The DNN documentation describes the use of a [CONTENT] OR [CONTENT:1] token. However the skins that I see in the tutorials don't use these tokens. Instead you use id="toppane" etc. How are these connected?

The tokens to which you refer are appropriate for HTML skins. The ascx tags are appropriate for ascx skinning.

I don't see a [CONTENT] token in the HTML examples (Red Leaf)

Is it CONTENT, or is it CONTENTPANE?  The latter is a new skin object and did not exist when that tutorial was created.

Hello,

The methods are basically the same, you can use [CONTENTPANE:1], [CONTENTPANE:2] etc (and then add the details for the content panes in your skin.xml file).

Or you can use the runat="server" id="toppane" method that I outlined in the tutorial.

I prefer the method outlined in the tutorial because you can see at a glance what each pane is called.

Lee, Thanks for jumping in here. I'll try to be more clear.

You tell me "Or you can use the runat="server" id="toppane" method that I outlined in the tutorial."

What makes "toppane" a content area?
My question is, how are these connected to a content area? That is, where are these defined?

In the HTML file, you have code such as:

< div id="extras" >
< div id="rightpane" runat="server" visible="false" > <!-- div -->
< /div >

< div id="content" >
< div id="contentpane" runat="server" visible="false" >< /div >
< /div >

In the CSS file, you have code such as:

/***** Right sidebar *****/

#extras {
float:right;
width:140px;
margin:0 0 5px;
padding:0;
line-height:1.4em;
}

It seems obvious that "extras" is an arbitrary name that is used to connect styles to an id.

Are rightpane and contentpane key words? What about other similiar things such as toppane, bottompane, or leftpane. If they are keywords, what is the full list? What if I want more panes than are on the list, such as upperleftpane or maximumpain? How do I add them?

If the ASCX file is generated from the HTML file and the CSS file, then there is no requirement to have any ASCX file to start with, and therefore no requirement to have anything specified in the ASCX file. If the HTML file and the XML file define the content areas, how are the content areas named?

The DNN documentation says that I can put a [CONTENT] token in the HTML file like this.

< div id="extras">
< div [contentpane]="">< / div>
< /div>

< div id="content" >
< div [contentpane:1]="" >< /div >
< /div >

Then I have this in the XML file.

< token >[CONTENTPANE]< token >
< settings >
>
ID
rightpane
< / setting >
< settings >
< token >[CONTENTPANE:1]< token >
< settings >
< setting >>
< name >ID< /name >
< value >contentpane<!-- value-->
< / setting>
< settings>

This allows me to choose arbitrary name for a content area (somepane) and associate it with a token [CONTENT:n].

Where is that association in your skins?

Gary Minor

GaryDev@Controlware.net

(919) 556-2725
< / settings >< / settings >< /token >< /token >< /settings >< / settings >< /token >< /token >

Sorry about the lost code. See attached

Hi Gary,

If you want to paste in code, just add in spaces, I edited your post above.

To make this clearer,

 < div id="rightpane" runat="server" visible="false" >

is the ascx method, this method can be placed directly in your html skin file and you do not need to enter any details for the content pane in the skin.xml file.

If you use the token contentpane method in your skin.html file, when you install the skin and DotNetNuke then creates the ascx version, the code above will be created.

To explain the code above:

id = this is the name that you wish to give to your content pane, it can be any name at all - the only thing you need to make sure you have is that one of your panes is named ContentPane as DotNetNuke relies on this as the default pane, apart from that you can name your panes anything you wish.


runat="server"
This informs DotNetNuke that this div tag is going to be a content pane - if you do not add runat="server" DotNetNuke will not convert this into a content pane.

visible="false" - if the content pane does not contain any content then it will not be displayed


Hope this makes it clearer, hopefully you can see that by using this method it saves adding a lot of code into the skin.xml file to create your content panes.


<!-- div -->

Thanks,

I'm surprised that any div with runat="server" becomes a content pane. Where is this documented?

I like things more explicit. I'll experiment to learn more.

Gary Minor

hello,

I don't know where this is documented, but if you look at any of the default DotNetNuke skins you will see they all use this method, I have never seen a skin that uses the [CONTENTPANE] token method, I guess it's because the runat="server" method is so much quicker to create.

Bear in mind that the skinning documentation PDF that is available to download from DotNetNuke.com was first created for DotNetNuke version 2.

Skinning has not really changed from version 2 to version 5, but I guess over time people have found the methods that they prefer for creating skins quickly.

If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to ask, thanks,