Process for developing DNN skins or modules without uploading after every single change

Question

While our team is starting work on our first DNN 7 sites, we're running into a small impediment. It would seem that the development cycle for a skin or module is that for every single little change you make, you need to create a new package and upload it to DNN. Our engineers are worried that they'll get caught in a loop of:

1. Tweak CSS
2. Create zip for skin
3. Upload zip to DNN
4. Go to step 1 until skin is complete

Consider this to also be a metaphor for module development. Is there a better process to develop modules and skins? Should we create the initial skin package, tweak the installed version, and then update the original files?

Edit: It's our intention to keep the installable skin and module files under source control in TFS, and deploying packages as changes are made.

Answer 1

If you're developing those skins locally, running at a URL like http://dnndev.me/ you can make all the changes you want, without having to package/install the skins.

That is also the recommended approach for doing module development.

Here's a tutorial on setting up your local development environment:

http://www.christoc.com/Tutorials/All-Tutorials/aid/1

If you aren't doing local development, than you have to go through the hoops for packaging/deploying or uploading to the webserver via FTP/file system.

Answer 2

For modules, you can install the module only one time and then just recopy the dlls and the DesktopModules controls as a build. You can write batch files to automate the whole copy/paste process.