I am looking to create a user/server control that will be created with something like the following:
<my:MyListControl runat="server">
<asp:ListItem Text="Test1" Value="Test1" />
<asp:ListItem Text="Test2" Value="Test2" />
</my:MyListControl>
I am just looking for a start here: Articles or code samples.
What base class should I inherit from? What to override?
Possibly how to customize what sub items my control accepts (my:ListItem instead of asp:ListItem).
What I am looking to do is create a very simple bread crumb control for a small section of my site. I have it all working with stock ASP.NET controls, but the items are added in code, which means fixing a spelling mistake or formatting bug involves a recompile, which is not ideal.
Here's my code with the addition of Josh's suggestion below:
Namespace MySite.Controls Partial Class BreadCrumbs Inherits UserControl
Private m_BreadCrumbs As New List(Of BreadCrumbItem)
<PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)> _
Public Property Items() As List(Of BreadCrumbItem)
Get
Return m_BreadCrumbs
End Get
Set(ByVal value As List(Of BreadCrumbItem))
m_BreadCrumbs = value
End Set
End Property
Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Bind()
End Sub
Private Sub Bind()
lvCrumbs.DataSource = Items
Me.DataBind()
End Sub
End Class
Public Class BreadCrumbItem
Private m_Text As String
Public Property Text() As String
Get
Return m_Text
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
m_Text = value
End Set
End Property
Private m_Url As String
Public Property Url() As String
Get
Return m_Url
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
m_Url = value
End Set
End Property
End Class
End Namespace
Then my page code looks like this:
<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="MySite.MyPage" Title="My Page" Codebehind="MyPage.aspx.vb" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="my" Namespace="MySite.Controls" Assembly="MySite" %>
<my:BreadCrumbs ID="breadcrumbs" runat="server">
<Items>
<my:BreadCrumbItem Text="Another page" Url="AnotherPage.aspx" />
</Items>
</my:BreadCrumbs>
You can add a property on a user control's code behind like:
[PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
public List<ListItem> Items
{
get;
set;
}
Your markup would then be:
<my:MyListControl runat="server">
<Items>
<asp:ListItem/>
</Items>
</my:myListControl>
To make it so ListItem can be your own list item (Which I recommend doing as opposed to using asp.net.) You'll want to create your own class.
Here's an example of a Server Control I use (I removed a lot of the noise as such this is just a skeleton):
[ToolboxData("<{0}:Menubar runat=server></{0}:Menubar>")]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignTimeVisible(false)]
public class Menubar : WebControl, IPostBackEventHandler
{
private List<MenuItem> _menuItems = new List<MenuItem>();
[PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
public List<MenuItem> MenuItems
{
get
{
return _menuItems;
}
}
}
[ToolboxItem(false)]
[ParseChildren(true, "MenuItems")]
public class MenuItem
{
private string _clientClick;
private List<MenuItem> _menuItems = new List<MenuItem>();
[Localizable(true)]
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Href { get; set; }
public string Id { get; set; }
[PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerDefaultProperty)]
public List<MenuItem> MenuItems
{
get { return _menuItems; }
set { _menuItems = value; }
}
}
Now I can use this like:
<my:Menubar runat="server" ID="menuBar">
<MenuItems>
<my:MenuItem Title="Save" Href="javascript:saveItem(this);" />
<my:MenuItem Title="Print" Href="javascript:void(0);">
<MenuItems>
<my:MenuItem Title="Preview" Href=""/>
<my:MenuItem Title="To Pdf" Href="javascript:"/>
</MenuItems>
</my:MenuItem>
</MenuItems>
</my:Menubar>