.NET CMS with ability to add custom modules

Question

I know that almost everything is already said about CMSs, but what interests me this time is which will be most conformable CMS for adding custom modules.

The situation is as follows, I have minor knowledge of C# , .NET and CSV, things where I think that I am good are MSSQL and business logic (in our company). Now I want to begin my own app for supporting best practices in our company.

An idea is to take some CMS (free if possible) and begin adding modules with content that I have already. I make heavy use of SQL reporting services and a lot of stored procedures for handling data in SQL.

The targeted CMS should be able to accept custom modules with ASP.NET controls such as DataGridWiew, GridList, ReportWiewer and basic controls such as label fields, buttons and others.

I did try DotNetNuke, but after my tenth attempt to compile a module and put it in DNN I decided to ask for help on SO.

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Sub Question

As there are a lot of WEB CMS for things like this, I am wondering if there are any Windows based framework or CMS for starting business applications?

I know that Visual Studio is my good friend and that there are a lot of .NET controls which I can use, but starting new app for me is far away and unfortunately I do not have yet enough knowledge and power to begin my own.

Answer 1

I can suggest two products for CMS:

• Telligent's Community Server; I'd build some modules some time ago and really liked it. No rocket science required.
• Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0; I work with WSS every day and it's pretty extensible. You can use native features for a long time before ever need to customize something else. Today, customization is based on ASP.NET 2.0 features, so no rocket science required too.

Answer 2

Take a look at Sitefinity.

To me it sounds like a perfect match for you, because its main advantage is exactly the extensibility it provides to developers. You can drop all kinds of .NET web controls (user controls, default MS controls, custom compiled controls) on CMS pages and use them right away. There's also a framework for module development that you can use to extend the CMS and add whatever you need.

DISCLAIMER: I work on the team developing Sitefinity.