SunBlogNuke - DotNetNuke Blog Module

Today we are glad to announce that SunBlogNuke v6.1 is available to free upgrade. It looks a long time without any updates from our team, however, don’t worry about this project and we are still paying lots of attentions on developing better software/products for you and it will be never dead :)

As more and more websites built by SunBlogNuke, our clients not only focused on the efficiency and better usability but also asked more requests about the performance of this publishing tool. Indeed it is time to speed up another performance action. We reviewed the performance of all the store procedures with SQL Server Profiler and invested where it was running slow and why. In the process, we built accurate iteration to fix them with running lots of testing. Even through we may missed something else,  there had been no sacrifice of quality and stability in the SunBlogNuke product and we assured you that the SunBlogNuke v6.1 will be speeded up in your DotNetNuke website.

Why not have a try? Get started now.

Major Highlights in v6.1:
Min DotNetNuke version required: v6.0.0

• ENH - SQL optimizations with better performance, mainly for default blog view and Content Slider Widget.
• ENH - supported new tokens "DigNum" and "BuryNum" for post entity.
• FIX - upgrade issue from "4.8.0" to "6.0" caused by SQL script.
• FIX - approved/rejected links always show when posting new comment.
• FIX - date time not referring to the preferred timezone of every current user any more.
• FIX - email notification not delivered when new comment posted.
• FIX - threw exception when aggregate feed based on portal level.

If you are applying upgrade process, please BACK UP YOUR CHANGES BEFORE PROCEEDING and follow up the suggested upgrade path: v2.1->v5.2->v6.0+.

NOTE: from v6.0 the SunBlogNuke will begin to not support DotNetNuke 5.x any more because it will utilize core APIs introduced from DNN6+, such as daylight savings time. If you are still using the dnn5, you don’t have to be worry about it because we will also maintain independent branch of the older version 5.8.x, which will always be compatible with dnn5 and may be updated with fixes without new features any more.

You can get it here. We hope that with this generation dnn blog module you can enjoy the blog writing and it will make your life better; plus if you have any good advice about our products, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

The SunBlogNuke Team

I’m pleased to announce that the SunBlogNuke 6.0 Technology Preview is now available for download. Keep in mind that this is not intended to be a production quality release.  You are sure to find many bugs and features that are not ready for prime-time.  The purpose of a release like this is to have an opportunity to collect feedback about new features.  This is especially important when we are building new features that impact the overall user experience and interface.  Continue reading to learn more about some of the exciting new features coming in SunBlogNuke 6.0.

As you know, jQuery image galleries and sliders are very popular these days and found on many many websites, including those ones based on DNN CMS. There are several interesting use cases for image/content sliders, however I think it is most common to use them on the front page to showcase featured articles, latest blog posts or products. Unfortunately, there are so lots lots of free jQuery plugins & premium DNN slider modules available that you no idea which is the best & worthwhile. In this post we’ll see tutorials that can provide you with the resources showing you how image gallery/sliders can be created from ground up for your dnn websites.

Today we would like to share with you "How to Set up Paging for Content Slider Plus". That’s exactly  the issue raised by our clients in the forum because we did not implement the built-in paging feature in both content slider widgets. The original aims of both widgets was to build content slider with a list of posts, like latest posts or featured posts and also to retrieve top x posts to show in the list view or slider view. Further, because of the highly configurable design, you can even add some "Content Slider Plus" magic yourself without too much effort. Let us go ahead with putting Active Paging on to your dnn “Content Slider Plus".

Image slideshow and content slider are now very popular with thousands of blogs and dnn websites. Indeed it is really useful to show the featured contents and to attract your visitors with more web traffic. In order to fit so common requirements, there are many dnn modules that provide some sort of slideshow/rotator/banner/slider functionality and on sale in DNN Store. Today we would like to showcase our brand gallery module with implementing the same feature with more attractive effects.

If you are finding a highlight solution to display pictures on your DNN website, the Gallery Plus module will be exactly what you need. It is ultra photo gallery framework built on top of DotNetNuke(DNN) platform. The aim is to simplify the process of creating professional image galleries and slideshows for the dnn website.  Out of the box, you can manage your albums & photos; plus feel free to build your own customized interface by lots of external resources without any complicated code, such as any jQuery gallery & slider plugin you can find.

Currently we are focusing on our totally new module - GalleryPlus and hope that it will be the last photo gallery & slider module with DotNetNuke platform you would like to owe. With GalleryPlus, you can manage your albums & photos; plus feel free to build your own customized interface by lots of external resources without any complicated code, such as any jQuery gallery & slider plugin you can find. Today here we would like to showcase one cool sample with core plugins - Slicebox. Slicebox makes use of the 3D transforms properties and allows different kind of effects.

jQuery sliders have been spotted to be commonly used in lots of website to display the images/contents in different impressive ways. Since apart from showing large amount of core site content in a limited space on a website, any jQuery slider also has a great capability to engage the viewers and trigger their interest towards what is being shown to them. In the DNN platform,  it’s also a very popular functional widget and there are lots of slider modules for sale in the snowcovered.com. In my opinion, those modules have the vital disadvantage that they are built with static contents and independent with any content publishing tool. In the end you have to modify them one by one if you want to make it look more dynamic. Now we would like to share the alternative useful tool with building neat, elegant and versatile site components with dynamic effects. Yes, that is the Content Slider Widget(CSW) for Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke.

With the help of jQuery & CSW, you will be able to create any super content sliders with your dnn blog posts. So if you’ve been wondering how jQuery content sliders are accomplished and want to try implementing some of them on your DotNetNuke website, here this tutorial will help you with that.  Today we just showcase the amazing slide thumb on how to make viewing images or other site content more comforting and intuitive. Take a look at how the slide thumbs actions – demo link. Then let’s go ahead.

From v4.2.0 , the Ultimate DNN Blog Module – SunBlogNuke includes custom fields features and the Content Slider Widget supports to include external scripts and styles easily. Now we have the ability to set up your content widget as a list and apply some cool jQuery slider scripts to it without any additional steps. Today we would like to show you how to integrate it with Coin Slider Plugin. First take a look at how the navigable content slideshow actions – demo link. Then let’s go ahead the great journey for building an awesome content slider in your home page.

Happy new year for everyone!

We hope you have been enjoying a happy, healthy holiday season and are looking forward to a prosperous year in 2011!

Today we are glad that the release v4.2 of Ultimate DNN blog module –  SunBlogNuke  is available for free upgrade. This release contains  a new awesome features with the high priority – Custom Fields (please refer to the post for more details and some guidelines to get started - Extend DNN Blog With Custom Fields), as well as some great enhancements, such as enhanced tag url with SEO and enhanced Content Slider Widget with external utility scripts and styles, like NivoSlider or bxSlider, with which to build your awesome content slider. In the mean time, we converted "Category Widget" into an optional module, which you can add into any page at any time and point it to any blog on the portal.  Soon the enhanced widget framework will be done and you will also easily develop your extended widget into your DotNetNuke blog. Please stay tuned :).

As usual, the complete details for all of the changes can be found in the Release Notes.

Major Highlights in v4.2:

• ENH - Enhanced Content Slider Widget with external utility scripts and styles, like NivoSlider or bxSlider, with which to build your awesome content slider.
• ENH - Supported custom fields and removed the thumbnail field in entry table.
• ENH - Combined 'Edit Blog' panel into 'General' settings.
• ENH - Supported ability to moderate comments in the post view.
• ENH - Enhanced tag url with SEO, like http://yourdomain.com/blog/tag/yourtagslug.aspx.
• ENH - Excluded the 'eNews' theme to make the install package smaller size.
• ENH - Converted "Category Widget" into an optional module.
• Lots of other fixes & enhancements.

NOTE: As with any release, we recommend you perform a complete file and database backup before performing any upgrade on a production website and that you first conduct a trial upgrade on a staging version of the site. Following these guidelines will ensure that you are able to recover if any unforeseen problems arise during the upgrade process.

Note that some issues may occur if your original version of SunBlogNuke is lower version, like 3.x, or you've developed your customized theme. Please BACK UP YOUR CHANGES BEFORE PROCEEDING and refer to the tutorial - Must-Read Note for SunBlogNuke v4.x and follow the instructions. Hope it makes sense.

You can get it here. Blog your way and enjoy life. :)

The SunBlogNuke Team