DotNetNuke Skins – Handling CSS Files
June 12th, 2008 | 
Author: One of the most common mistakes I see when I buy skins for DotNetNuke is that the skin creator places a link tag for the CSS file inside the ASCX file for that skin. I’ve also seen skin creators use the skin.css for both the skin and the container.
I look at this and just shake my head. The person who created this skin just doesn’t get it. But so many don’t get it that it must be the documentation, right? Or does anyone read the documentation?
So here it is, plain and simple. Your final product should NEVER include a link to the CSS files, and the CSS for the skin should be separate from the CSS for the containers. Here’s why…
When DotNetNuke loads a skin for a page, it automatically loads the CSS file for that skin. It does the same for a container. However, DotNetNuke is smart enough to know if it has already loaded a CSS for a container and only loads it once.
If you load the CSS file for your skin and your container, that means the CSS files will be loaded at least twice as often as they need to be. However, if you use the container, or a container from the same container set, multiple times on the page, having the CSS file in a link statement in the container will force the CSS file to be loaded for each instance of the container you have on the screen. This will ultimately cause your page to load more slowly than is necessary.
But if we don’t put the CSS file in the ASCX file, how will we be able to see, in design view, what our CSS is doing on the screen?
You won’t, but this is one of the reasons we are working in DotNetNuke and not in some sort of third-party design tool like Dreamweaver. What you’ll need to do to really see what the skin and container code are doing is run your installation of DotNetNuke while you are making changes to the ASCX, CSS, and any related images.
If you think about how skins and containers work, this only makes sense. The CSS for the skin will impact the CSS for the container and the only way you can really see what the combination will look like is to put a container on a page and look at the result when DotNetNuke has merged everything together.
Other post in DotNetNuke - Skinning
- DotNetNuke - Skinning - June 5th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - Getting Set Up - June 10th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skins - Handling CSS Files - June 12th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skins - Hello, World - June 17th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skins - Skin Objects - June 19th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - Containers - June 24th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - Standard CSS Classes - June 26th, 2008
- DotNetNuke - Avoiding Container Collision - July 1st, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - Dealing with Images - July 3rd, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - SolPartMenu - July 8th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skinning - Collapsible Containers - July 10th, 2008
- DotNetNuke Skins - ASCX vs HTML mode - August 27th, 2008
- Infinite DotNetNuke Skin Sets For One Low Price - August 19th, 2009
- Blue Stack Form Enhancer Review - September 30th, 2009
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Tags: 3 Responses to “DotNetNuke Skins – Handling CSS Files”
Hi there
Could you suggest the best place (simple) for me to learn how to create a website using asp.net and c# (visual studio 2008), I’ve been going around in circles for the past 3 weeks working on a shopping cart website. Which ever way I go I always get stuck on binding to show contents of cart that users selected. I’m very very new at this and mostly need walkthrough tutorials (like yours).
I would appreicate any help.
Thanks
Helena
Sounds like you need a class, not tutorials. I can recommend http://www.newtechusa.com
I also have several tutorials posted on databinding which it sounds like is you immediate need.
Having said that, a shopping cart is a HUGE undertaking using any platform. I’d recommend you forget about building it yourself and use DotNetNuke in combination with http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com, or if you can get by with it, just use http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com.
Just to give you an idea of the things you need to know something about, here’s a list:
Credit Card Security (PCI) requirements (stop now, if you don’t even know what PCI is)
Tax Requirements
Shipping Requirements
Partial Orders
Coupons
Wish List
Trust me, been there, done that and have moved all my code to http://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com mostly because Visa/MC keep tightening the security requirements and I just can’t keep up. It has been bad enough getting the shipping and taxes to work properly. Security just put the nail in the coffin.
I am wondering if the list above is a complete list or is there going to be more with relation to tying it all together. I am still a little confused as to how this wraps up.