The next version of the Media Module for DotNetNuke is once again here!  In previous releases, ground-breaking features like oEmbed were added.  In future releases, expect to see mobile rendering and HTML5 to be in the mix.  Today, there were a handful of things that needed to be taken care of before taking this module to the next level.

First, David Rodriguez had done some research on all of the modules that were previously known as core modules in the area of Microsoft Azure compatibility.  As of this release, the Media Module is 100% compliant to run on instances of DotNetNuke on Microsoft Azure.

There were some minor enhancements as well.  They include unique ID’s for easier jQuery and CSS targeting, automatically specifying WMode for YouTube videos to have better compatibility with the DNN menus, and a more graceful experience when oEmbed references no longer are available.  These enhancements are expected to have a very positive impact on your DotNetNuke websites and user experience.

There were also some very annoying bugs that prevented the proper linking of files and pages.

Hopefully, you enjoy this release.

Download & Install the Media Module Today!

Yikes!

My last post was exactly one year ago.  Where did the time go? 

This is actually a difficult questions as it was a often used phrase that my brother used. 

While spending a bit of time this weekend working on a new color scheme for ChrisHammond.com I came across the need to be able to add a hyperlink to an image (html IMG tag) using jquery. Why would I want to do that? Well, to be honest I didn’t want to go in and modify the “skin” on my DotNetNuke site, but I did want to create a link on the “HeaderGraphic” image in the skin. Originally that image didn’t link anywhere, now, as I am working on fundraising for the The LIVESTRONG Challenge Davis even on June 24, 2012, I wanted to link that graphic to my “Philanthropy” page.

Doing this in jQuery is rather easy to do assuming you have a way to target the element, in this case I can target the .HeaderGraphic class (part of the MultiFunction skin for DotNetNuke).

Here is the sample code for adding a hyperlink to an image using jQuery.

<script>
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $('.HeaderGraphic').wrap( 
                 $('<a>').attr('href', '/philanthropy.aspx')
        );
    });
</script>

In order to safely embed this into a DotNetNuke page I’ve added it into the Header setting in the Module Settings for one of the modules at the bottom. That particular module is configured to Display On All pages using the module settings.

If you found this code to be help, I ask that you please donate to my cause on the Philanthropy page. Donate what you feel is appropriate.

I get the opportunity to work with companies both big and small that sell their wares on the internet. I’ve learned over the years that there is no “one product fits all” solution out there. Each company has different needs; the solution they end up with must be a close fit to both their knowledge level as well as their business needs.

When we get that call that starts off with “I need an e-commerce website…”, we find ourselves asking the same questions over and over again. Based on their responses we can then find a suitable match for their needs as well as help guide them down the e-commerce path.

Over the last few years I have been trying to keep a little bit better track of usage of the content here on MitchelSellers.com as well as just keeping track of other interactions that I have through User Groups, Open Source Projects, and the like. Each year around the end of the year I try to compile a few of these items, if not for everyone that is reading things here for myself to see how things progress year to year.

Many of you are not even aware that the Open Graph Protocol even exists.  However, it has been the backbone of inter-connected websites ever since social sharing of content and web pages has existed.  This is the standard that Facebook, Google+, and others have adopted to properly connect, share, and display content from site to site when a visitor decides to share it.  Of course, like any other standard, every site varies on how well they adopt this particular standard. 

Why Open Graph?

If you take the initiative to be in control of this standard on your own website, you can not only have a deeper insight and control over where and how visitors share your content, but you can make it look better on those other sites as well!  You can define what and how your shared content appears on various social sites, such as the thumbnail image, link title, and description.  Marketers and branding specialist, take note!

What happens if you don’t define your Open Graph Protocol tags?  Some might think nothing.  In fact, that cannot be further from the truth.  Each site will first ping your site to see which tags exist and use that information to the best of its ability.  If your site is missing these tags, the site that your content is shared to will take whatever content it can find and try to put together the information itself. 

Notice how this shared content does nothing to catch the eye. There wasn’t any engagement with this content over the past 24 hours. Imagine yourself seeing that content on your social network page, listed with literally a long list of much more engaging content that was shared. They could all have thumbnails, images, videos, and more.

Unfortunately, the only site that does a decent job of figuring out how to display your content on its own is Facebook.  Notice how the post below have all of the information you want.  Even though the previous example had been out there for weeks, this post that was there for little more than half an hour already had been noticed by someone.  It created engagement with the content that was shared.

That is, IF your site and content are well-thought out and put together.  Let’s be honest.  Most sites out there do not fit into this category – especially if you have more than one content contributor.

Wouldn’t it be better if YOU could control how this worked from your site in an easy to manage way?  Wouldn’t it be great to see and manage how the Open Graph Protocol is impacting your brand on a site like Facebook?

Jess Coburn, CEO at Applied Innovations, does an incredibly great job of identifying to you the power of Open Graph Protocol, so I will let you read his post on this for the rest of the details.  Go ahead and read it real quick.  This post isn’t going anywhere.

That was an excellent post, right?

Open Graph Protocol Module for DotNetNuke

This announcement is coming to you very late.  I had originally created and released this module with the intention of giving this to the DotNetNuke community as a New Year’s Eve present.  I even kind of soft launched it with a twitter announcement.  Thank goodness I did, because Robb Bryn did me such a huge favor by thoroughly putting it through its paces in and out of a production site – over, and over again. 

The world-famous 2011 DotNetNuke SUPER Fan, Jonathan Sheely, also did some beta testing for me.  His feedback was critical to have the best performance and security that is in this release.  His spot-on analysis also nailed some critical bugs before anyone saw them!

The final issue that kept this module from being able to be released was finally solved by Mitchel Sellers.  (Thanks for joining me on GTM at such short notice!)  It’s always amusing (in a frustrating way) when an undocumented but very simple fix can be applied to such a huge problem.  He literally took about 5 minutes – if that – to see and suggest the fix that is applied in this release.

Huge thanks to all of these guys. Without their testing, suggestions, and ongoing feedback, and bug fixes, this module wouldn’t be anywhere near as great as I think it is today.

I ended up spending about three times as much time building version 01.01.00 of this module than on both of the previous releases put together – a process that included a complete rewrite of most of the module – so these guys were instrumental in helping to iron out the kinks that resulted.

This process took 3 releases total to get to a point where I was comfortable announcing that this module exists to the world.  Now is the time that I am very pleased to announce to you the existence of the Open Graph Protocol Module for DotNetNuke!

What Does it Do For You?

The Open Graph Protocol Module allows you to define on a page by page basis the most common Open Graph Protocol attributes, including your Facebook Application Id and Admin Id’s.  It will take those values, and literally inject them into the HTML of your DotNetNuke web pages for you. 

You don’t need to know a single thing about HTML to use it.

Those of you that actively manage your page titles and descriptions in DNN will be happy to know that you don’t have to duplicate your work with this module.  The default setting is to re-use that information.

This module not only aims at being incredibly easy to use, but also tries to help you save time.  It knows that some values should be site-wide and it remembers that across your entire site. 

It also doesn’t dictate to you how deeply you choose to adopt the protocol.  That’s up to you.  It will, however, give you a couple of suggestions if you miss information that may be useful.

Why not try it out?  It’s open sourced and freely available to you in the DNN Forge, like the rest of my modules.  :)

Download the Open Graph Module now!

It’s once again been a while, but this version of the Media Module for DotNetNuke has been sitting in the hopper for a while.  Since before DNN 6.0 was released!  As of this moment, I am proud to say that the next version of the Media Module is available to you in the form of version 04.01.00.

There were several enhancements that I was originally able to turn around in a short period of time.  First and foremost, I updated the user interface (UI) to look more contemporary and match what you see in DotNetNuke 6.  Though, the DNN 6 improvements were not just in the UI, but also in the backend.  The module also uses the DNN 6 folder API instead of the standard .Net folder and file access methods.  This makes the module incredibly useful to those of you that might be using a folder provider on your DNN site.

One of the more common requests for this module was for it to implement ISearchable.  This allows the module to be crawled by the search engine in the Community Edition of DotNetNuke without a third party search provider.

There were also many smaller enhancements, usability, and bug fixes that went into this release.  The full list is below.

• Issue 20089 – Added a description (footer) field
• Issue 21125 – Made the module searchable in Community Edition
• Issue 21124 – Enabled last modified auditing information
• Issue 21110 – Increases the Embed field text length
• Issue 21121 – Warn users about limited support for video looping & autostart
• Issue 20538 – Localization: Change HostFileTypes.Text value
• Issue 21079 – Updated to use the DNN 6 API
• Issue 20584 – Updated to use the DNN 6 UI/UX standards

As you can see, this is a pretty good list for any module release.  More is on the horizon, with version 04.02.00 already spec’d out! 

The download link will update overnight on the official Media Module page.  In the meantime, you can directly download it from Codeplex.

I hope you enjoy this release!

Media Module Support

REMEMBER:  Please use the Media Module’s Forum and Issue Tracker for support.  Blog comments are not conducive to get help or issues submitted for the module.