I am using VS 2005 Professional.

When I create a skin per your vids(which are sensational by the way) I can view the skin when I debug and all the CSS works. However when I load it to the localhost install the CSS generally runs but the solpart menu 's text doesn't pick up the CSS. I have tried commenting out the ref to the CSS file and that doesn't help either. Here's the code.

Skin:
<td class="mymenu" width="100%" valign="middle" align="left" nowrap>[MENU]</td>

CSS:
.mymenu
{
   
    font-size: 10pt;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: normal;
    font-family: "New Century Schoolbook", Times, serif;
    color:#FFF;
     
    }

Hello,

Glad you have found the videos useful. Have you gone through the tutorials in issue 5 & 6 where we put together the solpart menu?

http://www.dnncreative.com/tabid/21...fault.aspx

The videos to re-check are:
Video4 - setting the XML file

and

Video 7 - Setting the solpart menu

Each of the solpart menu items need to call up a specific class, you can't just put "myclass" in the table as the menu token will not pick it up.

The menu takes its classes from the skin.xml file, which is detailed in video 4 and there are several classes that you need to set up.

You specify the settings for the various classes for Solpart within video 7.

Download the skin files that come with the skinning videos from the link above and you will be able to see how it has all been constructed.

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

That was my next thought.  OK so I think I'm getting this. When I display in VS debug mode the settings are simply reading the ref CSS file and rendering so the XML file isn't used. When I use the localhost then the DNN tokens use the XML file as a reference for the SQL to the correct CSS class and render it. I don't understand the benifits to doing it this way over a standard ref to an external CSS file. In fact I would suspect that the actual render this way is sub slower.

I'm going to re-watch the vids you recommend I must have dozed through them. ROFL. If I have anything further I'll append this post. Otherwise thanks for the insight.

BTW. It would be nice if you could post a PDF file that explains what each of the standard CSS classes are and what they do in a default CSS skin file. You touch on them in the vid but a ref PDF would be helpful.

Thanks again!

 

 

 

Hello,

Just to clarify for you, the benefits of using the XML file is that it is easier to create and there are no performance downsides.

What happens is that when you upload a skin.htm file and a skin.xml file, DotNetNuke takes both of those files and combines the code together and creates a skin.ascx file for you.

When you are using the skins on your portal, DNN is actually reading the .ascx file which has all the css classes hardcoded into the file.

I prefer to use the .htm file and skin.xml file because all I have to do is set my tokens and not worry about the rest of the code.

You do have the option of creating the .ascx file direct with all of the classes setup without the xml file, but I would only recommend this if you are experienced and understand skins and the classes inside out.

The XML method is much easier to setup with no performance problems, so that's why I choose that method.

Cheers,

Yes I read that on your site after the last post. Thank you for returning to follow up.

To tell you the truth I'm struggling to find a reason for the multiple layers of complexity to just generate a page.

I've written code since 1973 and this really looks like a elephant to kill a mouse. What I had hoped for was a way to set the site up and then turn the reins over to the company to let them handle their own "coding".

This is not what I am seeing in DNN. In fact I see quite the opposite. If it weren't for sites like your's I'd scrap this idea long ago. I have 3 sites of this to set up and I'm beginning to realize that I could have coded all 3 easier than what DNN allows with far less bloat.

I'm thinking that if you are a professional coder that this isn't the correct platform. But alas I'm stuck now so I REALLY appreciate your feedback on the forums and would STRONGLY recommend anyone using this platform to spend the $39 bucks, you'll recoup your investment in one tutorial.

Back to work, ugg what an ugly word, I haven't used that in a long while.

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The one piece of advice I can give is that when you first look at DNN it does seem to be overly complex. - But, once you've setup a few sites you will find that you can create sites very quickly.

I find the skinning element to be very useful and quick for generating sites and managing sites with a fair amount of content. The area where it is handy is in the future management when you need to make adjustments to the design. - You can just make a new skin / edit the existing, and all of your content remains intact without having to make any special adjustments. - I also find it very handy when dealing with clients who regularly change their mind for the site design. - In most cases I can make site wide skin adjustments 5 min after a phone call and have them viewing the new design in minutes.

There are a lot of elements that you can strip down in the DNN skinning side, such as editing some of the bloat out of the default.aspx file, stripping down the default and portal.css files. - Taking out any invalid CSS, using CSS shortcuts and taking out any CSS which you override in your own skin.css file. - I will eventually be covering these elements, in the How to Build an DNN website tutorial series, but these will be the closing finishing touches, so it will be months before I get to this section. - If you need any info, I'm sure I can point you in the right direction though.

Another element dependant on your requirements is that you can get DNN to produce valid code to W3C standards, with the default installation, DNN is not compliant - Check the home page of http://skins.dnncreative.com to see a compliant installation in action.

These elements take time to learn / setup, but once you have them, you can just apply them to all of your installations as default.

Good luck and if you have any requests for tutorials, let me know, thanks,

Hi, can you please direct me to the following videos

"The videos to re-check are:
Video4 - setting the XML file

and

Video 7 - Setting the solpart menu"

I cannot seem to find them in the search facility.

Thanks Jim.

 

 

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the site, those videos are available from the link mentioned in the post:
http://www.dnncreative.com/tabid/21...fault.aspx

Thanks,