DotNetNuke® Websites: Problem — Design — Solution

4.4. Summary

This chapter covered two main areas. The first was the organization and preparation of DNN skin designs. You learned the importance of organizing source files with layers and layer sets to ensure complete flexibility when editing website design components. Also, you learned about the advantages of slices: how to create them and define their attributes, and how to save images from them to be used in the coding of HTML-based skin files. You also learned about the importance of saving slices along with your layered source file so you can easily apply edits later.

This chapter also detailed all of the required components that bring an HTML-based DNN skin package to life. You learned how to create skin and container HTML by including the necessary [TOKENS] that ultimately get parsed by DNN to display the appropriate application logic in the form of specific dynamic controls. You learned how to customize the look and feel of the dynamic Solpart menu skin component. You learned how to use XML to define the global attributes of skin and container [TOKENS]. In addition, you learned how to code content panes with unique IDs and include the necessary code snippets required by DNN.

It is important to note that the techniques outlined in this chapter are not the be-all and end-all of DNN skinning. These are techniques that have worked quite well for me based on over four years of experience using DNN. But because HTML and CSS are the basis for creating DNN skins, there really ...