HnD Customer Support and Forum System
If you are curious about LLBLGen Pro or have been using it for a while and want to further more skills with it, then you simply must check out Frans Bouma's HnD (Help and Discuss), an ASP.NET-based Customer Support and Forum System. It was actually released back in December 2006, but I only just now got around to checking it out and I have to say it's really, really nice. But what else would you expect from the person who created the world's most powerful database abstraction system (LLBLGen Pro)?
You can actually see an example of HnD by going to LLBLGen Pro's support forum. I've been using their support forum for a while now and I could seriously tell a difference in usability from their own system. One feature of HnD I definitely want to mention is something that many forum's don't have, but all need: when replying, it's critical to see the message you are replying to as you are typing (this is one of the reasons I switch to Gmail from Yahoo!) Frans thought of this and HnD has that ability. HnD even allows for attachments and has an attachment approval system for moderators, which is really nice. The feature list goes on and on.
Not only is the end product nice and easy to use, it's released with full source code (just as LLBLGen Pro is buy, when you buy it). However, unlike the commercial product LLBLGen Pro, HnD is released under the GPLv2 license, so... we can have all kinds of fun messing with it. From my perspective, this is one of the greatest things about it and is exactly why I released Minima (a minimalistic ASP.NET 2.0 blog engine built using LLBLGen Pro). Simple, to the point, source is provided, and the source is actually easy to navigate.
The solution is split into an SD.HnD.Utility project which contains very base level functionality (much like Minima's General project), it includes an SD.HnD.DAL project which contains the LLBLGen Pro DAL (much like Minima's MinimaDAL project), it includes an SD.HnD.BL project which contains "business logic" for Hnd (much like Minima's MinimaLibrary project), and finally it includes the web site.
This is an incredible project for anyone who wants to strengthen their LLBLGen Pro skills. I can tell you that it has personally already helped me with my own LLBLGen Pro skills. So, whether you want a really nice ASP.NET-based forum system, want to learn more about ASP.NET data binding, want to learn LLBLGen Pro for the first time, or just want to enhance your LLBLGen Pro skills, you should seriously considering nabbing the source code for HnD.
As a postscript, if you are unfamiliar with Frans Bouma's work, then should check out his blog at the below link. His work is always great and he definitely deserves his MVP many times over.
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