Compiled version of ASP.Net CSSAdapters (Beta 3.0)

UPDATE 11/24/06: The 1.0 version of the adapters was released, so I updated the compiled distribution. Read about the update here.

UPDATE: Added a link to download just the DLL at the bottom of the entry, and rewrote some of the “implementation” steps to make them a bit clearer.

I’ve been following the progress of the CSSFriendly ASP.Net 2.0 Control Adapters (“CSSAdapters”) since they were initially launched some 6+ months ago. The team has continually worked on revising them (with a little help from me), and the latest release (Beta 3.0) seems to be something that we can live and work with comfortably.

One thing I’ve hated about the adapters is the implementation, which basically involves the following steps:

1. Add a file to the App_Browsers directory.
2. Add a folder of JavaScript files.
3. Add a folder of CSS files.
4. Add a bunch of files to the App_Code directory
5. Add some tags to the section of your web pages (to import the stylesheets and handle some conditional imports for IE6 and IE7).

Apparently, I’m not the only person who thinks there should be an easier way, and it seems that the folks working on the CSSAdapters agree (see the Serving Suggestions topic on the ASP.Net forums).

Inspired by the posts in that topic (especially the post by HardyE), I present to you a fully-compiled version of the CSSAdapters (Beta 3.0). A few notes on the implementation follow.

• All the CSS and JavaScript files are now embedded resources — no more files to manage; everything is in one DLL.
• The only CSS files embedded are those that actually do anything. In other words, I removed all but the following: DetailsView.css, Menu.css, TreeView.css, IEMenu6.css, and IEMenu7.css.
• To get the JavaScript files to register (required for the MenuAdapter, TreeViewAdapter, and all controls that use the WebControlAdapterExtender), I rewrote the RegisterScripts() method to reference the JavaScript file as a Web resource (using GetWebResourceUrl()). I also added a check to IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered() which should make sure things are only added once.
• To get the CSS files to link (required for the MenuAdapter, TreeViewAdapter, and DetailsViewAdapter), I added code to the RegisterScripts() method to reference the CSS file as a Web resource (using GetWebResourceUrl()). Adding them to the web page was done by parsing a tag and adding it to the page using RegisterClientScriptBlock(). As with JavaScripts, I also added a check to IsClientScriptBlockRegistered() to avoid duplication.

Implementation of the compiled CSSAdapters in a web site requires the following steps. Note that only the first step is the same as those listed above; steps #2 through #5 are eliminated by the “new” step #2 below.

1. Add the appropriate file to your App_Browsers directory (this step doesn’t go away, and it shouldn’t, because essentially this is a configuration file).
2. Add the compiled CSSAdapters.dll to your web site’s bin directory.

This makes it much easier to implement and manage than before. Note that this implementation wasn’t heavily tested, but it worked flawlessly with the CSSAdapters demo app (which is included in the distribution I’m providing here). Let me know how it works for you, or if you have any problems or suggestions.

For instructions and download links, go to the Projects section of this web site.