Is it possible to specify certain containers to default in different panes in a skin?

For example, I want ContainerA to always be used by default in the MainPane but ContainerB to be used by default in the LeftPane?

Hello,

Good question, I have not done this before and I am unsure if it is possible.  I do recall reading a similar question in the main DotNetNuke.com forum but I cannot remember what the outcome was, it may be worth searching on the DotNetNuke.com forum.

If you don't find a solution then there could be another workaround:

Each pane is given their own unique ID by DotNetNuke, so for instance the left pane is given an id of:

#dnn_leftpane

You could potentially create one container that is inserted into all of your panes and depending on which pane the container is inserted into, DotNetNuke reads different CSS code to style the container.

So to create any CSS classes for the container when it is inserted into the left pane you would use this method:

#dnn_leftpane .mycssclass
{
    border: 1px solid orange;
}

to style for the main content pane:

#dnn_contentpane .mycssclass
{
    border: 2px solid green;
}

So in your container you would have a 'mycssclass' which is  given different properties dependant on which pane it is inserted into.

I hope this makes sense, thanks,

Hello jasscat

I understand you can use a feature called pane-level skinning, which will allow you to specify the required container for a specified pane.

e.g.

Here is an ascx code sample for a content pane, skinned at pane-level, n.b. the following line should be enclosed within <> tags, but they don't always show in this forum:

div id="LeftPane" runat="server" ContainerType="G" ContainerName="MyBlueContainerFolderName" ContainerSource="MyBlueContainerFileName.ascx"

The parameters are:
ContainerType: this can be either "G" for global (a host skin installation) or "L" for local (a portal skin installation)
ContainerName: this is the folder name that holds your container
ContainerSource: this is the file name of your container


For a general or floating container or containers which is not associated with any skin and just sitting in the host/container folder.

For example:

It would need to be in a folder like \Portals\_default\Containers\thefoldername.

Then You could use: ContainerType="G" ContainerName="theFloatingFolderName" ContainerSource="theFloatingContainerFileName.ascx"

I hope that helps.

Lynn

Both of these solutions are very interesting.

Lynn, where did you learn about pane-level skinning?  There seems to be several options in skinning that I do not find documentation for - or I am just not looking in the right places.

I appreciate the help!

Hello jasscat

I only found how to do this because I was looking for this feature myself and I found an obscure tutorial online, (now a dead link) plus I asked on the main DNN forum.

What other skinning options have you found?

Lynn