Datasheet

❑ Listing books: One control might provide a single column with limited options for sorting the
list, another control could support complex sorting options, another control might format the
user into a rigid grid format with a single line for each book, and yet another control might
allow the list to “snake” through multiple columns, allowing more books to be listed on a page.
❑ Displaying book information: Different controls might vary in the amount of information
displayed about a book or which information stands out. One control might be formatted so that
information about book size and weight stands out for retail buyers concerned about reducing
shipping costs — information that the typical reader isn’t interested in.
With those controls created, you could add a page to your application that consists of two areas:
❑ One area at the top of the page to place one of the search criteria controls
❑ An area below that to put one of the controls for listing books
Users could draw from your toolkit of Web Parts to build the search page that they want. Users would
be able to put the search criteria Web Part that most meets their needs at the top of the page and put the
listing Web Part they want below that. To work with the listing control, they could add the book infor-
mation Web Part that supports them best. This is a solution aimed purely at giving users the opportunity
to create the application they need.
Providing for Personalization
In order to implement customization, you also need personalization. Your users won’t be happy if they have
to recreate their application each time that they return to your site, or if, when they return, they get some
other user’s customization. Customization is of no use unless the application remembers what changes
a user has made and associates those changes with the user that made them. Fortunately, ASP.NET 2.0
comes with a personalization framework. The ASP.NET 2.0 personalization framework allows you to
implement an application that tracks users and the choices they make so that when the users return to
your application, they find their own customizations waiting for them. Each user is connected to his
customized application after he logs on with little effort on your part.
This description makes personalization sound like a “nice-to-have” feature. In fact, personalization is
really just the extension of identity-based security, which is essential in building an application. When
users access your Web site, they are automatically logged on to your Web site’s server. The logging in
process assigns the user an identity, even if it’s only the default “anonymous user” assigned by IIS. If
you’ve turned off the capability to log on as the anonymous user, then the user may be silently logged
on using whatever credentials are currently available (for instance, the user ID and password that the
user logged on to his workstation with). If no valid credentials are available, the user may be asked to
enter a user ID and password. After the user has logged on to your site’s server, your application may
have an additional level of security that requires the user to enter a user ID and password into your
application’s login page.
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