As DotNetNuke developers, we have been asked to build a MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, or whatever the most popular of the day “social network” might be, lots of times over the last few years. With the many multi-million and sometimes billion dollar social network acquisitions that have happened recently, it became a more popular request from many of our clients that we could no longer ignore. At first we sat quietly waiting to hear what DNN 5.0 would have built into it concerning social networking, but we never found a solid answer. In fact, as I write this, from what I understand, there will be no “social networking” features included until DNN 5.1. A few other “social network” modules have popped up, but none seemed to meet the basic needs of a real social network for DotNetNuke and/or did not meet basic criteria for design and features. We became impatient. Therefore, earlier this year, we started developing a DotNetNuke Social Network using modules from the Venexus Software Collection.

 

Before we got started, we sat down and analyzed all of the major and most of the minor players in the social network industry. We created a huge list of “needs” and “wants” and began developing. With users as the focus of any social network, we have the following high level approach:

 

 

 

 

Without users, you cannot have a social network. Therefore we began developing a profile search module. ProfileSearch is used for managing and searching user profiles. The module uses the core DNN user profile attributes. You can add new DNN user profile attributes to your portal and they become immediately available to add as tokens in the template. Here is an example of the search for the module:

 

 

You can go to your profile and click “Edit Core Profile” and it will allow you to change your information. We use the visibility of the profile attributes so only information you want to make public is visible. Here is an example:

 

 You can also create Albums and upload photos.  Our photo uploader allows for multiple files to be selected when uploading and as soon as they are uploaded you can rename them before saving to the album. Here is an example of the photos:

 

 

 Organizing photos in an album is very easy with drag and drop functionality.

Once you have completed your profile, it is visible to other users, depending on your visibility settings. Here is an example profile detail page:

As you can see, this is a very flexible and powerful module, limited only by your creativity.

Businesses are an important part of any social network. Linking users to businesses seems to be a natural evolution of social networks as they become more important to the enterprise. We have an advanced set of modules that allow you as an administrator to manage businesses and their related information, as well as allow users to create and manage their own business profile(s). Using the BusinessSearch module, you can provide a directory style navigation and/or search for businesses.

 

The BusinessInformation module provides the business data collection and detail display. Here is an example of the form:

 

 

Here is an example of the detail view with social bookmarks, comments, ratings, and voting:

 

The business search module can be configured to work as a directory or search. Here is a search example:

 

 

An important piece of the DNN Social Network puzzle is filled with our Business modules.

 

Groups are vital to any social network. Users need the ability to collaborate with groups of like-minded individuals. No social network can really exist without the inclusion of groups. Our Groups module allows you to manage, browse (category directory), and search for groups. Groups can be setup as private or public and users can contribute media to the group to be socialized. In the example below, you can see a group and an article that is associated to the group.

Allow your users to find, share, and collaborate information as a Group.

 

 

“Media” can be a lot of things. An article, audio, document (Excel, PDF, Word, etc.), image, link, micro-blog, press release, video, or just about anything you can find or upload to the web. Media can be associated to any business, group, and/or user. A social network needs lots of media for its users to find, consume, and socialize.

 

Our IndexItem module handles the data collection and display for media. Here is an example of the video upload:

 

 

 

Here is an example of the display of a video article:

 

 

Published media becomes immediately searchable from our advanced search module and search directory.

 

 

User Interaction is the final and most important ingredient of any social network. Our modules use our WebControls, that provides social bookmarking, commenting, rating, and voting capabilities. Make your site truly a social network with vital social controls. Here is an example of bookmarks, ratings, and votes in our SearchDirectory module:

 Giving your users the ability to interact with other users, businesses, groups, and media is the final ingredient to the secret sauce for a DNN social network.

 

A social network should focus on users, with the ability for them to upload an avatar, manage their profile, create photo albums, create businesses, create groups, and find/share/collaborate media. Your users should be able to search for other members, groups, businesses, and media and bookmark, comment, rate, and vote. Socializing your DNN site in easy with our modules. Start your own DotNetNuke social network today by subscribing to our modules. To see a DotNetNuke social network in actions, please visit I'm Vivo or DVD Lit