Written By Will Strohl
2023-08-30
Today's release of the UpendoDNN Generator brings with it a lot of optimization and technical debt cleanup. I spent a lot of time looking through the recent updates and wanted to clean up a handful of things. Some of them were minor things, but many were a bit more "involved" than that.
What is the UpendoDNN Generator?
Simply put, the UpendoDNN Generator is a command-line tool that empowers anyone wishing to build a DNN extension. It gets a new developer started with their DNN development in minutes. Literally, minutes!
You don't have to go through any weird, convoluted learning curves, or jump through odd hoops. It utilizes many tools that developers may already have installed. Further, it leverages the techniques that this kind of developer may find very comfortable in their daily workflows.
Install > Run the Command > Open Visual Studio and Code
UpendoDNN Generator 1.11 Updates 🔮
Many of these updates will not seem immediately relevant or useful for you, but they are - at least in the longer-term. Plus, this release lays the foundation for a ground-breaking feature we're hoping to release very soon. (More on that in the next release or two...)
First, these updates help to stabilize and streamline the ability for ourselves and others to help contribute to the project. We wanted to make things easier for all of us.
"The more you want someone to do something, the easier you want to make it for them to do." - Someone Smarter than I am
Standardized Token Variables 🪧
I'm not sure what we should be calling them, but the variables that are used to populate the various project template we refer to as token variables, or tokens in shorthand. I realize that they're not "tokens" in the traditional sense, but they're used the same way in this use case. So, token variable sounds good. It makes sense.
Anyhow, we had no consistency across the various DNN extension projects. I took the time yesterday to review all of the token variables we were using. Cataloged them. Figured out the overlaps, and then went in and changed them all.
If that sounds scary, it REALLY is! Whenever one of the projects would test successfully on first run, it blew my mind. That's how high risk such a change is in a project like this one. 🤯
The result is now anyone that's looking at and/or contributing to this project will have a much easier time working with it. (But it also opens the door for an upcoming feature.
Centralized the Versioning of Dependencies 🥞
Before today, if we wanted to change the version of DNN or Hotcakes that the various DNN extensions were going to build against, it was a major chore. We'd have to visit dozens of files to make updates, and then testing would undoubtedly reveal that we missed at least a few instances, if we were lucky.
For the same reasons as above, I've fixed this issue. Now, new releases that raise the DNN version will be super simple. Not only for us, mind you - but also for you! In a future release, you'll be able to change this value in your own environments to make it super-simple for you too!
Re-Organized Menu Items 🗃️
We iterated on this a lot recently, and it became immediately clear that we needed to organize the various options that were being displayed to you after running the generator. I've organized the various menus for modules and other extensions to make them easier to find. I expect more updates to come this way in the near future as well.
Other Bug Fixes & Maintenance Updates 🛠️
I spent a lot of time painstakingly reviewing many of the areas that are common for developers to overlook when contributing to and/or using these project templates. In doing so, I also went ahead and fixed the following:
- Made the target MSBuild version consistent across DNN extension projects.
- Made the metadata section of DNN Manifests far more consistent (more work needs to be done).
- Removed the persona bar token variables from all of the other projects.
- Updated the .gitignore to not attempt to commit artifacts coming from Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, and debugging upendodnn generator.
- Removed some files that never should have been committed.
- Improved the README further for easier reading.
Let's not mention the documentation wiki that keeps getting updated. 😎🤙🏽
Video Summary 📸
I thought about creating a video summary like I've been doing, but these updates are not very sexy on the big screen. Even though they are laying an incredibly strong foundation for the upcoming feature I've been teasing...
Next time!
Download & View the Project 🤙🏽
If you want to help build or suggest features for the UpendoDNN Generator extension, please feel free to visit the project using the links below.
In Closing 🙏🏽
Hey DNN fans! Ever dreamed of supercharging the DNN world?
Will Strohl here, and I'm on a mission to make DNN CMS more awesome than ever – but I need YOUR help! 🚀
From firing up the very first Day of DotNetNuke conference to dancing across the DNNConnections stage in Vegas, I've been living and breathing DNN. And guess what? I've got a treasure trove of new ideas and I'm ready to spill the beans, all thanks to your support on GitHub Sponsors.
So, do you wanna be a part of this exciting DNN adventure?
Your sponsorship is not just a tap on the 'support' button; it's a high-five, a fist bump, a join-in-the-fun kind of partnership.
Together, we'll build, laugh, learn, and maybe even invent a new DNN dance move or two!
Ready to rock the DNN CMS world with me? Click the link below and let's make some DNN magic happen! 🎉
Join this DNN Adventure with Will – Sponsor Now & Let's Innovate Together!