So we just had our first “Ask Spiffy” webinar on October 31st 2011 and one of the questions submitted to us got me thinking: “How can you tell that a skin from Snowcovered.com is going to be a good skin?” It’s a question that I personally do not have to think about very often because I’m a skin developer and I’m usually the guy creating the skins. So I started thinking about it and here’s what I came up with.
First, I want to give you my quick and dirty concept of the difference between a custom developed skin (the way I do it) versus the universal skins you get on Snowcovered. A universal skin has to be just as the descriptor suggests – universally ideal for all situations. Typically, a customer will either have me design a skin for them or provide a Photoshop file (or Fireworks, which I prefer, but that’s a blog article for another day) that they have had designed for them by another designer. Either way, we have their particular needs in mind from the get go, so we don’t spend a ton of extra time building that crazy matrix of content panes to get every single combination of layouts possible. That can be useful when buying a universal skin, so you can be sure you can use it exactly the way you want, but I personally dislike dealing with those skins. The content pane names aren’t very descriptive and are annoying to use. It can also get cumbersome. Each approach has its place. So to start off with, you can expect that the majority of the skins you will be buying from Snowcovered will be built the universal way, and if they aren’t, you want to be very, very sure that the layouts provided will be right for you.
An example of one of those crazy matrix of content panes
Okay, as far as deciding if a skin is a good one or not, the answer is… who knows? You can’t be 100% sure of anything you buy on any website, much less Snowcovered, but there are a few things that I would take into account before making the decision to buy or not:
1. Check the rating. Just like all reputable online stores should, Snowcovered has a rating system. If there are no ratings at all, I tend to shy away from it because it makes me feel like the skin has gone untested. Otherwise, the better the ratings, the better I feel about buying.
2. Is it compatible with DNN6? If the skin is a little bit older, it may not be tested in DNN6. I’ve run into a number of older skins that work in DNN6, but have some little bloopers here and there that you’ll have to get repaired. With the new modal admins in DNN6, you have to make sure that the z-indexes are set properly to operate with DNN6 or you could have some overlapping. Even if you’re running 5 or earlier, you may want to upgrade at some point and this could cause issues.
3. Check the common sense stuff. The problem with common sense is that it’s not all that common. Sometimes these things go unnoticed because people think, “Of course they checked that!” Make sure it’s W3C validated with XHTML and CSS. It could work fine without being valid, but it’s always a comforting thing to see. Make sure they tested it in all the browsers. I’ve seen skins that don’t say this in its features list. It makes me feel good that they at least say it was. If these things were on their minds when they posted the skin for sale, it was probably on their minds when creating it.
4. Check the version of the skin. Sometimes developers do this and sometimes not, but I tend to think a skin that’s in its second, third or fourth version has been tested and used by a number of sources and the kinks have been addressed.
5. Did they take into account any of the core modules? A lot of people use the simple core modules that come with DNN, for example, the Links Module. A lot of skins have different areas with different color backgrounds, specifically a footer versus a main content area. I like to use Links modules in my footers as a consistent navigation, and many times the background is dark and the main content is white. If I put that module in the footer and the text is still dark, that’s trouble. I’ll have to code some special CSS. It would be nice to know that those things are accounted for.
6. Are the little things addressed? When I say little things, I’m talking about html elements (h1, p, ul, ol, etc.). They are technically little things, but really, are they? I imagine that anyone worth their salt would style the header tags, but it can be easy to miss things like ordered lists and unordered lists. If these things aren’t addressed, I would completely avoid the skin. Attention to detail is very important when buying a universal skin.
7. Check out the live demo! This is my favorite one. Sometimes they have them and sometimes not, and if they don’t I tend to avoid them completely. If the developers aren’t confident enough to post a demo on their site then there might be something wrong. When there’s a live demo, you get to see it and its containers in action. If you have even a passing familiarity with HTML/CSS, you can check out the source to see how it’s working and how it was built. Sometimes these skins are REALLY complicated and are a bear to work with if you want to modify them. If you check the source, you can see how complicated it is and if you are comfortable working with it or not.
8. Ask The Developer. A lot of the above things may not be addressed in the features list of Snowcovered. In that case, I would recommend contacting the developer. This could be a test in itself. If that Dev. gets back to you in a timely manner, that says something about them. And it goes without saying (but I’ll say it) – a reputable website and development company backing the developer is always a reassuring feeling.
Now I’m sure there’s TONS of things that I didn’t think of that should be on this list, but I feel confident that if you keep these things mind, you’ll increase your chances of getting a quality skin.