Anyone who has been following my posts, particularly the ones on making myElectrical, will know that the back end for much of the site is CommunityServer (by Telligent). In 2008 Telligent significantly changed the licensing of the product and it became prohibitively expensive (unless you are very large corporate site). Since then I have always had at the back of my mind the need to move away from CommunityServer at some stage.
myElectrical is still using the 2008 version of CommunitySever and each change implemented has been a hack/work around due to the limitations of not being above to upgrade. Particularly over the past few months I have to spend literally a few hundred hours enhancing the site functionality, when I should have been spending a fraction of that time. I would rather be spending this time on making meaningful contributions (posts, wiki pages, etc.) to the site, than purely maintaining the site functionality.
The time has come to accept that we will not be getting too much more in functionality out of the current back end engine and acknowledge the necessity to change . During the past weeks I have been looking at alternatives and have decided on DotNetNuke. While using DotNetNuke as the back end won’t eliminate spending time on the mechanics of the site,, it should significantly reduced this, allowing me to spend more time on adding actual content.
Currently I’m in the process of rebuilding the site; effectively from the ground up. Rather than wait for the full site to be transferred to the DotNetNuke platform, I do want to get the key functionality up and running as soon as possible. After some thought the current intention is to launch the new version of myElectrical in three phases:
Phase 1 - user management, posts and questions. Users, making posts and asking/answering questions is the core of the site and these are the first things being looked at. Hopefully I should have the new site up and running with the functionality within the next two to three weeks.
Phase 2 - Wiki. As part of the change there will be a new Wiki interface and phase 2 is the process of setting this up and moving the content across.
Phase 3 - tools. The final phase is to migrate all the software calculation tools across to the new site.
During the process I hope to keep everything up an running. As each phase is completed, new functionality will appear on the DotNetNuke platform, with that of the remaining phases still operational on the legacy site.
Like all the best placed plans for mice and men, things can [and probably will] go wrong. I would ask all our members to bear with me through the process if there are minor issues.
With concentrating on moving the site, I will of necessity be cutting down on the frequency of making site posts during the process. Part of the reason is the time required; another is that every post I make on the old site, has at some stage to be moved to the new site. The need to move posts did play a role in deciding the phasing - the sooner everyone is posting on the new site the less moving of posts. While making the changeover I will be continuing with my series on motor starting (albeit at slightly slower pace) and adding the odd site posts to keep everyone updated on the progress of changing.
Historical Note: ‘Winds of Change’ is the name given to a speech by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Parliament of South Africa, on 3 February 1960 in Cape Town. The name came from a famous quotation made during the speech [in anticipation of he granting of independence to British colonial possessions] :
The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.