Today I'm making available an early Beta version of a What's New (aka Whats New) module for DotNetNuke 3. It displays the latest items added to your portal.

This module is an extremely simple module right now that utilizes the Search implementation in DNN3 and thus will only work for items in modules that have implemented the new Search functionality.

Currently, there are no settings, it will just display the 5 newest items. Eventually, I hope to add features to make it more flexible and powerful. I encourage others to grab the source and send me modifications as I've been very busy lately. I'll make sure any contributors get proper credit.

You can download the PA and/or Source from Efficion's Site.

Please provide feedback, suggestions, and bugs in this thread.

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

Thanks David,  Will it list new content from your Articles Module?

Yes, it should though right now it will go to correct tab but not the particular item.

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

Good idea Dave!

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Rodney

Install went fine, but module displays:

Error: System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: Procedure 'GetSearchItems' expects parameter '@PortalId', which was not supplied. at Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.LateBinding.LateGet(Object o, Type objType, String name, Object[] args, String[] paramnames, Boolean[] CopyBack) at EfficionConsulting.WhatsNew.WhatsNew.BindData()
CommandText: GetSearchItems

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Regards,

Scott Schecter
EntitySpaces
Schecter Technology Solutions

That's odd... I am passing in the PortalID:
SearchDataStoreProvider.Instance.GetSearchItems(PortalId, -1, -1).

Is the DNN Search functionality working on your installation?

How's it working for other people? Is anyone else seeing this?

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

My search is working fine:

Search Results

1 Text/HTML - Relevance: 1002 About This Site This Website is brought to you by WQXA-FM and First MediaWorks. We have m... http://thex.testing.chilitech.net/AboutThisSite/tabid/96/Default.aspx - 4/22/2005 3:21:19 PM 2 Text/HTML - Relevance: 1001 Contact Us Snail Mail P.O. Box 500 Hershey, PA 17033 ------... http://thex.testing.chilitech.net/ContactUs/tabid/94/Default.aspx - 4/22/2005 3:19:29 PM

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Regards,

Scott Schecter
EntitySpaces
Schecter Technology Solutions

FYI 3.0.13 here as well

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Regards,

Scott Schecter
EntitySpaces
Schecter Technology Solutions

Oops... I really need to test my PAs more carefully...

The problem was, I had two DLLs in the PA, an old version (WhatsNew.dll) and the new version EfficionConsulting.WhatsNew.dll and the dnn file was still referencing the old dll...

I've uploaded new files to my site, please uninstall the old module and make sure that the WhatsNew.dll goes away before installing the new version.

Let me know if you have anymore problems

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

the namespace shuffle;) hehe worked like a charm, thanks

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Regards,

Scott Schecter
EntitySpaces
Schecter Technology Solutions

AerosSaga wrote:

....the namespace shuffle;)

I'll take it over DLL Hell anyday though.

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true dat;)

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Regards,

Scott Schecter
EntitySpaces
Schecter Technology Solutions

There have been around 150 downloads of this module since its initial release and now I'm looking for feedback...

Is it working as expected for everyone?
What changes should be made?
What types of settings do you need? (i.e. Max Number of Articles to display, Max age of items to display, Display Description, ...)

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

Ok, locked and loaded it.  Now, here are some suggestions, most of which you probably want and know about, but since you asked

1. Might be nice to be able to use a module options control to allow storage of the module's settings.
2. Modules settings that would complement the operation:
   - Number of Items to display
   - DateCutoff (don't display items older than this date)
3. Allow syndication.
4. Include the pubDate of the item.
5. Include the author (username) of the item
6. I know that the module title is part of the returned title, due to the implementation requirements for the search, but it would be nice to substring it out, and keep it seperate.  Then, you could display an item like say this:

      DNN Version v3.0.13 Released
      by Diesel 'Dale' Fuego
      Published: Mon, 02 May 2005 14:00:00 GMT
        The newest version of DNN is available here.  Go get it!
       Links provided by MyCoolSite.com

7. Might consider using a custom sql procedure to pull the items out, which would free you to use the module settings at your will.

8. Limit the amount of text allowed in the description to maybe 100 or 150 characters.  Also, might want to weed out any images from the description if there are any, it makes the display look better IMHO.

Ok, those are some things.  I'm actually doing something similar, but I like your idea, keep working on it, we need this type of module, don't we!

Thanks

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iwonder
Mission, KS - USA

Some feedback from germany...

i think one of the most missing features of this module is that it only shows the really new content but no updated items. This is because asking only the "SearchItems" Table. Wouldn't it be better to take a look in each module table and show also the updated contents?

Marcus

Marcus,

That is a nice idea, but for what David is working with, namely the Core search and Core tables, there is this limitation - there is no module standard attribute for LastUpdate (date) and LastUpdateBy.  These are 2 very useful attributes, and developers should consider adding them to their designs.

I  do agree that this is 'missing' and without the capability to store those attributes, a What's New module, will always only show 'What's New' and not 'What's Been Updated'.  Then, again, the module is called 'What's New'. 

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iwonder
Mission, KS - USA

David,

Just noticed this strange behaviour.  I placed an 'Alert' notice in a text/html module and set it to display on all pages.  Now, What's New  displays all of the 5 items allowed with the 'Alert'.

Probably, not exactly the modules' issue alone, but more probably due to the way the internal search method operates.  Anyway, check it out.

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iwonder
Mission, KS - USA

I was able to replicate the problem... the problem lies within the GetSearchItems stored proc when you don't pass in the TabID... so it appears I will have to write my own SQL, which I was planning on already for greater flexibility.

IWonder: I agree with each recommendation you listed, hopefully I'll get to them in the next week or so.

Marcus: I agree that having Updated Items optionally listed is a desirable feature but polling each module's table is not doable... the best way to address it would be improvements to the core search functionality to add (and update) a LastUpdated field, but this isn't something I'm gonna get into any time soon... It would be easy to add a what's new module for a particular module type (Articles, Announcements, Events, ...)

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com

I just made version 3.0.1 of the Whats New module available. This version has been reworked significantly and now includes a Settings page to allow for easy customization (not all settings are fully operational yet). I've also solved the problem where modules displayed on multiple pages would display multiple times.

Please get the latest and let me know what you think. If anyone is interested in helping to make improvements, let me know, I'd be more than happy to share credit.

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David O'Leary
www.EfficionConsulting.com