I recently created a simple asp.net webapplication and hosted in a server in my company. I need the same application for several clients, and I have to change just labels and images according to the client. Something like: "www.mycompany.com/mywebapp/client1", "www.mycompany.com/mywebapp/client2", "www.mycompany.com/mywebapp/client3"
But logic and database is the same. How could I do this? Thanks.
If it's a .Net web application or a .Net website, you would use MasterPages and user controls. This would allow you to have functionality restricted to the user controls and all style/layout considerations handled in the master pages.
If you choose to use MVC you would be using layout pages for a similar purpose and partial views in place of usercontrols.
In the case in the question, each subfolder would have its own master page:
mywebapp/client1/client1.master
mywebapp/client2/client2.master
mywebapp/client3/client3.master
and the pages inside would simply have the master page definitions and inclusion of the user controls. Your user controls would then sit in a public common folder such as:
mywebapp/sharedcontrols/login.ascx
mywebapp/sharedcontrols/clientinfodisplay.ascx
We did this slightly differently. In our case the DNS names are client1.mycompany.com
All of the DNS names are pointed at the exact same "web site" under IIS. In our master page we detect the subdomain (ie: client1) and look up the internal client id for it.
Also, we have a "skins" directory which holds the custom css and images for the client. For example /Skins/34/custom.css or /Skins/34/logo.png
Back in the master page we inject the appropriate CSS file which contains the overrides necessary to meet that customers look/feel.
For example, in our default css file we might have a definition like:
#customerLogo { background-image: url('/images/default.png');
then in the customer specific css file we'll have something like:
#customerLogo { background-image: url('/skins/34/logo.png') !important;
This allows our custom file to override the default css class definitions. Further, it allows us to override just the particular elements that need it instead of having to have a full css file per client.
Related
I have IIS, using Aspx with VBNet.
I have a site ex. mystockmarketeg.com
I have many pages of the assets of the market, e.g. I use the ? and cod=THEASSET to change the page I want to display e.g.:
mystockmarketeg.com?myinsidepage.aspx?cod=ASSET1
mystockmarketeg.com?myinsidepage.aspx?cod=ASSET2
mystockmarketeg.com?myinsidepage.aspx?cod=ASSET3
Just changing the cod parameter I can access different pages.
But I think this doesn't perform very well on google.
So I want to have a url like this:
mystockmarketeg.com/ASSET1
mystockmarketeg.com/ASSET2
mystockmarketeg.com/ASSET3
Is there a way programatically in ASPX VBNEt or changing some property on ISS to do it without the need to create folders and putting the index page on each folder?
Configure ASP.NET Routing to achieve this result. Note that if you have hyperlinks with dynamic URLs, the URLs should be generated using <%$RouteUrl:...parameters...%>.
See also a detailed ASP.NET Routing description.
Ok, I'm still new to Asp.Net and MVC3. I'm becoming more familiar with things but still experimenting after finishing my first web application (a simple web form submission into a database). Now I am working on smaller projects such as converting some old ColdFusion web forms that submit e-mails. I've easily accomplished this in MVC3 but all of our web pages are in a separate content management system where our central HTML template is. I've already asked a question about this here and didn't get anywhere.
What we have is the majority of our web pages get exported from the CMS as straight HTML files, and only the ones that need database access or a programming language are exported as ColdFusion. It's very easy to "include" ColdFusion code to use inside of the template in our CMS. I would love to be able to use this HTML template in my mvc3 project but I've found no way to perform an "include" or link to an external file. I'm not sure how this would work anyway, so I settled on just copy/pasting the template to mvc3 and figuring out a way I can share this template (now a "layout") between all of the small projects I'll be working on. If the template changes I do not want to have to update every single little mvc3 web application. I learned about using "Areas" but it seems you can't just publish a single area to a folder on the web server, the whole project has to be deployed.
All I really need is a way for small mvc3 projects to use one template and these small mvc3 projects to be scattered all over our web server. Would this best be done in one large project that publishes to multiple different folders, or as many small projects that can share a common layout? Is either of these two possible?
After attempting and experimenting with all of this, I'm beginning to think MVC is not going to work with what I want. It seems better suited for intranet applications or entire web sites, not this little "here and there" applications like what I want. Should I learn Web Forms instead? I know I can "include" a aspx file inside our CMS much like I do with ColdFusion.
Do your templates have to be "exported" from the CMS? Or, can you have a template that "lives" on a static CMS URL? This is what we do for apps that need db access / can't be easily done within the CMS, but need to share the same look and feel.
What you can do is have your plain old HTML file live at a URL, for example, https://cms.domain.tld/templates/designxyz.html. That file will serve up a basic layout, except where your custom app content goes, you simply have the string "content goes here".
Then, from the MVC app, you can call this URL to get the HTML content as a string. Once you have the string, you can split it in 2 before and after the "content goes here" string. Then, in your layout.cshtml file, you can do something like this:
#{
const string contentPlaceholder = "content goes here";
var allHtml = GetHtmlTemplateFromLiveServer();
var index = allHtml.IndexOf(contentPlaceholder);
var topHtml = allHtml.Substring(0, index);
var botHtml = allHtml.Substring(index + contentPlaceHolder.Length);
}
#topHtml
#RenderBody()
#botHtml
If something like this works, you can then abstract all of this away into a HTML Helper, then reuse that helper in other projects (NuGet would be good for this).
_Layout.cshtml
#{
var options = new CmsTemplateRenderOptions
{
Url = "https://cms.domain.tld/templates/designxyz.html",
Cache = new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0);
};
}
#Html.RenderCmsTemplate(CmsTemplateRenderRegion.Top, options)
#RenderBody()
#Html.RenderCmsTemplate(CmsTemplateRenderRegion.Bottom, options)
Then, to update the layout for all of your apps, you would just publish changes to the https://cms.domain.tld/templates/designxyz.html URL.
I don't have a real need to omit the default core.css reference from my HTML pages but I would like to know so I can feel comfortable that I have full control. Thanks
There are many ways to achieve this.
The problem is, once you remove the core.css file you are talking about 6 thousand lines of places that will not appear with a presentation anymore. What I do when we are limited to theme-only visual customization I create a theme that will address any new CSS needs and also replace the elements in the core.css file (themes are loaded AFTER this file, so if you have duplicated declarations in both files, the theme's one will prevail, without using the !important mini-hacks).
Keep in mind that SharePoint in editing mode just doesn't work without this file, you have to use different approaches when you are, for example, talking about an internet-facing site with 100% anonymous users vs an intranet-like portal with everyone creating and editing content on the go.
With all the warnings given, you can go to your masterpage and remove the core.css tag making it invisible:
<SharePoint:CssLink runat="server" Visible="false"/>
Depending on your type of sharepoint site (WSS vs MOSS + Publishing Features) the masterpages may work differently based on configuration, by default (WSS or MOSS without Publishing Features or any change on the matter) your masterpage will open on all the link that do not contain /_layouts/ in the url.
Examples:
/Default.aspx => Masterpage
/DocumentLibrary/Forms/Allitems.aspx => MasterPage
/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx (Show all site content) => no custom
masterpage
This is Microsoft's way to stop you from breaking even more (system pages) with the masterpages, but you can be extreme and use HttpModules or editing the 12/Template/Layouts/LCID folder (affecting the entire web front-end)
Usual scenarios:
Anonymous sites with no core.css when the user is anonymous and normal load when credentials are given (loading speed)
Themes used to let users create their mini-sites and use the branded templates or other sharepoint themes
Masterpages to customize what most of the users usually see, forcing your branding throught the child webs (new websites in non-MOSS Publishing wont inherit the masterpage)
Everything-under-the-masterpage with HttpModules or /12/ modifications (very rinky and complicated)
Note: It's not recommended to customize files from the Site Definition when you can avoid doing so.
When using Mickel's advice, make a copy of the Default.master, rename it to something like Custom.master and apply changes to that file. Then right click your custom master page and select "Set as default master page."
This is all done from within SharePoint Designer btw
Simply add your own custom CSS style sheet via Central Admin - this will be applied last, after Core.css so you can override anything you wish. You do not want to remove it! :-)
I know that I need to add the tracking code snippet at the bottom of all my pages, but is there a central location to do this?
Or do I need to add this tracking code to all of my templates?
I guess that I could wrap the snippet in a user control, or external .js file, and reference it on each page, but is there a global footer somewhere? The site I'm working on has about 30-40 layouts, and adding it to each one would be a pain!
Thanks in advance!
Actually, the role of a Sitecore layout is exactly this; to act as a global file that all individual page templates "derive" from.
Normally you'd stick the analytics code into the master layout, and use Sitecore sublayout/placeholder techniques to construct the various page templates you need. You would not normally need more than perhaps one or two layouts for any device you are serving content to. And I guess for most sites, the only device in use is regular web content delivery.
That being said, what you could do, is have all the layouts inherit their codebase from a common base class (inheriting from Page), and inject the google code centrally from here. Would still require you to go through all layout files however.
I have not tried the module, I think that is codebehind version. I have made this in XSLT, its pretty fast and easy to make. I have footer.xslt where I put the code that simply checks if page you are standing on uses template that I want to index and does not belong to page names that I want to exclude. Then I have an item with a custom template for Google Analytics with following memo fields.
IncludeTemplates -field contains list of templates that I want to include for analytics :
ExcludeItemsNames -field for excluding pages by item name
contains($includeTemplates, concat('|',./#template,'|')) and not(contains($excludeItemNames, concat('|',./#template,'|')))
Remember #key and #template is always in small letters
If you run many domains don't forget to add pageTracker._setDomainName("www.example.com"); in analytics script so you can separate sub-domains etc. if they use same footer.xslt
Normally we consider the actual Google code as content. Within Sitecore we normally have a settings folder, something like /sitecore/content/settings. This exists outside the root of the site. Beneath this have a settings item with a plain multi-line text field, I think the field type is memo or something similar.
Afterwards create an XSLT that renders out the content of this settings item. Something like (assuming the field is called value in the setting item):
<xsl:value-of select="sc:fld('Value','/sitecore/content/settings/footerJavaScript')" />
You may or may not need to set the disable-output-escaping attribute.
Then on the aspx page that your pages use as the template add a control that looks at the xslt rendering:
<sc:XslFile runat="server" Path="/xsl/footerJavaScript" />
The reason that we normally keep the javascript as content is this allows the client to change the analytics code without having to contact us.
In the app I am working on, I want to allow the user to upload static HTML pages to replace the default "user profile" MVC View page. Is this possible? That is, the user uploaded html pages will totally run out of MVC, and it can include its own CSS links, etc.
Ideas? Suggestions?
Obviously the .net MVC framework handles static content already for images / css / js etc. It would just be a matter of extending that (routing?) to pass .html files through straight to IIS. That coupled with a dash of rewriting to make prettier urls should do the trick.
However, I would be very, very wary of allowing User Generated Content in the form of raw HTML uploads as you're leaving a very very wide door open. At best, you're going to wind up with people's pages full of spam/porn/adverts. At the worst, you'll be providing a gateway for people to upload cross-site scripting hacks and potentially uploading malicious content to damage your site. The could easily take an existing form on your site, hardcode a load of junk into it, and exectute it from their homepage and break a whole heap of things.
At the very least you should be parsing the uploaded content to reduce it down to just a block of content, and then wrapping that in your own etc. I would personally be much more inclined to just provide users with a nice WYSIWYG editor to edit a single block of content - any editor worth it's salt should provide you with sanitisation as to what elements it includes / excludes. Then store this content fragment in your database / on disc and have the request for a homepage go through a standard MVC controller route and load up that content.
Edit - for you request for examples
You should be able to add an Ignore rule to your routing - there will probably already be examples of these already - crack open your Global.asax file - you will want to put in a call to the routes.IgnoreRoute method :
routes.IgnoreRoute("UserPages/{*path}");
Should let IIS handle all requests for yourwebsite.com/UserPages/aUser/homepage.html - you can also play about a bit more with the wild card fragments / constraints for prettier solutions
I suggest you to make your custom ViewEngine that will allow to use static html markup with custom tags in it, that will be replaced by user info.
So, your view engine may accept something like that:
<html>
<body>
<b><user:FirstName /></b>
<b><user:LastName /></b>
</body>
</html>
and produce
<html>
<body>
<b>First Name</b>
<b>Last Name</b>
</body>
</html>
This custom markup you can store in database, for example.
You can take a look at custom ViewEngine implementations at MVC Contrib project.