DNNSkins.com

Hi,

I am attempting to use a couple of your skins on some demo sites, however, each time I try to use the container for the skin, it seems to bomb and crash the system. It is possible I am not installing correctly I suppose.

1.) I download the skin file zip, then unzip this original zip file, revealing readme, another zip, and a folder with a zip.

2.) I then upload the zip file (contained in the root dir of the unzipped folder) as a "skin" and everything installs just fine.

3.) When I look for the matching "container" to the skin file, It does not apear to be included in the original skin install.

4.) I then upload the SAME skin file again as a "container" file... (this is probably where the issue is created)

5.) I select the skin for the site, and all is well... upon selecting the container, this is where the system is crashing.

5.) Anytime I call the site after this step, a general error is created, and the site is rendered useless.

Now, I know that I am probably doing this wrong, and the second step is probably useless, but it would be helpful for myself and others to know the proper installation procedure, which will include the proper container(s) for a specific skin.

Thanks in advance,

G Geller

Hi Glenn

Perhaps some more specific instructions could help from my side - sometimes we forget that everyone is a beginner at some time. What I did try to do is package every single skin with the container as well - and also in the download, provided the original skin file which I worked from.  Some of the original containers and skins don't actually work on DNN so well, but it was important to keep them there as recognition for the original authors.

Without wanting to complicate things - I'll try to explain how it works -

If you have a skin and a container pacakge together - you zip up each skin file in a 'skins.zip' file and the containers in a 'containers.zip' file and put those two files together in another folder.

You name that folder what you want the skin name to be - for example - XDNewOne - and zip the skin.zip and container.zip files up together so they are in effect - a zip in a zip..   the outer zip file would be called XDNewOne.zip and looking inside it - you'll see two folders called skins.zip and containers.zip.

DotNetNuke knows that this format will automatically upload to a skins/XDNewOne and containers/XDNewOne 'package'.   That's called created a 'skin package'

That's different to indifividual files - sometimes we create skins only - with no containers - so we would be calling the skins.zip file XDNewOne and uploading that as a 'skin only'

And if we had some containers we made separately - we could also call them XDNewOne - BUT what you have to look out for here is the dropdown menu when uploading them.

You would need to Select the Skins button from the dropdown menu - and it would upload and place ONLY in the skins/ folder

And if you had containers - you would need to select containers - and it would upload ONLY to the containers folder.

What makes it a little more confusing is that many skinning people don't bother to make the 'skin package' they just package them so you need to upload containers separate to skins.

I do have some resources I would like to share more - but am waiting for our new support person to start since I simply don't have enough hours and resources in my day to put all my information online, and have been working for the last 6 months to change things - and now I can see that help is only a couple of weeks away.

So, if you make a mistake like this - and you CAN'T use your site - you'll need to use ftp and delete the folder, which will force the default skin to show up with an error on it - but you can at least see the site again.

You can NEVER kill your dnn site if you break the skin - but you can make it a bit of a mess.

Does any of this help clarify things?

Nina

Hi Nina,

Again, thanks for the quick reply... you have provided some great stuff here!

Yes, I think you answered my question, but it was buried a bit in the message, let me see if I can summarize:

1.) Some skin download files that are available on this site do not contain "Container" zip files.

2.) If a skin is represented here, and it is in viewable mode, it may be using a container that is not available with the skin file download from this site.

3.) In my case, using XDFuseMe and XDChron, the packages do not seem to include seperate "container" zip files.

4.) Using the aforementioned skins require the use of containers obtained elsewhere, or in the default install.

5.) IMPORTANT - DO NOT upload a "skin" file as a "container" file and then choose that "container" for the site, as it will cause errors, and force the admin to manually delete the container files (or alternatively, update by logging into host site, and under "portals" select a known working container.)

Thanks again,

G Geller

1 - you are correct

2 - yes but tried not to use any containers on sites that have none 

3 - I thought they had one container - but perhaps I had some problems with them.  I will check that. - I don't like to put things online that you can't download - perhaps we missed something there.

4 - yes you are correct - and you need to install them as containers - and when you preview them, they will not have a container set down below like the others ones might because they are 'name related' in the preview box under admin/skins or host/skins - depending where you install them

5 - yes - that is correct.

Nina