team to make their move and
now that this is done we can start gearing up for some good development.
According to our recent survey (http://www.smart-thinker.com/Other/Surveys/tabid/1095/Default.aspx)
which over 275 people took part in, 190 of you are using DNN 4.x and the
roughly other 1/3 of you are using DNN 3.x. Considering the amount of people
waiting for the DNN 4.3.x Gold version, and it’s safe to say that the
overwhelming majority of the community are using or about to use DNN 4.x
I’m interested to hear the DNN communities view on this –
please let me know what you think.
Next blog… Module Updates…
Copyright ©2006 Rodney Joyce
Tags:
Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
I agree!
By Jay on
7/14/2006
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Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
Being a web hosting provider that over the last year has been pushing DNN as a solution to my customers I have many thoughts and concerns on the subject.
The primary concern is current site(s) preservation and stability which leads to the following sub-issues. Since we manage diverse sites which are all on some version of DNN 3.x.x we have much to loose if we upgrade sites and due to issues in compatibility with the 4.x versions of DNN they crash. The latest 3.2.2 version of DNN really blew our minds on it's potential, but in our testing environment we almost completely obliterated all of the sites we run due to various modules from 3rd party creators. This is without throwing the unknowns of upgrading to .Net 2.0 on our servers.
Since we're a small host and our clients are generally small-business customers the cost required for purchasing upgrades to modules could result in a financial burden that would prevent us from upgrading to DNN 4.x. In the same respect we would be apprehensive on pitching DNN to new customers if we couldn't run under the latest supported and stable DNN platform.
In closing while I would endorse only supporting the "one line of code" aspect of moving forward with only DNN 4.x development with all the eggs in one basket, but when I look at it from a business perspective I see it as potentially detrimental on a personal financial level.
By mlcsphoto on
7/17/2006
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Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
Correction to my last comment:
We tested upgrading to DNN version 3.3.x and not the 3.2.2 version. (Our 3.2.2 versions were stable and I hope I didn't cause any confusion.)
By mlcsphoto on
7/17/2006
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Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
Hmmm - it is definitely a tricky siutation the community faces. Interesting though, is that you say 3.3.x is unstable (ie. it's not a 3.x vs 4.x issue, it's a 3.3.x vs an earlier 3.2.x version. I know what you mean about upgrading to .NET 2.0 - however it has been our for almost a year now and is very stable - so perhaps an upgrade to the last stable version of 4.x is a wise preliminary step?
It's really tricky for us small module developers (for the reasons I listed) - I honestly feel bad about taking this hardline stance, but I feel I have to for the overall good of the Smart-Thinker projects - obviously customers vote with their wallet, so I will be affected by that, but I am hoping that in time the market will catch up and it will pay off.
By rod on
7/17/2006
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Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
I second the motion.
I have already made the move to 4.x and VS2005 and I'm not looking back. It really doesn't matter if some 3.x modules no longer work; it just demonstrates that those developers are no longer supporting their products, period.
You can get on the last train now or wait for the next one (which will never come).
By Dwayne J. Baldwin on
9/25/2006
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Re: Full steam ahead in VS2005, .NET 2.0 and DNN 4.3.x + and support for DNN 3.x only
Yes, I am loving VS2005 (and the WAP model) - I have just upgraded a lot of sites to DNN 4.3.5 and it's great... before that I was on 3.3.5 (just the way it worked out) - so if you reading this and you are able, I highly recommend a 4.3.5 upgrade!
By rod on
9/25/2006
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