> > Blogs > Will's Blog > Using Active Forums as a Knowledge Base

Using Active Forums as a Knowledge Base

by Will Morgenweck on 06 Oct 2010 07:34 AM

Over the past couple weeks we have been working on layout options for the Knowledge Base sections of our forums. If you haven't had a chance to take a look at the Active Social Knowledge Base recently I would encourage you to do so. I have heard a few people say that we try to do too much with Active Forums. They claim that you should use specific software for a specific task. Just like I should be using a Blog module for my blog instead of Active Forums. Let's take a look at what each of these applications have in common.

	Active Forums	Blog	KB	Wiki
Subject/Title
HTML Body
Comments
Ratings
Subscriptions
RSS
Tags
Categories
Search

One of my sessions at the Chicago Day of DotNetNuke was titled, "Building a Website with DotNetNuke the Right Way". That was the first time I had ever given that presentation and after the first 10 minutes I know a few people thought I was crazy. The purpose of that session was to provide people with some examples to start thinking about ways to improve DotNetNuke performance. One of my examples was using static HTML in your skin and removing the navigation controls completely. The first time I mentioned the idea I got several blank stares. I explained it again and people started to get it. I went on to talk about the proper balance of module usage on a page and how it can affect site performance. As you install more modules and create additional applications the amount of resources you need increases. Also think about the support and maintenance needed to support multiple apps.

Take a look at the Active Social Knowledge Base and let us know what you think.

Tags: News, active forums, DotNetNuke, Knowledge Base

10 Comments for Using Active Forums as a Knowledge Base

Larry
06 Oct 2010 12:50 PM

Agreed, agreed, agrred! Just look at he flexinility and popularity of News Articles. I like like your direction with the KB features. Now, when can I get it?

Frozen DNN
06 Oct 2010 02:45 PM

I like that one module can do all the above stuff. Will, you forgot that Active Forum also has poll feature. This poll feature can be used for surveys and quizzes. Although, to be a complete quiz module it needs some work but it is very close.

And, Q&A is on it's way!!!

I hate this word but I am going to say it anyways....AWESOME!!

Cliff Hammock
06 Oct 2010 04:52 PM

I really like to minimize the number of modules I use and even the number of module developers. So a multi-capable module is good for me, as long as the vendor is reputable. And that is certainly the case with AM. But the downside is when a vendor disappears and you have a lot of your eggs in their basket. So you do have to be a little bit careful. This happened with the Magic Gadget module by John LaRoche in 2004. I had several dozen websites that were built using the MG, which was a highly-functioning, tag-based replacement for the HTML/Text module. Apparently quite a few others did as well based on this old thread.
http://forums.asp.net/t/760635.aspx?PageIndex=1

So as you can guess I had it everywhere and when DNN went from 2.1.2 to 3 and had breaking changes there was no upgrade path and no source for anyone else to use to create a new version. So I had to rebuild every site from scratch on DNN 3. Wow, has it really been 6 years since DNN 3 came out? Time flies when you are having fun!

Frozen DNN
06 Oct 2010 06:36 PM

I really hope ActiveModule does not disappear. I hope Will has a good business succession plan in place. Contact me if you don't :).

Will Morgenweck
06 Oct 2010 07:01 PM
www.activemodules.com

I was around when Magic Gadget started and I was around when they left. Magic Gadget was a one man show. If you did some digging on the owner you will find some very interesting facts. We aren't a one man operation. Our source code is kept in an external repository and trusted individuals have access. We great relationships with other vendors, not too mention DotNetNuke Corp. Of course anything could happen, but I like to think we've earned enough respect not to be grouped with the fly-by-night operations.

Frozen DNN
06 Oct 2010 07:23 PM

Will, please do not misunderstand my statement. I was not implying that you will vanish or sorts. I was just saying that one should be always ready for the inevitable.

Will Morgenweck
06 Oct 2010 07:39 PM
www.activemodules.com

@Frozen No worries. I knew what you meant.

Larry
12 Oct 2010 02:50 PM

In your AS KB view on ActiveModules.com, there doesnot seem to be a way to search the KB. Are you planning to add this? Is there a way to search now? (Other than goinf to forums, selecting search and picking the forum to search)

Matt Marlor
02 Nov 2010 10:28 PM

I'm playing with this at the moment.

I think that we need to have the ability to present things like Authors, Categories, Tags, etc as separate modules.

For example, on a site like mine, we have a left-hand pane where we'd normally place these. With the templates as they stand, they'll instead appear in the Content pane, which reduces screen real estate.

Maybe AF Forum Viewer could be refactored a little for the purpose? It'd be great to 'front-end' the KB with an abstracted view that does the retrieval of all info, while the forum itself sits in a hidden page.

I would echo the Search function (although this is probably just a matter of including it in the theme?).

Finally, I'd suggest it needs a way to limit the number of topics returned for a given category - say 10, and then a Read More link appears, or similar.

Will Sugg
03 Nov 2010 07:45 AM
www.planetmaine.net

@Larry et al re: searching

I assume the entire KB is open to Google search? Which is super! So just go to Google and put in:

site:http://www.activemodules.com/activesocial/kb/ your search here

Hosted by MaximumASP