Problem Registering a CSS on a Sharepoint 2010 Master page

Question

I have placed a CSS file in a directory within the 14 Hive:

14/TEMPLATE/LAYOUTS/1033/STYLES/Family/Site.css

I am trying to use <Sharepoint:CSSRegistration> to register it like so

<SharePoint:CssRegistration name="Family/Site.css" runat="server"/>

But it is not working for some reason. If I copy the css to the STYLES directory itself this works

<SharePoint:CssRegistration name="Site.css" runat="server"/>

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

While this is a matter of personal preference, I would suggest that instead of putting the CSS in the local file system, that you create a folder in your content database under the "/Style Library/" folder and put it there.

Some advantages of this approach:

• Keeps your 12/14 hive cleaner which is often a forgotten area for Backup/Restore and Disaster Recovery situations
• Keeps your CSS right within the content database that it is most likely connected to
• If you have designers available, this also allows them to easily update the CSS without having to access the server file system
• It also allows for versioning for the file
• Leverages SharePoint's internal caching mechanisms

Each implementation is different but I've had the most success with this approach.

Answer 2

CssRegistration either takes the name of a CSS file that it assumes will be in the Styles folder or you need to provide an absolute URL to the file...Family/style.css simply won't work. It's actually Fine to deploy the file directly to the Styles folder, but if you want to isolate it I would recommend creating a folder under Layouts and placing it there. You can the reference that full URL in CssRegistration...see the reference on MSDN for details on how to dynamically reference a file under the layouts folder.

Answer 3

I agree with both Dave and Rob ;-) However, most of the time, I place my css files in the 14 hive so all site collections can use this centralized file. This way, I don't need to update all css files in all sitecollections. I use (like Rob said) a seperate folder like 'MyCSS', so the reference in the SharePoint:CssRegistration would be something like "_layouts/MyCSS/mystyle.css".

Good luck!