How to Find More Modules for Your Site

Overview

The DNN CMS has been built to be fully extendable.  What this means to you is that there will almost never be a time where you can't add a new feature to your website, and you can do it many times without switching to another platform or even writing any code.  This is possible by adding a different or new extension to your website.  

Requirements

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

• Be web-savvy

Getting Started

In most cases, you're looking for a module.  You either want to install/upgrade a module or add it to a page.  A module on your website is the same thing as an app on your phone.  You can install and use whatever you want, but you also only want to install what you'll actually use.  

In the case of DNN, there are many types of features that you can add, in addition to a module.  DNN has many extension points.  So, you could be looking for a provider, theme, or any number of other things.  All of these are commonly referred to as an extension.  A module is just one of many kinds of extensions you can find and deploy on your website.  

How to Find Modules for Your Site

Regardless of whether or not you're looking for a module or other type of extension, the process and locations are the same.  Simply navigate to one or more of these areas and search for the type of extension you need by using keywords.  

Location	Notes
Forge	The Forge is a directory of extensions found on the official DNN Community website.  These extensions are open-source (free) only - and are added by and at the discretion of the respective project owners. Most of these extensions can be found on GitHub as well.
DNN Store	The DNN Store is hosted and maintained by DNN Corp.  It's the official website for commercial extensions, but you'll find some open-source and free extensions here too.  If you want to shop for multiple commercial extensions and have a single place to find and manage your software, this is one of the best places to begin.  It also allows you to see a bit of the vendor/product history, as well as reviews from other website owners.
GitHub	GitHub is arguably the world's most popular destination for open-source software projects.  As such, the DNN community had embraced GitHub many years ago.  If you can find an open-source extension in the Forge or Store, this is a great place to look as well.  However, the way it's put together, it's mainly only usable by technical people.  Most of the extensions in the Forge are found here.
Vendor Website	If you already know which vendor you wish to buy an extension from and are okay with having multiple places to navigate to for support, upgrades, and licenses, this is the preferred method of procuring extensions.  The main reason is that the vendor gets your information directly and doesn't have to pay DNN Corp a referral fee.  This helps the vendor get more of the revenue, making it easier to run their business.
Search Engine(s)	When all else fails, the last thing you can do before deciding that there isn't a pre-built extension to meet your needs is to use Google or any other search engine.  When you search for the extension, we'd suggest using a phrase like "dnn module [keywords]".  This might translate to "dnn module responsive blog articles" as an example.  It's up to you.
Build it	Lastly, if you either don't want to use an off-of-the-shelve solution or you can't for any reason, you can build it.  Either build it yourself or have a reputable developer/agency build it.  Anyone that can write code can build an extension for DNN.  Ask us, and we'd be happy to do an estimate for you.  (Don't tell anyone, but we offer discounts if the extension is going to be open-source.)

What do you think? Did we miss something?