Understanding the CSS Files

CSS is used both for layout and for styling, the more you learn about CSS the easier it will be for you to create nice looking skins for mojoPortal.

The CSS Files

As of mojoPortal content management system 2.2.7.8, we combine the CSS files into one request for better performance. The style.config file is the list of files to include and in the correct sequence to include them. So you can organize your css into as many or few css files as you like. You can also include comments in your CSS files without worrying about it adding to the size of the files as the comments will be removed as part of the combining and minifying of the CSS.

In the included skins we typically have the following css files:

  • style.css
  • styleaspcalendar.css
  • styleblog.css
  • styledatacalendar.css
  • stylefeedmanager.css
  • styleformwizard.css
  • styleforum.css
  • stylemenu.css
  • styletreeview.css
  • stylewebstore.css
  • IESpecific.css is a supplemental stylesheet that is only included when the browser is Internet Explorer version 6 or less
  • IE7Specific.css is a supplemental stylesheet that is only included on the page when the browser is Internet Explorer 7 or greater

If you need IE Specific CSSfiles for IE 8 and/or IE 9, you can drop in  a file named IE8Specific.css and set IncludeIE8="true" on the<portal:IEStyleInclude control in your layout.master file. For IE 9 drop in a file named style.ie9.css and set IncludeIE9="true"

Additionally, the style.config usually includes some common css files, for more information see Understanding Style.config.

You can quickly become a CSS guru by understanding selectors. To get up to speed quickly on CSS Selecotrs see the article CSS - Its All About Selectors.

Tip: To solve IE6 issues you may find this tool useful http://www.onderhond.com/tools/ie6fixer/

Other Styles

Note that you can do all kinds of things like assign background images and borders, fonts, colors using CSS. You really should invest in a few good books to help you learn how to make good looking standards compliant web designs if you're not a  CSS guru already.

You can get a quick introduction to the power of CSS from the article CSS - Its All About Selectors.

Last Updated 2010-01-13 Joe Audette