Customizing and Managing Your Site's Appearance - Part 2

Randy Connolly

Digg This Add to del.icio.us

Creating a Sample Page with Two Themes

To finish our coverage of themes, let's examine an example that demonstrates the dynamic selection of themes. The example page contains a drop-down list that allows the user to select one of two different themes to be applied to that page. The markup for this page is shown in Listing 6.3. Notice that the page contains no appearance markup, only structured content. All formatting is contained in the theme skins and CSS files.

Listing 6.3ThemeTester.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"
  CodeFile="ThemeTester.aspx.cs" Inherits="ThemeTester"%>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head <strong>runat="server"</strong>>
  <title>Themes Tester</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form id="form1" runat="server">
   <div id="container">
     <div id="header">
      <asp:Image runat="server" ID="imgLogo" SkinID="logo"/>
     </div>
     <div id="menu">
      <asp:BulletedList ID="blstSample" runat="server" >
        <asp:ListItem Value="">Home</asp:ListItem>
        <asp:ListItem Value="">Products</asp:ListItem>
        <asp:ListItem Value="">About</asp:ListItem>
      </asp:BulletedList>
     </div>
     <div id="content">
      <h1>Technical Books</h1>
      <p>
      Microsoft. Cisco. IBM. Hewlett Packard. Intel. Adobe.
      Macromedia. There's a reason the top technology
      companies choose Pearson Education as their publisher
      partners. Publishing over a thousand new titles each
      year, much of our content is also available online –
      so busy professionals and students can access it from
      any computer, day or night.
      </p>
      <div id="register">
        <fieldset>
          <legend>Contact Us</legend>
          <asp:Label ID="labName" runat="server"
           AssociatedControlID="txtName"
           Text="<u>N</u>ame" />
          <br />
          <asp:TextBox ID="txtName" runat="server"
           AccessKey="n" TabIndex="1" /><br />
          <asp:Label ID="labEmail" runat="server"
           AssociatedControlID="txtEmail"
           Text="E<u>m</u>ail" /><br />
          <asp:TextBox ID="txtEmail" runat="server"
           AccessKey="m" TabIndex="2" /><br />
          <asp:Label ID="labZip" runat="server"
           AssociatedControlID="txtZip"
           Text="<u>Z</u>ip" /><br />
          <asp:TextBox ID="txtZip" runat="server"
           AccessKey="z" TabIndex="3" /><br />
          <asp:Button ID="btnSubmit" runat="server"
           Text="Send" TabIndex="4" AccessKey="d" />
        </fieldset>
      </div>
      <p>
      <asp:DropDownList ID="drpThemes" runat="server"
         AutoPostBack="True"
         OnSelectedIndexChanged=
          "drpThemes_SelectedIndexChanged" >
        <asp:ListItem>Pick a theme</asp:ListItem>
        <asp:ListItem>Cool</asp:ListItem>
        <asp:ListItem>Professional</asp:ListItem>
      </asp:DropDownList>
      </p>
     </div>
   </div>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

The markup contains a drop-down list that allows the user to select the theme. The code-behind for the page performs this processing, as shown in Listing 6.4.

Listing 6.4 ThemeTester.aspx.cs

By keeping your markup devoid of appearance formatting, it can be quite radically transformed by your themes. This example has two different themes: one called Cool and the other called Professional. Figure 6.7 illustrates how this page appears in its two themes (the Cool theme is the one on the right with two layout columns).

The skins for these two themes (shown in Listings 6.5 and 6.6) are quite similar as well as quite straightforward. Notice that both skins delegate the actual formatting to each theme's CSS file.

Listing 6.5 Cool.skin

Listing 6.6 Professional.skin

home / programming / asp / site_appearance2

[next]

The Network for Technology Professionals

About Internet.com

Legal Notices, Licensing, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | Newsletters | E-mail Offers

Solutions

Whitepapers and eBooks

Intel Whitepaper: 2010 Intel Core vPro Processors Overview
Article: Adobe Helps PHP Developers Create Rich Internet Applications
Article: Reduce Your Infrastructure Costs with Microsoft System Center
Intel Brief: Five-Star IT Support--Intel Core 2 processor with vPro Delivers ROI of 524 Percent
Article: Security Enhancements Abound in Windows Server 2008
Intel Whitepaper: Implementing Intel vPro Technology to Drive Down Client Management Costs
Microsoft Whitepaper: Improve Communications and Collaboration

Intel Article: Intel Core i5 vPro Brings Intelligence to the Processor
Microsoft Personalized Whitepapers and Resources for You
Microsoft Articles: Visual Studio 2010
Adobe Article: Java Developers Finding a Home at Adobe Flex
Microsoft Whitepaper: Make Better Decisions - SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence.
MORE WHITEPAPERS, EBOOKS, AND ARTICLES

Webcasts

Micro Focus Webcast: Boosting the Impact and Effectiveness of Software Development QA and Testing
Microsoft Webcast: Simplified Access and Single Sign-On

Intel Video: 2010 Intel Core Processor Technologies
MORE WEBCASTS, PODCASTS, AND VIDEOS

Downloads and eKits

Adobe Download: Tour de Flex Application and Explore Flex
Get Started: Create Applications Without Infrastructure Limits with the Windows Azure Platform
HP PartnerONE | SolutionsINFINITE Visit us at hp.com/partners/us

Iron Speed Designer Application Generator
MORE DOWNLOADS, EKITS, AND FREE TRIALS

Tutorials and Demos

Free Adobe Online Flex Training: Check Out this Video Training Course Here
Develop Cloud Applications - Get Started Now with the Windows Azure Platform
Learn Unified Communications
Learn SQL Server 2008
Learn Windows Server 2008 R2
Internet.com Hot List: Get the Inside Scoop on IT and Developer Products

Learn Forefront
Learn System Center
All About Botnets
Learn SharePoint
MORE TUTORIALS, DEMOS AND STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES

The latest from WebReference.com

Browse >

Are Google's Language Translation Web Services Ready for Prime Time? · Installing and Using Meeplace, the Business Review CMS · Sending an HTML and Plain Text E-newsletter with ASP.NET, Part 2

Sitemap · Experts · Tools · Services · Email a Colleague · Contact

FREE Newsletters >

The latest from internet.com

Kingston Debuts Power-Saving Memory Upgrades · Web Marketing Tools: What's Your Reputation? · Ecommerce Marketing Tips: Writing Better Copy

URL: