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Blazing the Open Source Trail

March 19, 2007

Shaun Walker

DotNetNuke's CEO Shaun Walker hooked up with VSM's editor in chief Patrick Meader to discuss the formation of DotNetNuke, the project's core features, and what's next for the open source ASP.NET-based Web application framework.

Visual Studio Magazine: Tell us what DotNetNuke is and how it came about please.

Shaun Walker: DotNetNuke is a Web application framework for the ASP.NET platform. Its roots trace back to the beginnings of the .NET framework, when Microsoft released a beta for developers to experiment with. Around this same time, Microsoft released a sample application called the IBuySpy portal, which eventually became the basis of DotNetNuke. Several developers, including me, enhanced IBuySpy significantly over time. After a couple years of working independently on that code base, I made the decision to go open source, and I invited other members of the community to get involved. It has grown substantially from there.

VSM: It's a bit of a leap to run with a demo app and turn it into an open source framework. Can you fill us in how that transition happened and your inspiration for doing so?

SW: Like many other people who were trying to learn the new .NET Framework and hone their skills on the new MS platform, I grabbed sample applications. One of those sample applications was the IBuySpy portal. There were many people who were making enhancements to that code base, but there wasn't a single entity that was responsible for integrating changes back into one main branch of code.

There was also a dedicated forum on the www.asp.net Web site, the purpose of which was to field questions and foment discussion about ASP.NET, including the sample application. I participated in discussions about the app with many other people on the site. At some point, I realized it would be a good idea if many of these enhancements were integrated into one living version of the code, and that became a new version, which was eventually dubbed DotNetNuke.

The .NET framework was a whole new development model, and it was much easier to get up to speed on an existing code base than it was to start completely from scratch. The folks from Microsoft had put together a very simplistic application, but at least it demonstrated some of the basic techniques for building an application in .NET. It just seemed like a good place to start. That original application was very simple, but I think many of us saw the future potential of the app in terms of its extensibility.

VSM: What license is DOTNETNUKE covered by?

SW: It's licensed under the BSD open source license. BSD and MIT open source licenses are very similar. They allow full freedom in terms of what you can do with the source code. BSD differs from other open source licenses like GPL in one significant respect. GPL has a viral component to it, where any derivative works of a GPL project must also be GPL, and BSD doesn't have that restriction. Without that restriction, both commercial and non-commercial organizations can use the code base, and derivative works don't have to be GPL. They can be proprietary and be carried on as other products.

VSM: How does this differ from the original IBuySpy license?

SW: The original IBuySpy license was a EULA from Microsoft with very liberal terms, as well. It basically allowed you to do anything you wanted to do with the sample source code, but didn't provide any support or anything. In that respect, it was very similar to the BSD license.

VSM: Who is your target customer for this project?

SW: There are multiple target customers. Web application developers use it as a basis for building Web applications. Administrators and knowledge workers use it as a basis for maintaining Web sites. IT has a fully functional content management system that is part of the application. Web hosters use the app to enable customers to maintain their own Web sites within their infrastructure. There are many stakeholder groups that use the app for different purposes.

VSM: Do you have official numbers on how many people have downloaded the core package?

SW: We require everyone who downloads the project to register to use it. The number of registered users who have downloaded the project is 400,000 users. In terms of downloads, we use sourceforge.net to manage our mirrored download system, and we're pushing 2.5 million downloads over the course of the project.

VSM: Does this number include only the core package, or the add-ons available for DotNetNuke as well?

SW: That includes the core project and the add-ons, which are packaged and distributed as independent projects.