So now that we know how to set your reports style, let us see how we can deploy our application for different customers. Our custom web application is geared to be sold to for Outdoors retail shops. Our outdoors retail application named AdventureWorks allows the customer to use our hosted solution, where they do not need their own server, or they can install the application on their own web server.

We will assume that customer A has his own web server. When he deploys the web application, the installation copies the standard CSS file (named OurStyles.css) and reports. Once installed, Customer A's IT staff or anyone familiar with CSS can modify the OurStyles.css file to utilize their own look and feel. The style sheet should include comments to let the developer know what section that class name is used for. To change the Detail section, simply add the font, etc. to the class name. 

A hosted solution of our AdventureWorks application is deployed much the same way. Each website is set up independent of others, so the ourstyles.css file can be placed in your hosted FTP site. To modify it, the customer simply downloads the file, modifies it locally, and then uploads the file back to their server. We can also try to integrate something like the User Interface for modifying CSS files from DotNetNuke, to make modification easier, but that is beyond the scope of this article. 

Listing 3

/* body is used in the Detail Section */
body 
{
      font-family: 'Times New Roman' , Times, serif;
      font-size: medium;
      color: #000080;
      font-weight: bold;
      text-decoration: underline;
}
/* h1 is used in the Page Header Section */
h1
{
      font-family: 'Times New Roman';
      font-size: x-large;
      font-weight: bold;
      color: #008000;
      background-color: #C0C0C0;
}

/*h2 is used for the Group Header Section */
h2
{
      font-family: Arial;
      font-size: x-large;
      font-weight: bolder;
      color: #00FF00;
      background-color: #000080;
}