See: What's New in XMod 5.5

What Is XMod?

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XMod enables you to create solutions that meet the unique needs of your site. With it, you can create custom data entry forms and displays for that data - without having to be a programmer. When you invest in XMod, you don't just get a single module. You get hundreds or thousands of modules because XMod enables you to build so many different solutions. Here is just a small example of what customers are building:

Since its release in 2004, XMod has been a consistent bestseller because it provides you with the power and flexibility you need to create solutions for your DotNetNuke site in a fraction of the time and money it would take to create a custom programmed module. By investing in XMod, you'll also be joining a vibrant, supportive community of XModders who readily share their solutions, ideas, tips and techniques on how to get the most from XMod.

Key Benefits

• One Module – Many Uses. Since XMod can be used to build so many different solutions, it’s a great investment that can save you thousands in development costs. You decide what data you want to collect and how you want to display it – whether it's houses, marinas, college courses, cars, service listings, product features, custom feedback forms, you name it.
• “Novices” Welcome: XMod 5 contains new visual editing tools such as the Form Builder and Rich Text template editor which make it even easier to create and edit your data-entry forms and displays. XMod also includes several starter packages and a comprehensive help file to get you up and running quickly.
• Designers Welcome: If you know HTML, CSS, and Javascript – you can leverage that knowledge to customize the look, feel and interactivity of your solution to whatever degree you need.
• Developers Welcome: XMod provides numerous extensibility points for the .NET developer – from creating custom form controls and template tags to developing custom data sources that plug-in to XMod.
• A Trusted Name - A Great Community: XMod has been a bestseller since 2004 and has spawned a supportive, active community of users who regularly share their help, insight, techniques and solutions on our forums at http://dnndev.com.

Feature Highlights

It's impossible to list all of the features and functionality of XMod here, but we've highlighted some of them below. We also make our help file available online at http://dnndev.com.

General

• Localizable: Not only can the XMod interface be localized and dates/currencies can be formatted for different locales, XMod 5 enables you to dynamically change the text, styles, and even Javascript values in your forms and templates based on the current locale.
• Form Builder: This new addition makes creating forms in XMod a snap. Simply select what control you want to add, set that control's properties and click a button to add it to the form. Controls can be edited, deleted and to change the order of controls on your form - just drag and drop it there.
• Rich Text Template Editor: Now editing your display templates becomes similar to working with a document in your word processor.
• Content Scheduling: Set the start and stop dates, go on vacation, and XMod will make sure your records show up and disappear on schedule.
• Role-Based Approval/Auto-Approval: Set up users who can act as editors/moderators of your data and also allow certain roles to automatically have their data approved.
• Restrict Who Can Add Records: This role-based restriction can be applied at the module level so you can determine who will and will not be allowed to create records.
• Limit Users to One Record: There are a number of solutions which require that a user only be allowed to enter a single record, such as user/company profiles, contests, and others. XMod allows you to implement this restriction.
• Assign Records to Users: Perfect for administrators or sales people who need to create records but have them be "owned" by another user.
• AJAX: XMod provides you with the ability to use AJAX in your solutions. It handles the plumbing so you can focus on using it.
  

Forms

• Auto-Layout Forms: XMod takes care of all the formatting details for you – no HTML required.
• Custom HTML Layout Forms: Leverage your HTML, CSS, and Javascript skills to design forms to your specifications. XMod provides you with additional help. CSS class names and styles can be assigned to controls, you can register your Javascript at various points in the page, and you even get an object-oriented means of getting the run-time ID of controls in your form.
• ASCX-Based Forms: For ASP.NET developers who need control over the client and server-side but still want XMod to handle the data and display chores, create your own forms as ASCX files.
• Wide Selection of Form Controls: All of the basic controls are available such as textboxes, drop-down lists, single and multi-select lists as well as tabstrips, buttons, file upload controls, and many others. Plus, developers can build their own controls for internal use, free distribution or for sale as a 3rd-party add-on.
• Validation: XMod offers multiple types of validation – required fields, basic date and number validation, regular expression validation, and comparison between two fields or a field and another value.
• Redirect Users or Send Data to your Backend: XMod forms can be made to send users to a specific URL after submitting their form or you can send that form data to another page for further processing
• Email Notifications: Send email when records are added, updated, and/or approved. You can send multiple notifications too. For instance, specify an email to be sent to the customer and one to the sales department – each with different text and data.
• Run-Time Data Support: Pre-populate your form with the user’s information, save the user’s IP address with the record, send data via URL parameters and use it in your form. XMod makes it easy to use this data and other environmental data such as the user’s browser, email address, custom profile properties and more.

Display Options

• Multiple Display Types: Display your data in a grid, a single-column list, multi-column list, unordered list, ordered list, definition list, a series of paragraphs … well, you get the idea. Oh, and you can also display just a single record too.
• One Set of Data – Multiple Views: XMod lets you re-purpose your data across your site without duplicating data. Each module can use the same data source but be configured filter it differently, show a different number of records and even have a different layout and styling.
• Built-In Paging, Searching, Sorting, and Filtering: It comes for free, no programming required. Just check a box to enable or disable each option. You can also include your XMod data in the DNN site-wide search. Each of these options is configurable too.
• Custom Layouts: As with forms, you can also leverage your HTML, CSS and Javascript skills when displaying your data to achieve some spectacular layouts. XMod provides you with additional support – such as being able to register script at various points in the page and special functions that make it a cinch to link your CSS to the first item in the list, the last item, the 9th item, and odd and even-numbered items.
• Search Engine Optimization Support: Change the Title, Description, and Keywords of your pages dynamically based on the data its displaying.
• Custom Template Controls: XMod encapsulates logic and functionality into special “tags”. For instance, you can add a “toggle” tag that will dynamically hide or show some text on your page. Normally you would have to know Javascript and CSS to do this, but the toggle tag does it for you automatically. Now, you or third parties can extend XMod with custom tags. This opens up a world of flexibility and new functionality.

What's New In XMod 5.0?

Easier, Visual Template and Form Editing

XMod has always been a customer-driven application. We listen to your needs and try our best to implement solutions to meet them. One area of particular interest for us has been making it easier to create and edit templates and forms. This benefits new users just learning XMod as well as existing users who already know their way around but want a quicker way to perform their tasks. Of course, for those who prefer working in the previous editing environment, we've kept that option available - and even improved it a little.

NEW Rich Text Template Editor: To make creating and editing XMod templates even easier, XMod 5 comes with a rich text editor. Now formatting and laying out your templates becomes similar creating a document in a word processor. XMod tags are inserted using tag designers and they're represented by distinct placeholders. Selecting these tag placeholders and clicking the Edit Tag link allows you to go back in and tweak its settings at any time. It's a powerful new way to create and edit your XMod templates.

NEW Form Builder: This new addition makes creating forms in XMod a snap. Simply select what control you want to add, set that control's properties and click a button to add it to the form. Need to change some settings? Click the control's Edit button to adjust its properties. Need to change the order of controls on your form? Just drag and drop it there. The Form Builder is so easy to use, new users and pro's alike will find it an essential tool.

NEW Search Tool Added to Plain Text Template Editor: While we've added a rich text editor for visually creating templates, we haven't forgotten those of you who like the plain text editor. For you we've added a search tool. Now you can quickly locate specific words or phrases in your longer templates.

What's New In Data Display?

NEW Repeater Template Type: Tables Be Gone! If you need the ultimate in control over your page - the ability to decide what HTML gets rendered to the page, be it for standards compliance or because you want an un-ordered list instead of a table - our new Repeater template type has got you covered. With this template, a new world of creativity is at your fingertips. Layout your data in ordered lists, un-ordered lists, definition lists, paragraphs, even your own tables - all with no extraneous markup. Using the Repeater template with CSS, you can create some spectacular views of your data because you're in control.

NEW Comments and Ratings: If you've been hankering to let your users compliment or criticize your data, you'll love the new comments and ratings tags. Built-in to XMod 5 is the ability to have your users add comments or reviews to your XMod records and rate them as well. We give it 5 stars.

NEW Scrolling Views: Now your XMod data can scroll like the "crawls" on your favorite news or financial cable channel. List Views can be set to scroll horizontally or vertically. You can also change the speed, enable a mouse hover to pause the scroll, and more.

NEW Random Record Display: Do you have a list of testimonials, quotes and want to display them in a random order to keep things fresh? This is the feature for you. From the configuration page simply turn on the "Randomize Records" feature and XMod will do the rest.

NEW Show Recently Added Records: A new configuration option allows you to filter records to only those added in the last XX days(the number of days is set by you) - making it very easy to create a What's New list. You can optionally combine this with the Recently Modified option (see below) to display records added or updated in the specified time frame.

NEW Show Recently Modified Records: A new configuration option allows you to filter records to only those modified in the last XX days (the number of days is set by you) - making it very easy to create a What's Changed list. You can optionally combine this with the Recently Added option (see above) to display records added or updated in the specified time frame.

NEW Multiple URL Parameter Filters: You've been able to filter on multiple field values since 4.7. Version 5 extends your flexibility by enabling you to filter on multiple parameter values passed in the URL.

NEW Dynamic Localization of Forms and Templates: XMod 5 takes a giant leap forward for international users who need to support multiple languages. You've been able to localize XMod's administrative text and other localizability for some time now. Version 5 enables you to define translations of the text in your forms and templates for multiple languages. XMod will then automatically replace your text with the correct translation for the currently selected culture in DNN.

So, if your DNN site supports US English, British English, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc. and the web visitor chooses to view the site in Spanish, your XMod forms and templates can automatically switch to display their text in Spanish. Even better - not only can you change the text, you can change the properies of your HTML and XMod tags as well. So, you can easily switch the Flag on your page from the US flag to the flag for Spain when Spanish is selected or the flag for France when French is selected.

NEW Edit and Approve Functions Extended to Detail Templates: XMod 5 now allows you to provide Edit, Delete, Copy, Approve and Un-Approve functionality within detail templates. Prior to this version, they were only allowed in List Templates. One great way to use this new feature is to send a notification to your webmaster when a record has been added that needs to be reviewed for approval. In that email you can send a link directly to that record so they can review and approve it.

NEW Custom Template Tags: Need some functionality in your templates that XMod doesn't yet provide? Custom template tags allow you to use custom server controls to enhance your XMod templates. Even better, the controls don't even have to know about XMod - so you can use off-the-shelf 3rd party controls too. We'll be creating some nifty new custom template tags and you or 3rd party developers can create them too. All you have to do to use them is include them in your templates.

What's New In Data Handling?

NEW CSV/Excel Export: Prior versions allowed the export of data via XML. Version 5 adds the ability to export data to comma-separated values (CSV) and Excel formats.

What's New in 5.5?

• NEW DotNetNuke 5 Compatibility: XMod 5.5 is the first XMod version with DNN5 compatibility. Please note, we support DNN 5.0.1 and later but not DNN 5.0.0.
• NEW XMod Constant  retrieves the current URL of the page for use in your forms and templates.
• NEW Convert Auto-Layout to Custom HTML-Layout Forms: As you progress in your development with XMod, inevitably you move from using auto-layout forms to the custom layout option so you can use your own HTML. In previous versions there was no easy way to convert existing forms. In this version, it's as simple as a couple of mouse clicks. You can choose to replace your existing form with the converted form or create a new form with the converted form.
• NEW Pass Parameters When Adding/Editing/Copying Records: Do you find you want to pass additional information to a form when adding or editing a record - data that you want to store with the record or evaluate in your Javascript? Now you can do that. We've added a new attribute to the Add, Edit, and Copy buttons to pass that additional information as part of the URL.
• ENHANCED Template Display Performance: We've added some optimization to the display of list views. It should help improve download speeds in many cases.
• SIMPLIFIED FormView Installation: For DNN 4.5 and later, the FormView is now installed as a separate module. Simply install it as you would any module..
• EASIER Navigation Between Management Pages: On the Manage Forms page you can click to go directly to the Manage Templates page, Configuration page, and administration page. Similar links are found on the Manage Templates and Manage Categories pages.
• Plain Text Editor is the Default Editor: By customer request, the default editor for forms and templates will be the Plain Text Editor. The FormBuilder and Rich Text Editor are still available, though.