Apply a Theme with the ASP.NET Mechanism

Aug 27, 2025
3 minutes to read

If you are familiar with standard ASP.NET Themes and use them across web projects, you can utilize DevExpress Themes in a similar way. To apply a pre-packaged DevExpress Theme or a custom theme, copy the required skin files to your project’s App_Themes folder. The DevExpress ASPxThemeDeployer tool can assist you in deploying theme resource files from a theme assembly (ASPxThemes or a custom theme assembly).

Deploying Skin Files to a Website

Launch the ASPxThemeDeployer tool.
If you already have a custom theme assembly, do the following.
Specify the path to your site in the Site path box.
Select the products from the Products checkbox list.
In the Themes check box list, select the required pre-packaged or custom theme.
For a custom theme , uncheck the Only Skin files option to copy all required files.
After copying is complete, click Copy Files and close the Theme Deployer window.
Click the Refresh button ( ) in Solution Explorer to see that the pre-packaged or custom theme was added to the application’s App_Themes folder.

Other theme resources (e.g., CSS, image files) can be placed in the same folder that contains the theme’s skin files, or they can be added elsewhere in the Web application (e.g., within a theme assembly).

You can now apply the theme to a web page or an entire website.

Apply a Theme to a Web Page

Declarative approach:
Programmatic approach:

Apply a Theme to a Website

Declarative approach:

We recommend that you utilize the DevExpress theming mechanism instead of the ASP.NET mechanism. Note that if both mechanisms are used to specify a theme, the DevExpress mechanism will be applied. To utilize the ASP.NET theming mechanism instead, ensure that the theme attribute within the themes DevExpress section is empty.

xml

<devExpress>
     <themes theme="" ... />
     ...
</devExpress>