I know there are several things out there doing something similar. We have the Scott M method, which is used in his Simple Gallery, Real Estate Module, Articles, etc. We also have the Repository way which Steve Fabian created. Although I am not familiar with it, I believe Active Forums do something similar to the Scott M method. I am curious to hear thoughts from anyone who had experience using any of these, specifically in regards to the pros and cons of each approach. I also wouldn't mind hearing info on any other systems you may have encountered doing something similar.

I've used Scott's method quite a bit as I've subscribed to his modules.  It works well for "smallish" components where uyou can break-up parts of the UI into small sections - in particular sections that repeat.  But I find that this appoach makes it difficult to work in a WYSIWYG envorironment.

I tend to work in some editor (VS) to gnerate the overall layout, and then break up the sections and paste them into each section of the module.

Steve Fabian's older repository module I've skinned on the old iKon test site and I found this less flexsible.  I have not looked at the current version.

Personally, I would emulate as much of the DNN approach as possible.  Once the skinning is well integrated, good skin developers will release skins with both items included. 

Of course - now - if we can just get the DNN core team to stop breaking their own skinning engine, I'd be happy.

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Rob Poretti - Poretti Productions - skin3 Team ● X:Skins ● Cubist ● KrystalWare ● Gamer ● iKon