ASP.NET 2.0

Free Web Design Templates at oswd.com (Open Source Web Design)

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:50:00 GMT

Open Source Web Design is a collection of web designs submitted by the community that anyone can download free of charge!

Check it out at: Open Source Web Design

Mike McIntyre
www.getdotnetcode.com

Visual Web Gui - ASP.NET web applications built with a .NET Windows Forms project!

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:19:00 GMT

Visual Web Gui is an open source product for porting .NET Windows Forms applications to the web.

It is used to create ASP.NET web applications with a very AJAX like experience - without the AJAX programming hassle.

It may be worth it to you to give it a try. Though it's little rough around the edges at this point, this product can be used today to produce web applications from .NET Windows Forms projects. And - the developer is rapidly improving the product each month.

It's easy to get started and it to produce useful web applications. I've been playing around with it for about a week and have already created two small web applications for IT management.

The process is straight-forward:

1. Download and install the free Visual Web Gui Visual Studio project templates.

2. Create a Visual Web Gui project. This is a Visual Studio Windows Forms project.

3. Build out the Windows Froms application.

4. Compile.

5. Run result in web browser.

6. Deploy to web server.

Visual Web Gui web site: http://www.visualwebgui.com/

Visual Web Gui at CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/VWGSilverlight

Mike McIntyre

www.getdotnetcode.com

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Pt3

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:06:00 GMT

Source Code: Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Pt3

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Pt3

This is part three of a three part article that demonstrates how to build an ASP.NET navigation system. In part one, web pages were added to a web site and then referenced in a ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMap file. In part two an ASP.NET 2.0 Menu control was tied to the SiteMap file created in part one. In part three an ASP.NET SiteMapPath (bread crumbs menu) is tied to the SiteMap created in part one and the Menu added in part two.

Read previous parts of the article -> Part 1, Part 2

Clean Up the Master Page

The master page used in parts 1 and 2 was getting cluttered so I clean it up. Here are the steps I took:

1. Removed the Read Me and GetDotNetCode links below the banner header.

2. Merged the two cells below the banner header.

3. Removed the row above the banner header that contained the words: 'Bread Crumbs Menu (Will be added in Part Three)'

Add an ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMapPath Control to the Master Page

An ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMapPath control was drug from the Toolbox to the row under the banner header.

Because a site map with the name Web.sitemap was already present in the web sites root directory, the new control was automatically wired to it. (The site map was added in part one of this article.)

Test the Site Map

Run the application. Select any page from the application, from the left menu. As you do, the SiteMapPath control will display a 'bread crumbs' menu that shows the path to the page you select.

About the ASP.NET SiteMapPath Class

The SiteMapPath control is a site navigation control that reflects data provided by the SiteMap object. The SiteMapPath class displays a set of text or image hyperlinks that enable users to more easily navigate a Web site, while taking a minimal amount of page space.

The SiteMapPath control provides a space-saving way to easily navigate a site and serves as a point of reference for where the currently displayed page is within a site. This type of control is commonly called a breadcrumb, or eyebrow, because it displays a hierarchical path of hyperlinked page names that provides an escape up the hierarchy of pages from the current location. SiteMapDataSource.

For more information:

SiteMap Class

Menu Class

SiteMapPath Class

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Part 2

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 06:48:00 GMT

Source Code: Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Pt2

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Part 2

This is part two of a three part article that demonstrates how to build an ASP.NET navigation system. In part one, web pages were added to a web site and then referenced in a ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMap file. In part two an ASP.NET 2.0 Menu control will be tied to the SiteMap file created in part one. In part three an ASP.NET SiteMapPath (bread crumbs menu) will be tied to the SiteMap created in part one and the Menu added in part two.

Read part one -> Part 1

Add an ASP.NET 2.0 Menu to the Web Site

Open the web site created in part one.

Open the SiteMaster page in design view.

The left side menu place holder will now be replaced with an ASP.NET Menu control.

Clear the words 'Left Side Menu (will be added in part two)' from the page.

From the Navigation menu of the Visual Studio Toolbox, drag a menu control to the left column of the web page.

Click the smart task tab on the menu control to open the 'Menu Tasks' dialog.

Use the 'Choose Data Source:' ComboBox to select 'SiteMapDataSource1'.

SiteMapDataSource1 is the data source that was created in part one of the article.

Run the web site and try the menu. You should be able to navigate to the pages tied to the site map created in part one of the article.

About the ASP.NET Menu Class

The Menu control displays a menu in a Web Forms page. It is often used in combination with a SiteMapDataSource control to provide site navigation as shown in this part of the article.

Menu Control Features

Menu items can be bound to hierarchal data sources.

Site navigation when used in conjunction with the ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMapDataSource control

Programmatic access to the Menu class' object model to dynamically create menus, populate menu items, set properties, and so on.

Customizable appearance through themes, user-defined images, styles, and user-defined templates.

When the user clicks a menu item, the Menu control can either navigate to a linked web page or simply post back to the server. When used with the SiteMapDataSource the menu navigates to the a linked web page.

Next time:

In part three of this article, an ASP.NET SiteMapPath (bread crumbs menu) will be tied to the web site.

For more information:

SiteMap Class

Menu Class

SiteMapPath Class

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Part 1

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:24:00 GMT

Source Code: Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Pt1

Build an ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Navigation System Part 1

This is part one of a three part article that demonstrates how to build an ASP.NET navigation system. In part one, web pages are added to a web site and then referenced in a ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMap file. In part two an ASP.NET 2.0 Menu control will be tied to the SiteMap file created in part one. In part three an ASP.NET SiteMapPath (bread crumbs menu) will be tied to the SiteMap created in part one and the Menu added in part two.

Getting Started

Create a new web site solution with Visual Studio 2005.

Add a folder named 'SitePages' to the solution.

Add an ASP.NET 2.0 master page to the SitePages folder. Add an HTML table to the master page which includes at a minimum, a column for a left side menu and a row at the top for a 'bread crumbs menu. See the SiteMaster.master page in the source code for an example.

Add folders to the SitePages folder and within the folders add web pages so you have some web pages to reference in the site map file you will later create and edit. See the folders in the example web site's SitePages folder in the source code for ideas. You can keep your Web site's files in any folder structure that is convenient for your application. In the example web site, folders are used to create a hierarchal structure which holds pages that can be used for presenting .NET topics.

Add an ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMap

Right-click the name of the web site in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer and select 'Add New Item...'.

The 'Add New Item' window will open. Select the 'Site Map' template and then click the 'Add' button.

A new site map file named 'Web.sitemap' is added to your web site solution.

Add an ASP.NET 2.0 SiteMapDataProvider control to your master page. View the master page in design mode. Drag a SiteMapDataProvider from the Data tab of the Visual Studio Toolbox and place it just under the HTML table on the master page.

Add References to Site Web Pages to the Web.sitemap File

You must modify the XML in the Web.sitemap file to create a site map for your web site. There is no wizard in Visual Studio for editing the site map XML.

Double-click the Web.sitemap file in your Visual Studio solution. The file will open in an XML code editor within the Visual Studio solution:

 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<siteMap xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/AspNet/SiteMap-File-1.0" >
    <siteMapNode url="" title=""  description="">
        <siteMapNode url="" title=""  description="" />
        <siteMapNode url="" title=""  description="" />
    </siteMapNode>
</siteMap>

The default XML you see is an example of the format you must follow to create your site map.

A siteMapNode can be nested within another site map node.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

</siteMapNode>

<siteMapNode url="" title="" description="">

<siteMapNode url="" title="" description="" />

</siteMapNode>

</siteMapNode>

</siteMap>

Open and study the Web.sitemap in the article's source code. It demonstrates how to use and nest nodes to build a site map.

Source Code Extract

 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<siteMap>
    <siteMapNode url="Home.aspx" title="Home" description="Home" roles="">
        <siteMapNode url="SitePages/VisualBasic/VisualBasic.aspx" title="Visual Basic" description="Visual Basic" roles="">
            <siteMapNode url="SitePages/VisualBasic/Syntax/Syntax.aspx" title="Syntax" description="Syntax" roles="">
                <siteMapNode url="SitePages/VisualBasic/Syntax/ClassStatement.aspx" title="Class Statement" description="Class Statement" roles="" />
                <siteMapNode url="SitePages/VisualBasic/Syntax/ForEach.aspx" title="For..Each" description="For..Each Statement" roles="" />
            </siteMapNode>
        </siteMapNode>
        <siteMapNode url="SitePages/CSharp/CSharp.aspx" title="CSharp" description="CSharp" roles="">
            <siteMapNode url="SitePages/CSharp/Syntax/Syntax.aspx" title="Syntax" description="Syntax" roles="">
                <siteMapNode url="SitePages/CSharp/Syntax/ClassStatement.aspx" title="Class Statement" description="Class Statement" roles="" />
            </siteMapNode>
        </siteMapNode>
        <siteMapNode url="SitePages/WindowsForms/Forms.aspx" title="Win Forms" description="Win Forms" roles="">
            <siteMapNode url="SitePages/WindowsForms/TabStripMenu.aspx" title="TabStripMenu" description="TabStripMenu" roles="" />
        </siteMapNode>
        <siteMapNode url="SitePages/WebForms/Forms.aspx" title="Web Forms" description="Web Forms" roles="">
            <siteMapNode url="SitePages/WebForms/Menu.aspx" title="Menu Control" description="Menu Control" roles="" />
        </siteMapNode>
        <siteMapNode url="" title="Search Engines" description="Search Engines" roles="">
            <siteMapNode url="http://www.google.com/" title="Google" description="Google" roles="" />
            <siteMapNode url="http://www.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo" description="Yahoo" roles="" />
            <siteMapNode url="http://search.msn.com/" title="MSN Search" description="MSN Search" roles="" />
        </siteMapNode>
    </siteMapNode>
</siteMap>

Modify your site map file, using the article source code as an example of how to edit your site map file. Add a referent to all the web pages in your SitePages folder and its sub folders to your site map file.

About the SiteMap Class

A SiteMap object provides access to read-only site map information via the SiteMapDataSource control. SiteMap objects are used in conjunction with SiteMapDataSource, Menu, and SiteMapPath objects to render a navigation interface for users to navigate a Web site.

The XmlSiteMapProvider class is the default provider for the SiteMap class, which works with an XML configuration file, Web.sitemap. At runtime, an XmlSiteMapProvider object reads the Web.sitemap into a SiteMap object.

Next time:

In part two of this article, an ASP.NET menu will be tied to the Web.sitemap.

For more information:

SiteMap Class

Menu Class

SiteMapPath Class

mike mcintyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com