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DNN Blog
Mar
5
Posted by:
Chris Paterra
3/5/2010
The last three weeks I have found myself extremely busy with the Skinning Contest. First, I built a module for the voting portion of the contest (with the help of Joe, thanks Joe!). When originally deployed, we found some problems with allowing everyone to vote so I apologize to those who initially couldn't vote (we have corrected this as of last week), so I spent a bit more time investigating that. Next I started preparing a skin object for public release (also for the skinning contest). Finally, I spent a good portion of this week re-packaging the 25 submissions for public consumption (this requires proper licensing, structure, naming, etc.).
Spending all this time on the skin submissions provided me lots of insight into how skin designers today are packaging their skins for distribution. For the most part, it seems skin designers are using the built in packaging that DotNetNuke provides for skins and containers. Having not packaged a skin myself for distribution since the 3.x days, and the desire to showcase best practices, I also spent a bit of time researching the .dnn manifest options available to skin designers (this changed drastically in 5.0). Because of this, when time permits, I am going to create a series of blogs on skin, container, skin object and widget packaging with the goal of educating designers on single package distribution (and all items as properly registered extensions). More to come on this later.
Outside of the packaging, which is no fault of the designer since they are using the built in packaging and we lack documentation otherwise, I think the submissions look pretty darn good. I understand the amount of time it takes to create a skin and container package from scratch and all the thought/effort/creativity that goes into it, so a big thanks to all of those who participated.
If you haven't voted yet (or seen the skins), hop on over to the contest voting page (for those who already have, thank you!). Don't forget, when you vote you'll be automatically entered in a random drawing for a daily book giveaway from our friends at Packt Publishing and APress. Hurry up, the voting ends soon!
6 comment(s) so far...
Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
I wonder if the naming convention behaviour has changed. I posted a support ticket in Gemini about the fact you can't have skins and containers with the same name and view in the 'extensions' manager, but you can view them in the 'preview skins' section. Then, if you have filenameS & filenameC in the skin package, they are visible in the extension manager, but NOT in the skin previews section, as it only picks up files with the same name.
I was told that was by design, not a bug and to me that has caused alot of confusion in the whole process.
I will be curious to see how the packaging outputs skins and if this persists still. It did last time I tried.
Nina
By Nina Meiers on
3/5/2010
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Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
Nina, what I have found is that the Folder names must match (the skin and the container) and the preview seems to work how you would want it to (if i change the selected skin in Admin -> Skins to Test and I have a container of the same name "Test", the container will be changed as well and both preview sets will be displayed (for the skin and container). The actual package names I used in this case differ (I have a single .dnn file with 2 packages in it, 1 is the skin the other is the container.)
By Crispy on
3/5/2010
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Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
Hi Chris. Thanks for the feedback. It seems you are confirming the behaviour I stated.
Nina
By Nina Meiers on
3/5/2010
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Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
Sure thing Nina. You CAN have two extensions (which are really 'packages') with the same 'friendly' name. The package names and types are what you need to change here to accomplish what I think you are trying to do.
So, in a single .dnn mainfest file I have two packages:
1 - name = A.Skin and type = Skin
2 - name = A.Container and type = Container.
For both of these, I can set my SkinName and ContainerName nodes to A, as well as a pakcage friendly name of A for both. I should add that I never set a basePath node for the skin or containers packages.
By Crispy on
3/5/2010
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Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
And you can then see them both in the extensions section of the site AND the previews? I will check our naming convention in the manifest file.
I'm not convinced yet but certainly would like to have it clarified.
By Nina Meiers on
3/5/2010
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Re: Skinning Contest Updates - Ends Soon!
Hey Nina
As long as you have folder names the same, you will be able to see the Skin and related Container grouped together in the Skins Preview.
By Jay Mathis on
3/6/2010
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