Rating:  - Not an easy read
I never worked with DNN before, so i needed a simple explanation on how to perform a basic installation and more importantly how to customize it so it matches my client design & functionality. I tried to read this book, especially the chapters about skinning and creating custom modules. I stopped reading early, because it was so badly written (yes, i write bad too, but you do not see me publish a book); no step for step explanations, no real world examples in the skinning chapter and most pages are just lists of API calls and other reference steps. I should have been warned by the introduction of mr. Walker: pages and pages of text about the history of DNN that screams for some professional editing: no headers, no pictures and the text could be reduced in half without any loss in information.
To summarize: this is not a step by step explanation of professional customizing DNN, it's just a badly written reference manual. DNN deserves better.
Rating:  - Must Have if You Want to Create a Great Site Fast!
This book is an excellent companion for the novice and expert site developer. With the book, a novice can create a functional site quickly. For the expert, the book provides insights into object oriented development with Dot Net. If you're thinking of downloading Dot Net Nuke, buy this book.
Rating:  - Definitive book for understanding DNN
I had just started playing around with content management systems when I can across DNN. At first, the interface seemed slick and all seemed to be going great guns, even when I had not read any book or reviews of DNN. Ane then came the problems....some pages wouldn't get deleted...the DNN tree just didn't seem to work. That was when I bought the book and enjoyed every topic it covered. I was helped a lot by the ASP.Net forum, where all sorts of issues were discussed. Overall, a pleasant experience and would recomment this over the other VB.Net book for DNN.
Rating:  - A Huge Disappointment
Two of us have been trying since 9:00 this morning to get DotNetNuke installed on a development server using the instructions in this book. It is now 9:00 in the evening. We aren't newbies, either--I have used SQL Server and ASP.Net for several years. During the course of our day, we discovered several outright errors is the installation chapter (for example, the wrong SQL Server password is shown in the Web.config example) and the web site for the book is woefully incomplete in its errata notes.
I rarely give books single-star reviews, but this one is deserved. If a zero-star rating was available, that's what I'd give it.
Rating: - Shaun Walker is the Obi Wan of DNN
How can you do better than having a book written by the guy that leads the project? Shaun Walker is the man when it comes to Dot Net Nuke. He is uniquely qualified to provide insight into the internal structure of the system.
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