Suppose you have 2 different ASP.NET applications in IIS. Also, you have some ASCX controls that you want to share across these 2 applications.
What's the best way to create a "user control library", so that you can use the same control implementation in the 2 applications, withuot having to duplicate code?
Controls have ASCX with HTML + code behind.
Composite controls will be difficult, because we work with designers who use the HTML syntax in the ASCX files to style the controls.
Tundey, we use SVN here. Do you have an example on how to implement your suggestion? How can SVN share the ASP.NET controls?
Thanks!
Scott Guthrie gives some great advice here on how to set up a User Control Library project, then use pre-build events to copy the user controls into multiple projects. It works really well.
http://webproject.scottgu.com/CSharp/usercontrols/usercontrols.aspx
You would need to create composite controls instead of .ASCX controls if you wanted to be able to use them in separate projects.
In addition to what Tundey said, NTFS Link shell extension is helpful when it comes to sharing a large chunk of content (e.g.: a folder with .ascx/.aspx) between otherwise independent projects. In case of code, i think making another working copy from VCS is preferable.
Have a look at this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/ASP2UserControlLibrary.aspx?msg=1782921
An alternative is to use your source control tool to "share" the ASCX controls between your webapps. This will allow you to make changes to the controls in either application and have the source control ensure the changes are reflected in the our webapps.
The biggest problem I've noticed with controls in ASP.Net is that you can't easily get designer support for both building the control and using the control in a site once you built it. The only way I've been able to do that is create an .ascx control with no code-behind (ie: all the server-side code is in a script tag in the .ascx file with the runat="server" attribute).
But even then, you still have to copy the .ascx file around, so if you ever need to make a change that means updating the file at every location where you've used it. So yeah, make sure it's in source control.
I managed to do this by sacrificing some of the ease of building the controls in the first place.
You can create a Control Library project that will generate a control library DLL for you. The drawback is that you have to create the controls with code only. In my last project, this was fine. In more complicated controls, this may be a problem.
Here's an example:
<DefaultProperty("Text"), ToolboxData("<{0}:BreadCrumb runat=server />")> _
Public Class BreadCrumb
WebControl
<Bindable(True)> _
Property Text() As String
'...'
End Property
Protected Overrides Sub RenderContents(output as HtmlTextWriter)
output.write(Text)
End Sub
Private Sub Page_Load(...) Handles MyBase.Load
' Setup your breadcrumb and store the HTML output '
' in the Text property '
End Sub
End Class
Anything you put in that Text property will be rendered.
Then, any controls you put in here can function just like any other control you use. Just import it into your Toolbox, make your registration reference, then plop it onto the ASP page.
I use StarTeam here and it allows you to "share" objects (files, change requests, requirements etc) across multiple folders. Not sure if Subversion (SVN) has that feature. If it doesn't, here's another trick you can use: create a junction from the primary location of the controls to a location in the other projects. A junction is just like a Unix symbolic link. You can download the tool for creating junctions in Windows from here
I have a suggestion.WE can use user control across multiples application by creating user control inside website project as normally.Then change the website property Use fixed naming and single page assemblies.Then we can use the user control dll into multiple applications.
I recently did a web application that just referenced the files (about 90 in total) from one web application (aspx, master and ascx) without too much of an issue. That said I was using a heavily modified version of the MVP pattern, a lot of interfaces and conventions to keep the complexity down, the same middle tier and one site was a subset of the other.
Big issues:
Master pages (and in turn designers and html view formatting) don’t work on a referenced file so you lose a lot of functionality. A pre-build step and a lot of svn:ignore entries was my hack around this. It was also a pain to get CruiseControl.NET to get the pre-build task to execute in the right folders.
Shared pages/controls need to be extremely aware of what they touch and reference as to avoid bringing in extra dependencies.
Both sites are locked together for deployment.
I now have to pray that the maintainer reads my pokey little document about the mess I made. It’s so far outside of what I’ve seen in ASP.NET projects.
I was under a massive time pressure to get it to work, it does and now both apps are in production. I wouldn’t recommend it but if you’re interested start at:
Add Existing Item, select some files, click on the Add button’s arrow and say Add as a Link.
Related
I am new to vb.net programming and I am currently looking at a visual studio project at my work. To my understanding, when a new component is added to the designer of a web page, the details and properties of that component are declared within the InitializeComponent sub. I noticed that in all of the different InitializeComponent declarations throughout the project, they all have no code within them. Can anybody tell me why this is?
Thanks
If you click on top of solution explorer show all files you will be able to see files like Form1.Designer.vb The key here is designer which is a file that is automatically created for you by visual studio. Changes to it are not advised but sometimes necessary. Another good use for this file is when you would like to create dynamic controls which you can use code from designer to make it on the fly.
For asp.net this link should help you get basics.
The InitializeComponent sub is automatically generated when you create your project. It's generally a bad idea to modify the code in this sub manually, as it could confuse the designer.The code for this sub is intentionally hidden to prevent developers from trying to change it manually. I assure you, however, that the code is there. It is just hidden to prevent unwanted confusion.
I am working on a ASP.NET site that uses several ascx files scattered throughout the web project, I want to add my ascx files but keep the existing code-behind file. I also want to enable the user to easily switch between the mine and the existing ones. Ideally, I want to enable the user to install the ascx files with minimal hassle without changing any code or going through some complex error-prone process. (The goal is to provide a change of the markup code)
ASP.NET provides ControlAdapters, a mechanism that allows a server control to be customized through adapters that map to a server control. I was wondering if such a mechanism exists for user controls, if not, are there any features or a work-around that provides the same results.
EDIT:
I discovered a "feature" that's not well documented that may allow me to do what I want. It's called tagMapping. It is supposed to work with server controls, but it's failed to work with UserControls.
You can add a panel to where you want to display these user controls. Then, load user controls dynamicly how you wish on backend.
UserControl ctrl = (UserControl)this.LoadControl("/UserControls/"
+ whichone + "/.ascx");
yourpanel.Controls.Add(ctrl);
I guess this is a lot of questions bundled into one post.
I want to build a wizard-like control which looks similar to the TabContainer
But I need certain customizations. These would be like I'd want to associate some help text with the TabPanel. So I imagine I'd want to write my markup like below for the tabpanel:
<cc1:MyTabPanel ID="mtp1" runat="server">
<HelpTextTemplate>
This is your step 1 which is about ...
</HelpTextTemplate>
<ContentTemplate>
Content goes here...
</ContentTemplate>
</cc1:MyTabPanel>
So what do you do to make markup like that...? And how would our control from code behind be able to access data between HelpTextTemplate - which may contain server controls and all?
Moreover, notice that there is a button called 'Save' in the above pic. The user simply drags and drops into the tab panel. And when the user double-clicks on it we have a method stub generated in the code behind (which belongs to the aspx page). How is all of this achieved?
And to cap the whole solution off, I realize we have to wire some javascript to simulate that tab functionality. There is css here too (Notice the images behind the tabs - the gradient, etc). The aspect that I am looking at is making this into a control that the users can use out-of-box just like the toolkit's tabcontainer control. Hence the css/javascript should kind of be bundled. How to achieve this?
Edit:
I am also interested in making the control designer (design-time interaction) part. I am looking for functionality the same way we have for the asp.net wizard control. I have found answers to some of the questions I had above will add it when I find time.
For embedding a script or image to the asp.net custom control I found a solution mentioned in the below site:
Embed js resource with custom asp.net control
What I suggest here it may sound too much, but I can not think other easy way for what you ask and the way you won it.
Grab the source code of the TabContainer, clone it, and make all your custom settings base on that source code. The first steps is to get the full source code of this asp.net toolkit and make a build that working. The second step is to add a clone of the TabControl, with new names. Then you work on this clone to make your changes as you wish for. The final step is to try to separate your custom control in a stand alone library if this is possible.
Download the latest version of the full asp.net ajax control toolkit
http://ajaxcontroltoolkit.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets
Here you can see online the source code for the TabContainer only
http://ajaxcontroltoolkit.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/2c482e5ad6c4#Server%2fAjaxControlToolkit%2fTabs%2fTabContainer.cs
The control you are trying to build is not incredibly complex, but it does involve a number of different techniques.
I would suggest creating your own control from scratch rather then inheritting an existing one. Probably using CompositeControl as the base would be best since it gives you a lot of flexibility.
For HelpTextTemplate/ContentTemplate you'll want to create some ITemplate containers, take a look at this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa478964.aspx on how to set these up. Since you may want to access the contents/controls in HelpTextTemplate take a look at this article for how to access them: ASP.Net ITemplate - ways of declaring.
For the tabs, since this is custom, I would probably avoid AjaxControlToolkit. Instead I would include a reference to jQuery UI and use jQuery UI Tabs: http://jqueryui.com/demos/tabs/. Your CompositeControl just needs to output some divs, ul/li elements and you'll be good to go for making the tabs.
If you are fixated on using the AJAX Control Toolkit Tabs then you still can. You'll need to instantiate an instance in your custom control, add it to the control tree, and then use a technique like this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0e39s2ck.aspx to transfer the contents of your template to the tab pages.
Being able to drag and drop a control from the toolbox onto your page is simple; if your server control library is already part of the same solution as your website then it will just show up. Worst case scenario you can use the Add Items option and add the DLL by browsing for it. As for how the Click event is created when you double click a button, that is done through an attribute on the class, take a look at this tutorial on setting up default events: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/43sxkdeb.
As for embedding javascript into the library, these two questions cover how to do this specifically for jQuery UI, if you choose to go some other route it should still be pertinent: How to embed jquery library in asp.net custom server control?, http://forums.asp.net/t/1599621.aspx/1.
As for design time support, try reviwing Microsofts article on this (includes a sample): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa478960.aspx or this CodeProject article on it: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9227/ASP-NET-Server-Control-Design-Time-Support.
I have a series of .NET 2.0 web pojects that have identicle code behind in their web pages. The only thing that is different is how the html is laid out.
Is there a way that I can have a main web project that holds all the code behind (including control events like button click) and so that the other web projects reference the web page code file to this project's code files?
Edit: Note that the changes in html include exclution of certain controls, I am catoring for this by using the FindControl method so that if the control doesnt exists, I would simply have a null value.
You may try putting all the code-behind classes into a library and inheriting from a common base-class.
You can take a look at "Skin File" file type of Visual Studio. On the other hand you can learn if it works for you from the address below: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ykzx33wh(VS.80).aspx
I have a set of UserControls in a ASP.NET website that I would like to share to multiple website. But it seems we are unable to create a class library with UserControls in it with the ascx file. While MSDN suggest building a Web Control, I Would rather find a way to share the existent controls instead of destroying them to create new web controls.
Is there any way of creating a library of UserControls?
Thanks
Here is one way of doing it:
Creating and Using User Control Libraries.
You can't compile them into a project per se. You can get something close to this by linking the files into the project so there is one master version of the file but each project also has its own copy. You can either:
Using a source control share function to have one location and share it into the other projects
Create one project for the controls and then link them into other project by using "Add Existing Item", clicking the little arrow next to the Add button, and selecting "Add As Link".
You should use instead a Composite control. Here is a comparison between web user controls and composite controls:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa719735(VS.71).aspx