This is my very first commercial skin I created almost three years ago when I was new to DotNetNuke. Since then I’ve been tied up with client work and custom design and it didn’t give me much time have a second look at it. With the introduction of DotNetNuke 5.0 a while back, I kept telling myself that Engage: Adaptive must be updated to comply with the latest version of the framework. Since DotNetNuke 5.x has been widely adopted, I decided it’s now time to give it a facelift.

Engage: Adaptive 2.0 (it’s the version, not web 2.0) was released last week as I wanted to take advantage of the improved skinning and parsing engine. Although the older version of Adaptive (Engage: Adaptive 1.0) works in 5.x (install as legacy skin), you’ll find Engage: Adaptive 2.0 with a more structurally sound with a few minor changes in its design and layout.

If you have taken one of my DotNetNuke skinning courses you’ll know the differences in DotNetNuke HTML skinning versus ASCX approach. Engage: Adaptive 2.0 was implemented using the HTML approach so someone who isn’t familiar with ASP.NET script can open those skin files and start altering it to match his/her need. I consider Engage: Adaptive 2.0 is a great skin package for beginners who are learning DotNetNuke skinning. The skin and container files are hand-crafted with proper indentation so when you view the markup, you’ll catch up with the flow of the layout quickly.

So what’s new in Engage: Adaptive 2.0? It

• Utilizes dnnMENU version 2. If you try to use this skin package in any version of DotNetNuke different than 5, it will likely break your site
• Has improved layout and CSS work to optimize for the performance of the skin
• Is SEO-ready for skins and containers
• Is cross-browser compatible and even validate W3C validation services

The intention behind the design is to provide a minimal style and layout so web sites with content heavy can take advantage of it. While it’s not an ideal design for businesses with minimal content, but with some creativity you can utilize large banners or rotating graphics to accomplish a cool design for the site.

You can view the design in action here where the site has been implemented with limited content: http://campusdemo.engagecampus.com or visit our demo site at www.engageskins.com/adaptive20