Question

What is the main difference between .skin and .css in asp.net?

.skin is new enhancement of IDE. I have been working with .css. What is available in .skin that is not to .css

thanks,
saj

Answer 1

In the skin file you can set properties of asp.net controls.

For example,

<asp:TextBox runat="server" Width="200"/>

All the TextBox controls in your application will have width 200.

You can give it a name and only the controls you like you can set them to apply a skin for example,

<asp:TextBox SkinID="MultiLineTextBox" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Height="240"/>

now in a web page when adds TextBox control you can set its SkinID to be “MultiLineTextBox”
as the following,

<asp:TextBox runat="server" SkinID="MultiLineTextBox"/>

and thus it will inherit the TextMode as MultiLine and the Height as 240.

To use the skin you have to add a theme to your application under the App_Themes folder and there you add the skin file, now to use this theme in your pages you have to set the EnableTheming property of the page to true, StylesheetTheme or Theme to the name of your theme. You can also set this properties in the config file.

Setting the theme in the page aspx,

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.WebForm1" EnableTheming="true" StylesheetTheme="Your Theme Name" %>

Setting the theme in the web.config,

<configuration>
   <system.web>
     <pages styleSheetTheme="Your Theme Name"></pages>
   </system.web>
</configuration>