Secure Login and flexible Account Registration features give you the control you need to manage portal access. Optional Registration can be configured to be public, private or verified, with full administrator control.

The initial set of User Security Roles are SuperUser (or Host),Administator, Registered, Subscriber and Unregistered. (An Unregistered Account can be considered as a Non-Authorized User or Guest.) Additionally, administrators can define additional Security Roles and each User Account may have multiple Security Roles associated with it.

Administrators define the Security Roles that may view and edit each portal page and each module within pages.

Once you have installed the DotNetNuke portal engine along with the Page Skins, Module Skins (Containers), and any custom components (if any), you are ready to develop your portal pages and insert content into them - all interactively within your web browser. In a nutshell, here is an overview of the process:

Administrators and Authorized Users - Page Setup:

- Create each Portal Page and specify its Page Skin, default Container (Module Skin), Name, Menu Position, Security Roles and other characteristics.

- Create, position and configure Modules for each portal page. You select a Module to be inserted into a Content Pane on the current page and can then reposition it within the pane (move up, down, top or bottom) or move it to another pane. For each module, set its Title, Alignment, Container (Module Skin), Security Roles and other characteristics.

Administrators and Authorized Users - Module Content:

- Create and maintain module content by selecting Edit (and possibly other custom selections) from the module's menu.
 

Search - A powerful and fast portal search engine that searches through the portal's indexed database to find relevant web content.

Localization - Support for multiple languages via Language Packs.

Vendor Advertising - Show vendor Banners, track user clicks and manage click charge rates (to charge vendors).

Referral Programs - Set up Affiliates (w/ web domain names) and referral charges for click rates (users visits your portal from a link in the Affiliate's website) and registration rates (the 'referred' user registers in your portal).

Audits - Comprehensive Site Logs for Usage, Event and Exception statistics.

Schedules - Set up schedules to automate portal maintenance, database maintenance and other tasks.
 

The DotNetNuke portal engine is a fully data-driven web platform supported by a rich database model. Most web content (and other settings) are stored in the database. The engine gets the settings and web content from the database and forms web pages per user requests.

The preferred database is Microsoft's SQL Server, though other database - Oracle, MySQL, etc. - can be used instead with 3rd party "data providers". Many modules also utilize the portal database (note than some of these require the SQL Server database).

Multiple portals can be implemented and maintained from the same DotNetNuke engine installation (code base) and database. Sub-Portals can also be implemented “beneath” your main portal, such as for specialized portals for different departments or groups within your organization. Each sub-portal has its own set of User Accounts and Security Roles.

You can also implement a Portal Hosting Service and provide services for individual portals to customers.

Administrators can send Newsletters (as either regular or HTML email) to all portal members that share one or more specified User (or Security) Role(s). A default Subscriber role is provided for default newletters and mailings (you can also choose to send to all Registered users). Additionally, you can define new roles to categorize types of mailings and newsletters.

Registered Users can manage which subsciptions they wish to receive within their User Account.