dp wrote
Hello and thank you in advance:
I am new here and a TOTAL Newbie to DNN, so please forgive me...
I am creating a site with a basic BG and just a few panes/containers. Nothing fancy.
I am confused by the skinning guid and the above post. I am coding in HTML, not ASCX. In the code above you mention "<...containersrc="SectionName.ascx>" Would this code be inserted into my skin.htm document? the XML document, or into another document? Also, I dont understand what the SectionName.ASCX would be. How would i customize this?
Thank you for your help!
In all honesty, if you're just starting with DNN, you may want to set this on your "to do" list. I assume they are entering it into the ASCX file at the control call, (which is going to make your head explode this early on IMO).
There is extensive documentation here along with many other very useful online resources (DNNCreative.com comes to mind).
To start, just make a simple skin like this:
<div id="ControlPanel" runat="server" class="controlpanel></div>
<div class="LogoDIV">[LOGO]</div>
<div class="NavDIC">[NAV]</div>
<div id="ContentPane" runat="server" class="contentpane"></div>
<div class="LoginDIV">[LOGIN]</div>
(This is for pre-5.0, I haven't worked with it too much yet and they just overhauled the skinning system)
Make that your skin.html, then include it along with a skin.css file in a skin.zip file and upload it. That should provide you with a VERY basic skin with the most essential items (well, maybe not [LOGO]). You will notice that when you upload it, DNN will process the HTML into an ASCX file automatically and replace all the tokens [NAV], [LOGIN], etc. with the appropriate controls.
Another option is to just copy out the default skin and reverse-engineer it, which is the way I learned. It's alot easier than it first appears.
Also, check out these books:
DotNetNuke Skinning and Design
DotNetNuke for Dummies (Nothing personal, they just do a good job of explaining some of the more abstract ideas)