Datasheet

By taking advantage of Web Parts, you, as a developer, can empower your users with the ability to

perform the following operations.

❑ Users can personalize page content.

❑ Users can personalize the page layout by allowing the users to drag Web Parts from one zone to

another zone, or change its appearance, look and feel, and so on.

❑ Users can also export and import Web Part controls so the Web Parts can be effectively shared

among other sites.

❑ Users can create connections between two Web Parts by establishing communication between

Web Part controls.

As a developer, you will typically work with Web Parts in one of the three ways: creating pages that use

Web Parts controls, creating individual Web Parts controls, or creating complete personalizable web por-

tals. You can create two kinds of Web Parts in ASP.NET 2.0:

❑ Custom Web Part: Those Web Part controls that derive from the System.Web.UI

.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart

class.

❑ Generic Web Part: A custom control that does not inherit from the WebPart class and is still

used as a Web Part is called

GenericWebPart. For example, if you place a TextBox control

inside a

WebPartZone control (a zone on the page that hosts the Web Parts control), the

TextBox control will be wrapped to a GenericWebPart class.

This section provides you with a simple generic Web Part creation example followed by a code examina-

tion. Listing 1-3 shows the code required to implement the Web Part.

Listing 1-3: Creating a Simple Generic Web Part

<%@ Page Language=”C#” %>

<title>Example of a GenericWebPart</title>

</head>

<body>

<asp:WebPartManager id=”WebPartManager1” runat=”Server”>

</asp:WebPartManager>

<tr>

<asp:WebPartZone id=”MainZone” runat=”server”

headertext=”Main”>

<asp:Label id=”contentPart” runat=”server”

title=”GenericWebPart”>

<h4>GenericWebPart that uses a label control

to generate the contents of the Web Part

</h4>

</asp:Label>

</ZoneTemplate>

</asp:WebPartZone>

</td>

Part I: Introduction

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