What is a "Core Module" in DNN?

Overview

Whether you're reading various blogs, books, or forum posts, you might hear the term "core module" when referring to DNN CMS.  This article will help you learn more about what that is, and what the various core modules are in your DNN-based website.  

Requirements

The following prerequisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:

• None

Getting Started

There are no prerequisites to follow along with this article.

What is a "Core Module" in DNN?

Simply put, a core module in DNN is an open-source module (a.k.a., extensions, app, plugin, etc.) that is preinstalled in DNN when you first run the application.  These modules are often serving a very critical functionality or feature requirement for the majority of website owners, such as the HTML module itself.  This module is the most widely used module by anyone, because it allows non-technical people to create and manage the content that visitors see.  

In most cases, the core modules should remain installed on your DNN website.  

Core Modules

Below you'll find a comprehensive listing of the modules in DNN that are known as core modules.  

Module	Description
Authentication	Allows you to manage authentication settings.
Console	Displays children pages of the current page as icons or links for navigation.
DDR Menu	DotNetNuke Navigation Provider.
HTML	This module renders a block of HTML or Text content. The Html/Text module allows authorized users to edit the content either inline or on a separate administration page. Optional tokens can be used that get replaced dynamically during display. All versions of content are stored in the database including the ability to roll back to an older version.
Html Editor Management	A module used to configure toolbar items, behavior, and other options used in the DNN HtmlEditor Provider.
Journal	The journal module is a running status update of various activities on your website, similar the home page of some social networks.
Member Directory	The Member Directory module displays a list of Members based on role, profile property, or relationship.
Message Center	Allows users to message each other via their profile.
Razor Host	The Razor Host module allows developers to host Razor Scripts.
Registration	Allow users to create a new user account on the website.
Resource Manager	This module allows you to manage files on the server
Search Results	The Search Results module displays search results.
Social Groups	DotNetNuke Corporation Social Groups module
Telerik Removal	This module allows you to remove the DotNetNuke Telerik Web Components library from your site.
Users and Roles	Administrators can manage the security roles defined for their site. The module allows you to add new security roles, modify existing security roles, delete security roles, and manage the users assigned to security roles.
ViewProfile	Displays profile information to end-users, based on the permissions of the module, page, and respective user profile privacy settings.

Legacy Core Modules

While the above list is an accurate one today, if you're reading through older articles and/or discussing modules with a veteran member of the DNN CMS community, they might understand core modules to also or alternatively refer to the comprehensive set of add-on modules that used to ship with DNN back in the day of DNN 4.x and earlier.  These modules allowed you to create all kinds of content, but each were not critical to the entire DNN ecosystem.  They were later removed in DNN 5.x, and moved to their own respective open-source repositories. 

These modules are all still actively maintained by the DNN community.  

Module	Description
Active Directory	Allows you to integrate Active Directory into your website to authenticate visitors. This is a great module to use for intranets and extranets.
Announcements	Used to create content such as press areas, blogs, and other kinds of announcements.
Blog	Quickly allows a website owner to create a blog section on their website.
Documents	This module allows authorized visitors to see and potentially curate a list of specific documents on a page.
Events	The events module is a calendar-based module that helps website owners maintain a calendar of events of any kind.  (Still contains legacy Telerik, and is a security risk.)
FAQs	Creates a list of custom frequently asked questions (FAQs) on a page.
Feedback	A configurable form module that helps visitors to contact you.
Form & List	This is one of the earliest structured content modules available for DNN. You can use this module to create content of various types.
Forums	The community forums module makes it easy to setup a way for your visitors to community with each other in a community setting.  This has replaced the legacy "forums" module and is formally called the Community Forums module.
Gallery*	This module helps you create a media gallery for visitors to see and interact with.
IFrame	This module allows you to embed another web page into an existing page on your website, by leveraging the common <iframe>, but with additional options and security.
Links	The links module simply lists links of whatever kind you wish, such as files, other websites, and other pages on your website.
Lists	The lists module is used to manage the lists inside of DNN. These lists include swear words, regions, and other types of content that are already in your DNN website.
Map*	Embeds a Google Map onto a page on your website.
Media	Allows you to embed media of any type on a page on your website. This could be dynamic/complex content using the underlying oEmbed API (e.g., YouTube, Twitter, etc.), images, and video.
Module Creator*	Helps a superuser to create a module within DNN, without ever opening Visual Studio.  This module should be used sparingly, if at all.
News Feeds*	Also once known as the RSS Feeds module, it consumes any XML feed and displayed the output, based on the XML itself or while also using a custom XSLT (that needs to be written for any individual XML feed).  This module is meant for RSS feeds, primarily.
Newsletter*	Allows you to mass send a newsletter to members of the website.
Reports	This module helps you to expose reports to visitors on the website, from nearly any data source.  Though, some may require writing a new visualizer plugin for the module.
Repository*	This module makes it easy to create, categorize, and display a collection of any content, in a configuration-friendly way.
Survey	As it suggests, this module will allow you to create a survey with unlimited questions for your visitors to complete.
Vendors*	The vendors module is mostly a legacy module, that allows you to create and maintain a custom advertising campaign (ads) on your website.
Wiki*	If you need to create a wiki on your website, this module makes it possible, using a wiki-like language syntax.
XML	This module functions almost identically to the News Feeds module above.

* This module has not been recently maintained.