Is there a c# command to include another web page - the equivelant of the php require?
I know how to do server side includes but was looking for something code based.
Thanks
Thanks for the answers all. I think I might need to explain further. I have several sub-pages that I will be loading during the use of the site using an xmlhttp request. Initially however, I need to load the starting sub-page before the user has interacted with the site. I could do this with js, but that would require more overhead in server calls from the client for the initial load. I already use master pages, but this is a little different. Since this is done serverside initally but must remain able to be refreshed clientside, I don't think I can make these pages into controls can I? I am pretty new to .Net so I may be making my life harder than I need to.
I think what you may be looking for are MasterPages and UserControls. A MasterPage allows you to define a basic template that is "filled in" by the implementing pages by having the implementing page add it's own content to the ContentPlaceHolders defined on the MasterPage. A UserControl is a re-usable piece of markup and associated code that you can reference from your mark up or add dynamically to the page being rendered in codebehind.
The way ASP.NET is structured, you shouldn't really need to do this. Code is compiled, so all of your classes and functions should be accessible simply by referencing the relevant assembly or namespace, without having to include individual code files.
You might be looking for user controls, which allow you to create fragments of markup with their corresponding code behind, and then reference these in your page.
With ASP.NET MVC it looks like this:
<% Html.RenderPartial("LogOnUserControl"); %>
This way you can put another UserControl on your page.
you can use include in asp.net like php include from below mentioned code
<!--#include file="include/leftmenuscript.inc"-->
You can also use a master page, as someone stated below, which flushes out your basic layout and lets you define content place holders, which other pages can implement and fill in the content. Master pages are a popular approach for defining page elements that are consistent across all pages, like your nav there (also things like headers, footers, common scripts, CSS, etc.).
Related
It seems rather convenient. I was wondering if there was a good reason to load one of the RegisterScript methods.
The RegisterScript methods can be used without placing any markup in the page, and without knowing the specific type of the page. Also, you can add the same script more than once, and it will only be included once in the page.
This is convenient when you want to include script from a user control, as you then can use the control in different pages, and more than once in the same page.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall RegisterScript methods working on pages without a <form runat="server">...</form>. That bit me once. In those cases, using literals or placeholders is not a particularly bad option. The other options I can think of is to make sure the head tag (or some other useful tag) has runat="server" and then dynamically add to it.
Depends on what you are trying to achieve. Do you really need to generate the javascript dynamically? You could just create a separate js file and reuse that.
As with the RegisterScript methods you can control where you want to place the javascript. For example with RegisterStartupScript, it registers your script at the end of the page (helps perceived performance and ensure that all objects have been loaded)
If you use literal controls, you might have to remember to but it at the end or top of page.
I've got a aspx and aspx.cs file with some components. Now I want to reuse parts of that page in another page. My approach would be to pull out the duplicate part into a WebServerControl.
So before I waste more time yahoogling, is that even the right idea and if so, is there a way to use parts of the aspx file rather than doing it tediously in RenderContents with the HtmlTextWriter, WriteBeginTag, WriteAttribute and so on. That looks like a mess for complicated layout and sizeable amounts of controls.
What's the standard?
Depends.
The main driving factor is that if you need to reuse your control in multiple web applications, you should go with a Custom Control (.cs in C#).
Else, if you only intend to reuse your control in one web application, choose a User Control (.ascx).
This MSDN article is a good starting point.
UPDATE (since OP asked further details):
To embed JavaScript for a custom control, a common approach is
var initializeScript = string.Format("MyNamespace.initialize('{0}', {1});", ClientID, myScriptString);
Attributes.Add("onmouseover", initializeScript);
Suggest to write JavaScript code in a js file and not in .cs since the latter is a nightmare to maintain and debug. Hope this helps.
It sounds like what you want to do is bundle the items into a User Control. This will allow you to design the control by using existing .NET controls rather than rendering everything out from scratch.
All you need is to create an ASP.NET Web User Control
Taken from MSDN:
An ASP.NET Web user control is similar to a complete ASP.NET Web page
(.aspx file), with both a user interface page and code. You create the
user control in much the same way you create an ASP.NET page and then
add the markup and child controls that you need. A user control can
include code to manipulate its contents like a page can, including
performing tasks such as data binding.
I have an issue where I have two pages that deal with very similar things and as such quite a few of their methods and aspx server controls have identical method names and variables. In short, it's pretty obvious that the code was copy/pasted and the innards were merely altered. I have a pending request that the two pages be merged so I've explored a number of options as to how I should best merge them.
First I thought that perhaps I could put one of the pages in a masterpage that will allow for a content place holder wherein I'd then put the code/controls, but it looked to be a bad idea once I started to make plans. For one the similar names would probably still be a problem and second it seems a rather clunky way to merge two pages together.
I've considered renaming all the methods and controls but on the other hand it's going to take a lot of time picking over the code and the controls to rename them all. My worry is that if I try to change the problematic method names, controls, IDs, I'll introduce a lot of bugs in the code.
Is there a better way to view two pages in one webpage?
You can do so with iFrames. But I think the website gets better maintaining with .net controls (.ascx files), and then calling them in a new page
That thing is called user control.
UserControl class
read this official tutorial
I think there can be 3 options that will work for you:
1. Put all common stuff in a user control and use it in both pages. This is the most straight forward solution and this is the main reason user controls exist - reuse of both UI and code behind. This is most likely the best option.
2. Have a utility class that will contain all common methods. The disadvantage of this solution is that you will only share code, not UI.
3. You can have a BasePage that inherits from Page, and have both pages inherit from BasePage. Again, you will shared only the code, not the UI. This is usually a good solution when you want to add some functionality for all your web pages.
If it is for ASP.Net Web Forms have you checked out Nested Master Pages, not merely a single MastPage?
If you have a common Theme or layout this goes in the Base MasterPage, your nested MasterPage then exposes common UI controls, Events Handlers etc that are common between the next group of Pages (the layer you referred to), your final ASPX Page then exposes the individual page functionality that is different between the ASPX Pages, UI controls, Events etc for each unique page.
By using the # MasterType page declaration you ASPX Page has a strongly typed reference to one or all MasterPages which would allow the ASPX page to easily access methods and properties of the common MasterPage.
I realize this is probably a fundamental thing I should know but I am self-teaching myself C# and asp.net so I am a little lost at this point.
I right now have 2 pages. One is an .aspx (with aspx.cs file included) that is blank and html is generated for it from a Page_Load function in the cs file. The HTML is very simple and it is just an image and some text.
The second file is a shtml file which has lots of things, serverside includes, editable and noneditable areas. I want to put my webapp into this file. My asp.net app uses Response.Write to just write out the html. This does not flow well with this page as all that does is write it at the top of the page which is because it is ran first and generates it at the top.
How can I make it to where I can generate HTML code inside the page, like within a specific DIV so it does not mess up the page. Where would a starting point be in learning how to do that.
I should note that I do not need any interaction from the user. All of this should generate right away.
I think you need to read up on some basic ASP.Net documentation and tutorials. Response.Write is not the correct approach - you need to understand how the ASP.Net page lifecycle works and how WebControls are used to render the html.
ASP.Net tries to abstract away having to create your html manually for the most part.
So if i have understood the questions correctly.
You already have an existing page/application (the shtml file) that you want to extend with some new ASP.NET components by including output from the ASP.NET page in the existing page?
This is as not something that is out of the box "supported" by ASP.NET and you "won't" be able to execute the aspx page using SSI. But you can do the opposite, an ASP.NET page does support SSI. So if you are not using any other scripts in the shtml file this might be a solution.
Otherwise the only common solutions would be either to use an AJAX framework and let it call the ASP.NET from within the existing pages or to use an iframe solution. In both cases the client will be resposible for making the calls to the ASP.NET pages and merging the results.
And then you have a issue with controlling the output from the ASP.NET page?
The Polymorphic Podcast has a good article on Controlling HTML in ASP.NET WebForms .
You can add a Literal control to the page inside the div:
<div>
<asp:Literal ID="litMarkup" runat=server />
</div>
then in your code-behind:
litMarkup.Text = "<strong>Your markup</strong>";
I don't know how well this would work for you, but could you try using an iframe to house the ASP.NET page? This should keep it in the specified region and not overwriting your shtml file. It may be something to think about.
If it is necessary that you generate your HTML output from C# code, and you would use this in more than one place, I think you may be thinking of something like what are called ASP.NET Custom Controls (not to be confused with "User Controls"-- though you probably could put together a solution with those as well, using a Literal control as another person suggested). The MSDN documentation would be a good starting point. In general, though, the writing-out-HTML-yourself-from-code model (like you would with, say, CGI applications), is not the usual ASP.NET model of development, as it largely defeats the point of using ASP.NET at all. You'd mostly want to do this sort of thing if you are writing your own web control, though this might be exactly what you are doing (hard to tell from the description).
I have created a webpart in c# for sharepoint.
its basically a form with text boxes, literals, validators and buttons.
im not sure how to render this form to make it look pretty.
The layout etc is being done entirely within this c# class.
At the moment to get started im just overrinding CreateChildControls() method
and adding each form control using something like: this.Controls.Add(submitButton);
any ideas on how best to layout this form?
Thanks.
When creating custom webparts I also prefer to implement them by overriding the CreateChildControls() and Render() methods. In the Render() method I have full control of the html output and I can render my inner controls by calling this.someInnerControl.RenderControl(writer).
Having full control of the html output also makes it easy to style the html using CSS. As other people suggests, use an external CSS file and apply the styes to the class attribute on html elements or CssClass property on ASP.NET web control.
When I implement webparts, that does not require special branding, I prefer to reuse the CSS classes defined by SharePoint. This will ensure that my webpart is visually similar to the webpart provided by SharePoint and that I keep a consistent look and feel.
When using the SharePoint defined CSS styles, you should be aware of your html output. Some of the CSS classes requires a specific html structure to properly render. You can always use the browsers "View Source" to check the html of the SharePoint element you are trying to imitate.
I would recommend grabbing the source from an existing sharepoint page and using the styles defined by sharepoint. This link to the styles in 2003 is old, but still a good guide to get started. Most of the CSS class names haven't changed.
In my web parts I include css files in the solution and inject them in the page using something like:
this.Page.Header.RegisterCss("/_layouts/path/to/css/file.css", false);
You can override the RenderContents(...) method to manually render the HTML in anyway you want to. This includes adding any css includes, scripting includes, etc. that you want/use.
You can render your child controls to strings and then output them as well, but you probably should NOT call the base.RenderContents(...) method.
Just make sure you don't forget to render your child controls.
If it's important for you to see as you design, use the SmartPart which embeds a user control in a web part. (In case you didn't know, user controls can be designed using the tools within Visual Studio.)
If you prefer to hand-code, then you're on the right track. Simply create and set initial properties for your controls within the CreateChildControls() method and use this.Controls.Add() as you have been.
In both cases, where possible use the CssClass property so you can tinker with the look and feel in a CSS file without having to recompile. You could hard-code the CSS class names but it would be better to use the web part properties or an external config source to store these. Have a reference to the CSS file in your master page or inject it into the page using the other techniques mentioned in this answer.
The MSDN articles Web Parts in Windows SharePoint Services or Creating a Basic Web Part might also help.