DotNetNuke Skins | Testing, Errors, Problem Solving

I've just finished a skin problem for a member of DNN Creative Magazine and thought it would be useful to discuss the process.

1) First check all of your code for valid html - ensure all of the tags are well formed, that you are using lowercase html and that your css ends with semi-colons etc. - This was one of the first problems I encountered - incorrect html
(I've found Visual Web Developer is really useful for this. - I've covered how to do this using VWD in the DotNetNuke Skin Video Tutorials)

2) Finding the problem. - We now have valid code, the next problem was to find the css that was causing the display problem. - The simplest method for this is to strip out or comment out big chunks of the code and then re-introduce it in small steps until you find the problem.

3) Minimise the code - Once I have found the problem I will work on that section of code - either completely stripped out of the skin as a separate skin or with the other elements of the skin commented out until I can find a solution to the problem

4) Test - Once you have found & solved the problem test the solution in a variety of browsers - as minimum IE and Firefox - I would also suggest testing in IE5.5 and IE5

5) Re-introduce the rest of the code & test as you go

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If you are looking for tutorials regarding DotNetNuke and skinning, here are 16 videos to get you started: DNN Skin Tutorials

DNN Creative Magazine provides DotNetNuke tutorials, articles, reviews all for the DotNetNuke web designer. An issue is released each month. Stats: 86 Videos & 5 MP3 Interviews

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