Extending Pages with Custom Content

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Monday, June 4, 2012PrintSubscribe
Extending Pages with Custom Content

If you would like to use a standard or third-party ASP.NET components on your pages, then a custom user control should be created and inserted in the page. Let’s add a few custom user controls and a data view to a test page.

Creating the Page

Start the Project Designer. On the action bar, click New | New Page option.

New Page menu option in the Project Designer.

Give this page the following properties:

Property Value
Name Test
Index 1005
Title Test
Path Test
Description This is a test page.
Style Categories
About This Page This page will host several user controls.
Roles N/A

Press OK to save the page.

Adding Containers

In the Project Explorer, right click on Test page node, and select New Container.

New Container to 'Test' page in Project Explorer.

Enter the following properties:

Property Value
Flow New Row
Width 33%

Press OK to save the container. Create three more containers, configured as follows:

Property Value
Flow New Column
Width 200px

Property Value
Flow New Column

Property Value
Flow New Row
Creating and Adding the User Controls

In the Project Explorer, right-click on Test / c100 container node, and select New Control.

Add New Control to 'c100' container in Project Explorer.

Next to the User Control property, click on the New User Control icon.

Create New User Control icon on New Control form.

Give this user control the following properties:

Property Value
Name TopLeft

Press OK to create the user control and have it selected in the User Control property.

TopLeft user control inserted in the 'User Control' property.

Press OK again to save the control.

Right-click on Test / c101 container node, and choose New Control. Click on the New Record icon again, and create a new user control:

Property Value
Name TopCenter

Press OK to save the user control, and again to save the control. Create another control on Test / c102 container node. The new user control will have the following parameter:

Property Value
Name TopRight

Save the user control and control, and create another control on Test / c103 container node. The user control will use the following:

Property Value
Name CustomerList

Save the user control, and then the control. The logical page structure in the Project Explorer should look like the picture below.

User controls populated for each container on Test page.

Exit the designer, and generate the web application.

When your default web browser opens the app, navigate to the Test page. There will be four user controls on the page, in two rows.

Test page with uncustomized user controls.

Customizing the User Controls

Switch back to the web application generator, click on the project name, and select Develop to open the project in Visual Studio. In the Solution Explorer, double-click 0n ~\Controls\TopLeft.ascx file.

TopLeft user control in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer.

Press Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D to format the document. Add the highlighed CSS rule to the style attribute of the div element:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="TopLeft.ascx.cs" 
    Inherits="Controls_TopLeft" %>
<asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server">
    <ContentTemplate>
        <div style="margin: 2px; border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; 
            background-color:LightBlue; height: 150px;">
            uc:TopLeft</div>
    </ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>

Save the file. In the Solution Explorer, double-click on ~\Controls\TopCenter.ascx file.

TopCenter user control in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer.

Format the document using Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D, and enter the following CSS properties in the style attribute of the div element:

background-color: LightGreen; height: 150px;

Save the file. In the Solution Explorer, double-click on ~\Controls\TopRight.ascx file.

TopRight user control in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer.

Format the document, and enter the following CSS properties in the style attribute of the div element:

background-color: Pink; height: 120px;

Save the file. Switch back to the web browser and refresh the page. The three top user controls will have the assigned background colors and height.

Test page with customized 'Top' user controls.

Adding a Data View

Switch back to Visual Studio. In the Solution Explorer, double-click on ~\Controls\CustomerList.ascx document,

CustomerList user control in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer.

Press Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D to format. Making sure to preserve the original <%@Control%>  header, replace the UpdatePanel element in the file with the following:

<asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server">
    <ContentTemplate>
        <div id="Customers" runat="server">
        </div>
        <aquarium:DataViewExtender ID="dve1" runat="server" 
        Controller="Customers" TargetControlID="Customers"
            PageSize="5" ShowInSummary="true" ShowPager="false"/>
    </ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>

Save the file, and refresh the webpage. The customers list will load underneath the three colorful user controls.

Test page with customized 'Top' user controls and customer list at the bottom of the page.

Changing the Page Layout

Switch back to the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, expand the Test page. Move the c103 container to the first position.

Test page with 'c103' container moved to first position in Project Explorer.

On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to the Test page, and you will see that the customers list will be at the top of the page, with the colorful user controls underneath.

Test page with customized 'Top' user controls and customer list at the top of the page.