Hey Guys...I've got a couple questions related to skinning in general, and not necessarily to the Skinning ToolKit, so I hope this is the right place to ask.

To begin, I just want to clarify that while I am fairly new to DotNetNuke, I have been working in ASP.NET (VB.NET & C#.NET) for the last 3 years, and have been designing on the web for the last 10.  I'm highly proficient in CSS and javascript, as well as XHTML and XML, so feel free to be technical, if necessary.

Here are my questions:

First, I just finished the tutorials on creating custom skins and uploading...but these tutorials were all based on DotNetNuke 4.5 and worked primarily with the index.html file.  In our installations of DotNetNuke, we've been working with standard .NET user controls.  So my first questions are:

Which file *should* I be using to create the skin?  The .ascx file or the .html file?  Is the .html file there for backwards compatability, while the .ascx file is preferred on .NET 2.0 and 3.5?  And, if that's the case, if the skins I create are for our clients use only, is it okay to leave out the .html file versions and not worry with backwards compatibility as much?


Second:
In the tutorial, the last video discussed using javascript to dynamically load the print.css for a printable version.  I've never seen this done, since CSS provides the @media declaration, which allows you to target items within an @media print { } block.  As I understand it, anything declared in an @media print { } block is not rendered until the media type changes, which would include backgrounds or other CSS-embedded images.  In theory, this would prevent the loading of unecessary images, and the only weight (in bytes) added to the skin.css file would be the actual text and white-space contained within the @media print { } block.  Is this correct?  If so, what's the advantage to using the javascript method provided in the tutorial?

For the first question - the answer is that you get to pick. The html version is there for those who like/know html. The ascx is for those who are more comfortable with that.

If you use the html approach, DotNetNuke actually "compiles" it into an ascx file.

And, in Version 5 of DotNetNuke, there will be some simplifying changes.

Hello,

DNN skinning hasn't changed from DNN2.x so all the tutorials still apply for the latest versions of DotNetNuke.

As Joe says you can use both methods but to clarify, this outlines the differences between htm and ascx methods:
Introduction to Skinning

2) For that particular tutorial, the main reason I was using JavaScript was to call up iehacks.css files as I wanted to keep my IE hacks in a separate file rather than include them in the skin.css file. Because I was using this method, I also used it to call up a print.css file which allowed me to keep the print code in a separate file as well.

There is actually no advantage on using this method, and more often than not I use the @media print method in my skins.

You may want to have a look at this tutorial:
How to Create Print Stylesheets for DotNetNuke Skins

Thanks,

Thank you both for your replies. 

I'm not sure how I missed that particular tutorial on skinning.  I thought I had covered them all.   So, thanks for the link to that particular one.

Lee,

Thanks for clearing up the print issue in your reply (#2).  Dynamically loading the various targeted IE stylesheets definitely makes sense, especially where certain CSS may be different for different pages, etc.  I think I was more focused on the "print" portion of that tutorial and missed where the IE hacks were being loaded as well.

Anyway, thanks for all you guys do.  You definitely de-mystify DotNetNuke for us designers and developers.

Have a great weekend.