Upkeep / Backup / Restore

Have you heard the story of the Tortoise and the Hare? It’s about this arrogant rabbit who runs a race against a tortoise. He’s so cocky that he takes a nap half way through the race, and the persistent shelled turtle just keeps going and ends up winning.

This story is that same story, except the bunny doesn’t stop to nap, and the tortoise gets exhausted half way through and has to lie down. And the bunny just keeps on running for the sheer joy of the experience. WordPress is the bunny. DotNetNuke is still sleeping.

**Upkeep**
Plugin available for update? Several available for update? No problem if you’re on WordPress. Hit your site’s admin section, click to the updates page, check the boxes and push the button. Same process pretty much for a version upgrade, as well. Just push a button. Mmmm, tasty. …Hop-Hop-Hop…

On DotNetNuke? You need to visit the extensions page, browse through the section, then you might be alerted that an update is available. In some cases you can click to the update package right there (pretty cool, actually!), which then takes you to a download link, which you then download and may or may not have to unzip (read the instructions), then you walk through the several step extension installation wizard in your portal. Have several modules that have updates. Do each one separately. …zzzzzz….

Winner for Upkeep – WordPress

**Backup** (with a focus on moving your site)
Backing up a site is a big deal. If you’re on top of things as an administrator, you’re backing up your files and database before you make a major upgrade. Should something go wrong during your upgrade process, you’d want to be able to roll back to the way things were. Here we’re looking at backup for the purpose of moving an installation, which is probably an all-too-common process. People get frustrated with their provider, they find something cheaper, whatever the case may be, they find they need to move their site.

For both DotNetNuke and WordPress, you of course can simply use FTP to connect to your site and download a current copy of the files portion of your site. But what about your database? In either case, depending on your hosting provider and control panel, many times you can just login and press a few buttons to create a database backup. Sometimes, as I often do, you can just submit a support ticket and your hosting provider will run the backup for you. I highly recommend doing that formally, just so you know the host themselves have produced a local backup for you, since most of us are dealing with shared hosting. Whatever it takes, figure out how to back up your site’s database!

When it come to manual backups, WordPress backups are able to be run right from within the installation. There is a built-in set of tools on the admin panel for export and import. Backup may not be the best word here, but essentially you can push a button and get an export of all your posts and pages. The file that is exported can be easily imported on the other side of your move. This doesn’t back up your media files, just creates and XML file that contains all the text content, including meta data, of all posts and pages in your WordPress site. Just did an export. 25 seconds. …Hop-Hop-Hop…

DotNetNuke requires a 3rd party module to perform any type of in-line backup functionality. So, you’ll need to get familiar with SQL Server if you run your server locally, or find some other way to backup your database. Should you be able to connect directly to your db server using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, then backups are cake. Nearly all shared hosting providers do NOT allow this on the cheaper plans. If this process were push-button easy in DNN, I would marry it and have children. Unfortunately, it is not. For the beginner admin, getting your DNN database backed up and ready for transport is anything but easy.
…zzzzzz…

Winner for Backup – WordPress

**Restore** (with a focus on moving your site)
Restoring your site in WordPress is almost easier than backing it up. All you have to do is upload your XML file from your exported site, then you can actually choose to import all the attachments that go with your posts and pages, as well. Pretty neat! There may be some fixing up you have to do, as not all plugin settings get transferred between your old and new installation. But so long as you have your site up and running, it’s pretty much just upload your export file and push a button. …Hop-Hop-Hop…

DotNetNuke restoration from a backup is, well, painful. The concepts aren’t hard. Backup db, backup files, restore db, restore files, change connection string to reflect new db server credentials. Thing is, you don’t really need to do all that with WordPress. Just setup WordPress at your new location with a clean install. Copy your themes and plugins using FTP, then just import from your download file you made in the backup section. I think I’ve had more things go wrong in DotNetNuke restores than the number of Twilight references on Entertainment Tonight. …zzzzzz…

Winner for Restore – WordPress

**Summary**
While at this point in the game WordPress is so fleet of foot in contrast to DotNetNuke that it might as well be a gazelle outrunning Andre the Giant, I think it safe to say if DotNetNuke could manage to get things down to science the way WordPress has, I’d never use WordPress again. Ever. The fact is that right now those things (and others) are soooooo easy in WordPress that it makes deploying and managing multiple small-biz sites so easy, that we at Leapwise still recommend it regularly.

[box type=”tick” size=”large” style=”rounded”]Overall winner for Maintenance – WordPress[/box]

I was tempted to write one line for this post and call it a day. That one line was this:

“There lies WordPress, motionless and bleeding on a dimly lit street.”

Alas, I must write a bit to explain for forgone conclusion. WordPress and DotNetNuke have built in users and roles. That’s about where the similarities end.

The title of this post could seem a bit misleading. I’m really just writing about users and user security, not the security of the frameworks themselves. I’m sure proponents of each framework would defend their champion like caged, rabid dogs, but I’ve had sites of each kind hacked. And, to be honest, I’m not a security expert. I have a couple tips to offer, though. For WordPress users, don’t ever have a user called Admin (the default first user upon install). If you have one, make a new one with a unique name, then delete the Admin user. DotNetNuke people, don’t use the default host account and admin account credentials. In fact, I would add my own of each if I were you, and disable or delete the others immediately after install. For both platforms, you can actually customize the default admin accounts during installation, and I highly recommend it.

Now, let’s start with the harsh reality for WordPress. User management along with security/permissions pretty much suck right out of the gate. I hate to say it, but it’s true. You’re limited to 5 or so roles within the framework, and you can’t add your own roles, group them, etc. You can’t create a custom set of role-based permissions for your site. Now, I’m sorry, but if you want to be called a CMS and play with the big boys, you can’t suck this much in such an important category. Have I overstated myself yet?

Think about this: With a default community edition of DotNetNuke, you can customize view and edit permissions right down to individual modules. The combination of what you can inherently with role-based and user-based permissions per page/module is incredible with DotNetNuke. Want to divide page content management over several groups within your organization? Easily done with DotNetNuke. Need a secure section of you site for sharing sensitive information with legal? Got it. You can actually create groups of roles for easy reference. DotNetNuke’s security model is highly scalable and customized right from the start.

Custom view and edit rights are among the most commonly desired features in today’s CMS market. DotNetNuke far and away takes the cake on this issue, IMHO. If you properly setup your user accounts and roles, you can make administration of a large portal or set of portals seamless. To get anywhere close to the type of security that you have with DotNetNuke takes some major code editing in WordPress with a host of confusing permissions. There are a few plugins that attempt to manage what can be seen/unseen by users and roles, but they don’t hold a candle to DotNetNuke..

Making a single page or module viewable/editable to a single person or a group of people in DNN is like taking candy from a baby. Secure directory? Private documents? Family section of site? Photo gallery access based on user group? No problem for DotNetNuke. The built-in user and security role management offered by DotNetNuke really beats the tar out of WordPress.

[box type=”tick” size=”large” style=”rounded”]Overall winner for Administration – DotNetNuke (by a landslide)[/box]

Every day Admins the world over are logging into their websites to make changes. Adding users, updating plugins, editing content, and more. This post touches on general administration of WordPress and DotNetNuke. How simple is it for an end-user to login to their site and make change? How is process similar between WordPress and DotNetNuke? How is it different. What do I consider advantages of one over the other?

This could easily end up being one of those really long posts that just goes on and on. For at least one portion of administration, security and users, I’m leaving that for a post all its own. You could argue that any of these sections deserves its own post, but I do prefer to be finished with this series some time before April is over!

**Pages and Menus**
Adding pages and creating your menus go hand in hand with both WordPress and DotNetNuke. I would venture to guess that creating pages is quite possibly the first thing that any site administrator tries to do once they login to their site for the first time. It may just be personal preference, but I think DNN is both more intuitive and easier to do rapidly. After logging in as admin, there’s a page menu that drops down on hover right at your fingertips. From there you can adjust a few minor settings on the current page, and you can also add a new page, determine it’s place in the menu, decide whether it’s hidden or not, the title, and more.

WordPress has a fine administration area, no doubt, and once you get used it it, it’s quite handy. But the menu management is separate from the page management. This may be an advantage in some ways, but it’s not intuitive for a new user, and takes some getting used to. DotNetNuke also has a central admin page for bulk page management and creation, which allows admins to view all their pages in a tree-view, drag and drop them in the menu, adjust permissions, and more. I’d say from this perspective DNN has the advantage over WordPress.

Once you get more advanced as a user, I think the advantage shifts a bit toward WordPress. There are certain bulk actions you can perform on pages in WordPress from the page management screen that aren’t quite there in DNN without adding a third party paid module. WordPress assigns several values to pages, like author, comments (allowed or not), categories, etc. These can be managed in bulk, which I have seen come in quite handy from time to time.

Out of the box, though, DotNetNuke allows admins to apply completely separate skins at the page level. This is a great feature because it is quite frequently the case that you may want separate sections of your website to have a different look. WordPress has a somewhat similar function with what are called page templates, but this is not nearly as mature as the feature set for DotNetNuke. WordPress has a great set of tools for general page admin, but I’m giving the nod to DNN at this stage of the game.

Winner for Pages and Menus — DotNetNuke

**Content**
Content is the natural next step for a site admin to worry about. Just where should this content go? What exactly should it say? What if I want certain people to be able to change this content without having to do it all myself?

DotNetNuke is more of a WYSIWYG interface for content delivery. Want something on a page? Go to that page in your menu, click your content area, start typing. Want to push something up or down on your page? No problem, just move your content to another pane. Content panes are the primary spot you add and modify content on DNN pages. Each skin you apply to your site has a distinct number and layout of panes. You can also add HTML directly in your panes using the simple built-in HTML module, so if you’d prefer to code a solution in, go right ahead!

WordPress has what I would again call a non-intuitive way to get content to your pages. Want something on a page in WordPress? No problem, just go that page, click the Edit Page link at top of the page, and start typing. Just like DotNetNuke, you can upload images and files from withing that editor. But there’s a huge difference here. There’s ONE editor per page in WordPress. You are editing the content of the entire page in one “entry.” While simple in a way, it’s also limiting.

Now, WordPress developers have tried to make up for this by including something called short-codes. If it wasn’t for short-codes in many WordPress themes, it would be very difficult for the average user to get their content to look the way they want it to. Short-codes are also not always the same from theme to theme, so you may be faced with changing quite a bit work to update your content once you change themes. If you’re heavily reliant on short-codes, you’ll have to think twice about theme updates and site changes, because you may just run across a breaking change where you wouldn’t normally expect one.

Winner for Content – DotNetNuke

Harkening back to the post on modules and plugins, we’ve already seen that WordPress has an advantage in quantity of plugins and maturity of a centralized plugin database. So, if you find a feature that already exists in DotNetNuke out of the box, you can most likely find a plugin to take care of that for you in WordPress. The thing is, you usually do have to go outside of the built-in features of WordPress, usually immediately after installation, to get your site to do what you want. You can do just about anything you want to with either platform. I can’t stand it when people from one group or the other just come out and say the other one isn’t as good. We might as well be a bunch of Democrats and Republicans.

Administration is a huge part of everyday use for both platforms. I just think DotNetNuke has a significant edge right off the bat in a default installation. The good news for those of us who do this for a living or as a side job, both systems are getting better all the time. New features are being added to streamline the administration process and make it easier for folks like you and me to continue to make the lives of our customers better. There could be a lot more on administration, and users and security plays a huge role there. I just think that deserves a post all its own.

[box type=”tick” size=”large” style=”rounded”]Overall winner for Administration – DotNetNuke[/box]

Modules and Plugins are the primary add-ons for DotNetNuke and WordPress. When you want to add some kind of functionality to your site, you’ll probably start looking for one of these.

There are primary places to find these for both platforms. DotNetNuke has a store and a forge, WordPress has a plugin directory. Both systems have 3rd party developers and shops spread broadly across the Internet. As you may expect, there is a wide range in quality products on both sides of the fence. Like any market, some producers are better than others. Some may offer products at a lower price, while some offer better support that comes with a cost.

I have found that with either CMS, the quality of the people who produce the product is directly related to both initial quality and ongoing support. Typically you spend more for higher-quality and better support in both modules and plugins. I guess this sort of goes without saying, but it’s funny how doing business on the Internet leads people to have different expectations for what they buy. Online purchases seem to come with seemingly higher expectations that usual.

This post has been by far the most difficult for me to come up with grading criteria. That in itself is a bit odd, given the fact that I use both systems on a regular basis, personally and professionally. Where does one begin to give a top-level opinion on these items? Honestly? I don’t know. Really, I don’t know. So, I’ll just keep rambling. 🙂

When it comes to development of modules and plugins, I haven’t done any for either platform. So I can’t speak to which is easier or better with any sort of authority.

In terms of what is available out there for free, I would say WordPress has a greater number of higher-end free plugins. Now, there are plenty of DotNetNuke free modules that are amazing. It’s probably the size of the user base that makes more quality plugins available. It may also be that WordPress needs more plugins than DotNetNuke? I’m not really sure on that one, but I do think WordPress has a greater number of quality, free plugins available.

Out of the box on a standard install, I would also say that it’s easier to search for and install plugins on a WordPress site. It’s faster, it’s integrated to a library of plugins maintained through wordpress.org, searchable and installable from right within the admin area. Because this library is so large and centrally managed, and probably because it’s more mature than the DotNetNuke store, it has advantages.

For all of the quality modules provided by DotNetNuke and it’s sizable community, searching for them and finding what you’re looking for is still a lot easier on the WordPress side of things. I think the DNN Corporation has made drastic improvements in the past few years in this area, and I think it will only get better for them. Being part of that community, I continue to look forward to more improvements that outpace the incredible advancements I’ve seen recently.

DotNetNuke has a huge advantage in one area when it comes to modules and plugins. There are a number of what they call core modules that are developed and maintained directly through DNN Corp. This is an advantage because it brings inherent stability and development to those projects. Need a forum module? One is available from DNN Corp. Events? Yes. Blog? Yup. Media? You bet. Announcements, Documents, FAQ, Feedback, Form builder, Surveys, and more. You can count on these modules to work seamlessly with your DotNetNuke install, adding functionality to your site with ease.

How to pick a winner in this article? I really don’t know. I’m going to have to call it a tie, because I don’t really know that a clear winner stands out. Probably much more could be said, and I’ve also probably said too much. What are your thoughts on modules and plugins for DotNetNuke and WordPress?