Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)

[Dales]

I have a custom control that builds what we refer to as "Formlets"
around some content in a page. These are basically content "wrapper"
sections that are tables that have a colored header and provide an
open TD with a DIV in it for the content of this formlet. (The DIV is
for DHTML to hide and show the content)

I've created a web page showing step by step the two problems I'm
encountering. This problem is much easier to see than it is to
explain.

This page is best viewed with at least a 1280x1024 resolution.


http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm


Here's a summary of my two problems:

1) If I change any properties using the Properties window in the
design pane, any child controls that I had nested in my custom web
control are gone once I switch back to HTML view.

2) If I have anything other than simple text nested in my custom web
control, the designer will not render it, but it will render
everything just fine when the page runs.

The html page above will show each of these problems in more detail.
By the way, I'm running Visual Studio 2003 on Windows XP with IE 6.0.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Jacob Yang [MSFT]]

Hi,

I have followed your steps and reproduce the same symptoms. However, as my
opinion, it is not an issue of vs.net, instead, I think it is raised by
misuse of the custom control.

According to the code you provided, you authored a custom control that
exports some properties and methods. From consumer side of the custom
control, instead of putting any string between the open and close tag of
the control, we should access the public properties of the custom control
inside the open tag as follows:

<cc2anelProblem id="PanelProblem1" style="Z-INDEX: 105; LEFT: 216px;
POSITION: absolute; TOP: 168px" runat="server" MyText="this is a formlet">

here, the custom control defined a property called MyText. To access the
property, we should use the syntax shown above.

The symptom we are discussing here occurs is because that IDE detects that
there is a misuse of the custom control and then the IDE removes it out.

If I have misunderstood your concern, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,

Jacob Yang
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Jason Daley]

Jacob,

I guess after all that work I fell short on explaining the main purpose
of this custom control. Here is some pseudo-HTML of what a "production"
implementation of the formlet control would look like:

<formletCtl id="Formlet1" Title="Account Entry">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Account Number</td>
<td><asp:textbox.../></td>
</tr>
<tr>
...etc.
</tr>
</table>
</formletCtl>

- hardly something that could be solved with a "Text" property.

Given that, since you have recreated the problem, what do you think of
the Design view destroying my/our "Contents" when properties are toggled
in the Properties window? And what of problem 2? Any thoughts or
remedies?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Dales]

Jacob,

I guess after all that work I fell short on explaining the main
purpose of this custom control. Here is some pseudo-HTML of what a
"production" implementation of the formlet control would look like:

<formletCtl id="Formlet1" Title="Account Entry">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Account Number</td>
<td><asp:textbox.../></td>
</tr>
<tr>
...etc.
</tr>
</table>
</formletCtl>

- hardly something that could be solved with a "Text" property.

Given that, since you have recreated the problem, what do you think of
the Design view destroying my/our "Contents" when properties are
toggled in the Properties window? And what of problem 2? Any
thoughts or remedies?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Jacob Yang [MSFT]]

Hi Dales,

I am sorry if there is any misunderstanding.

To my knowledge, since the formlet is a custom control, we should place any
output of child controls inside the Render method of the custom control,
rather than inserting any contents between the open and close tags on the
consumer side. That is, we should move the html table above into the custom
control. What do you think about it?

Best regards,

Jacob Yang
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Dales]

To my knowledge, since the formlet is a custom control, we should place any

output of child controls inside the Render method of the custom control,
rather than inserting any contents between the open and close tags on the
consumer side. That is, we should move the html table above into the custom
control. What do you think about it?

Jacob,

With all due respect, I think you're still missing the point. This
formlet control is not a composite control but what I'm referring to
as a "wrapper control".

Please read the following carefully and in it's entirety (I "DO"
appreciate you trying to help, by the way)...

The formlet is basically a fancy table within a table that will "WRAP"
whatever HTML you enclose within it's tags (see screenshots at
http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm).

Our current non-.NET formlet is a VBScript class. In your ASP page,
you instantiate the formlet, set a few properties, call the
..StartFormlet() method, code your complex HTML, call the .EndFormlet()
method, and destroy the object. This is a shared component that is
used all over our intranet for a common look and feel, and the .NET
version should then be a custom web control in the GAC for our
enterprise-wide usage. I'm jumping ahead a little here...

EVERY formlet (and by "every" I mean thousands upon thousands on our
intranet) will have it's own (DIFFERENT) content. It is meant to be a
wrapper table.

In my opinion, we are trying to use our formlet custom control just as
it was intended - it's no different than a "panel" or a "label" or any
other "wrapper controls" but it renders some additional HTML for it's
opening and closing tags.

What the programmer "encloses" in their formlet is insignificant. It
should be able to simply handle this with RenderContent().

In a perfect world, this should allow the developer to drag and drop a
number of formlet controls onto the page in Design view, go to HTML
view and populate the contents, switch back to design view, see how it
will look, toggle some properties, etc. and NEVER lose the HTML they
just spent time coding.

Even with an arguably immature IDE such as VS .NET 2003, they should
still never lose the HTML they just spent time coding.

In my opinion, this is a serious bug in VS .NET, and a big hinderance
to our development of reusable components in an enterprise
environment, unless someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong in my use
of RenderContent(). For others viewing this thread, please see:

http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm

Another way to look at this is as such...

I'm basically trying to create a custom control that will be a fancy
panel. A panel control will allow you nest as much HTML within it's
tags as your heart desires. If you start changing the properties of
the Panel control, you don't lose the "innerHTML" (forgive the client
side references) you just coded.

At some point in time, a Microsoft developer wrote the "panel" control
by inheriting "System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl" and coded the
following PSEUDOCODE in the Render subroutine:

output.write("<DIV>") 'or output.WriteBeginTag("DIV")
RenderContents() 'or is it MyBase.RenderContents()?
output.write("</DIV>") 'or output.WriteEndTag("DIV")

Here's my pseudocode formlet version:

output.write("<table class='...' cellpadding=...><tr><td><table
class='...'><tr><td>")
RenderContents()
output.write("</td></tr></table></td></tr></table>")

This is not at all the code for the formlet, but it may as well be.
There is of course some branching that determines how the formlet will
appear based on the properties set.

Again, I don't see how this is any different than the way the
Microsoft team coded their panel control or any other control that
needed to implement the RenderContent() or RenderChildren() methods to
allow these controls to be "wrapper" controls.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Jason Daley]

Jacob,

With all due respect, I think you're still missing the point. This
formlet control is not a composite control but what I'm referring to as
a "wrapper control".

Please read the following carefully and in it's entirety (I "DO"
appreciate you trying to help, by the way)...

The formlet is basically a fancy table within a table that will "WRAP"
whatever HTML you enclose within it's tags (see screenshots at
http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm).

Our current non-.NET formlet is a VBScript class. In your ASP page, you
instantiate the formlet, set a few properties, call the .StartFormlet()
method, code your complex HTML, call the .EndFormlet() method, and
destroy the object. This is a shared component that is used all over
our intranet for a common look and feel, and the .NET version should
then be a custom web control in the GAC for our enterprise-wide usage.
I'm jumping ahead a little here...

EVERY formlet (and by "every" I mean thousands upon thousands on our
intranet) will have it's own (DIFFERENT) content. It is meant to be a
wrapper table.

In my opinion, we are trying to use our formlet custom control just as
it was intended - it's no different than a "panel" or a "label" or any
other "wrapper controls" but it renders some additional HTML for it's
opening and closing tags.

What the programmer "encloses" in their formlet is insignificant. It
should be able to simply handle this with RenderContent().

In a perfect world, this should allow the developer to drag and drop a
number of formlet controls onto the page in Design view, go to HTML view
and populate the contents, switch back to design view, see how it will
look, toggle some properties, etc. and NEVER lose the HTML they just
spent time coding.

Even with an arguably immature IDE such as VS .NET 2003, they should
still never lose the HTML they just spent time coding.

In my opinion, this is a serious bug in VS .NET, and a big hinderance to
our development of reusable components in an enterprise environment,
unless someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong in my use of
RenderContent(). For others viewing this thread, please see:

http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm

Another way to look at this is as such...

I'm basically trying to create a custom control that will be a fancy
panel. A panel control will allow you nest as much HTML within it's
tags as your heart desires. If you start changing the properties of the
Panel control, you don't lose the "innerHTML" (forgive the client side
references) you just coded.

At some point in time, a Microsoft developer wrote the "panel" control
by inheriting "System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl" and coded the
following PSEUDOCODE in the Render subroutine:

output.write("<DIV>") 'or output.WriteBeginTag("DIV")
RenderContents() 'or is it MyBase.RenderContents()?
output.write("</DIV>") 'or output.WriteEndTag("DIV")

Here's my pseudocode formlet version:

output.write("<table class='...' cellpadding=...><tr><td><table
class='...'><tr><td>")
RenderContents()
output.write("</td></tr></table></td></tr></table>")

This is not at all the code for the formlet, but it may as well be.
There is of course some branching that determines how the formlet will
appear based on the properties set.

Again, I don't see how this is any different than the way the Microsoft
team coded their panel control or any other control that needed to
implement the RenderContent() or RenderChildren() methods to allow these
controls to be "wrapper" controls.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Dales]

Here's the latest update...

I'm able to not "lose" my content by implementing an empty designer
class that inherits from ReadWriteControlDesigner rather than
inheriting from the generic ControlDesigner. However, I lose all
Design markup and my rich control appears as a Panel (DIV) in the
Design window. In my opinion, this is a temporary solution in that
you don't lose code, but not a good one for how I envisioned our
programmer/analysts creating and consuming reusable web components for
our intranet's common look and feel. I would love to see the
following:

1) the rendered HTML of the custom control in the Design pane
2) have the ability to drag and drop additional controls within the
formlet custom control (similar to panels)
3) not lose any content of the control when properties are toggled in
Design mode using the Properties pane
4) see the rendered HTML change when those properties change

Surely, this is possible.

When using the ReadWriteControlDesigner, I have achieved #2 and #3.
Without it, that is, my original code that I posted and that this web
page has documented (http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm),
I'm achieving #1 and #4.

If there's a way to achieve 1,2,3 AND 4 - I need to know.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Greg Bybee [MS]]

This is not currently a known issue with the designer so I am doing
research and escalating to our development team.

Thank you,
Greg Bybee, MCSD
Microsoft ASP.NET Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.

 

[Greg Bybee [MS]]

Development gave some feedback based on your description at:
http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm
===========
From what I understand and can guess about this control without the full
code, it seems to be a bug in the control. There are two types of controls
- panel-like controls where the page developer adds child controls, and
composite controls where the page developer only sets properties, and the
control creates child controls dynamically. A control can't do both and get
a reasonable design-time experience.

Controls marked with ParseChildren(false), PersistChildren(true) should
also be associated with a ReadWriteControlDesigner for their designer (code
snippet indicates this isn't happening), and should not be creating child
controls programmatically (code snippet indicates the control does so).

If a control wants to create child controls programmatically, it shouldn't
have ParseChildren(false) and PersistChildren(true). In fact, the control
shouldn't need those attributes since it can inherit them from its
WebControl base class. Furthermore, from guessing a bit about the intent of
this control, it seems like the control should be implemented as a
templated control.
===========


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.

 

[Dales]

Development gave some feedback based on your description at:

http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm

I didn't realize how outdated that page was. I've updated it, and the
existing Design View problems/dilemmas are listed at the bottom of
this page:

http://www.cox-internet.com/wizndaly/gg/designer.htm

===========
From what I understand and can guess about this control without the full
code, it seems to be a bug in the control. There are two types of controls
- panel-like controls where the page developer adds child controls, and

This is definitely a panel-like control

composite controls where the page developer only sets properties, and the
control creates child controls dynamically. A control can't do both and get
a reasonable design-time experience.

Ok, no problem. My outdated page had code left in it where I was
trying to mix the two, but that's been corrected now...

Controls marked with ParseChildren(false), PersistChildren(true) should
also be associated with a ReadWriteControlDesigner for their designer (code
snippet indicates this isn't happening), and should not be creating child

It is now...

controls programmatically (code snippet indicates the control does so).

If a control wants to create child controls programmatically, it shouldn't
have ParseChildren(false) and PersistChildren(true). In fact, the control
shouldn't need those attributes since it can inherit them from its
WebControl base class. Furthermore, from guessing a bit about the intent of
this control, it seems like the control should be implemented as a
templated control.
===========

Perhaps a templated control is exactly what I need. Unfortunately, I
haven't found a resource that can effectively explain how to create
them.

Thanks for looking into this. I sent you a zip file of the solution
as you requested in your email to me. I hope to hear back from you
soon.

Thanks again,

Jason

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Hi Jason,

It's been many days and I haven't received your code or any word from you.
I am going to go ahead and close this issue, but if you need assistance,
please post back to this thread.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 314184656
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:38:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
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NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

NNTP-Posting-Host: 159.204.59.25
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[Jason Daley]

Jim,

My company's mailsweeper software had quarantined my
outgoing mail (due to the script in an zip file) and I
didn't pay attention to the quarantine email notification
I received since I get them every few minutes due to
incoming spam. Sorry, that was my oversight.

I sent you the zip file again and I got your email that
you received it.

Thanks for opening this back up, and if you need anything
else from me, please let me know.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

It's been many days and I haven't received your code or any word from you.
I am going to go ahead and close this issue, but if you need assistance,
please post back to this thread.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 314184656
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:38:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the

designer pane (simple
examples)

X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
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Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:191832
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the

designer pane (simple
examples)

Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID:

References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

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(19 Nov 2003
16:00:45 GMT)

X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
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Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl!cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!

TK2MSFTNGXA05.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP0

8

news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews1
.

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Jason,

Got it. I will look into this ASAP.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:45:26 -0800
Lines: 113
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
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X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet

Jim,

My company's mailsweeper software had quarantined my
outgoing mail (due to the script in an zip file) and I
didn't pay attention to the quarantine email notification
I received since I get them every few minutes due to
incoming spam. Sorry, that was my oversight.

I sent you the zip file again and I got your email that
you received it.

Thanks for opening this back up, and if you need anything
else from me, please let me know.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

It's been many days and I haven't received your code or any word from you.
I am going to go ahead and close this issue, but if you need assistance,
please post back to this thread.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 314184656
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:38:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the

designer pane (simple
examples)

X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 93
Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:191832
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple
examples)
Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID:

References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 159.204.59.25
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1069257645 4415 127.0.0.1 (19 Nov 2003
16:00:45 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:00:45 +0000 (UTC)
Path:
cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl!cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!

TK2MSFTNGXA05.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP0

8

news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews1
.

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Hi Jason,

Sorry it has taken so long on this. We've been incredibly busy the last
few weeks.

First of all, you should be overriding RenderContents and not Render. When
you are inheriting from WebControl (which you definitely want to do because
you are rendering HTML to the page), you must override one or more of the
methods below:

AddAttribute
RenderBeginTag
RenderContents
RenderEndTag

You should not override Render because if you do, you will lose the
capabilities of the WebControl class to render HTML tags. That capability
is retained when you override RenderContents.

Secondly, your control does not appear as intended (with the styles intact)
because you are linking to a style sheet in your PreRender. The designer
doesn't know about that style sheet link, so it doesn't apply the styles.
I am looking into whether we can apply those styles somehow, but I haven't
found a way yet without explicitly linking to the style sheet in the
designer.

Third, you are specifying a DesignerAttribute in your meta data, but you
should not be doing so. You don't need a DesignerAttribute because you are
not implementing a custom designer. The build-in designer for server
controls provides you with all of the functionality that you need.

I will follow-up with information on the styles as soon as I have it worked
out.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 737891285
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 23:37:26 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 127
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:193618
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Jason,

Got it. I will look into this ASAP.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:45:26 -0800
Lines: 113
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300
Thread-Index: AcOznW+1G/TtwxIMRb6FXzIvxCBvKQ==
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:192743
NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftngxa05.phx.gbl 10.40.1.49
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet

Jim,

My company's mailsweeper software had quarantined my
outgoing mail (due to the script in an zip file) and I
didn't pay attention to the quarantine email notification
I received since I get them every few minutes due to
incoming spam. Sorry, that was my oversight.

I sent you the zip file again and I got your email that
you received it.

Thanks for opening this back up, and if you need anything
else from me, please let me know.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

It's been many days and I haven't received your code or any word from you.
I am going to go ahead and close this issue, but if you need assistance,
please post back to this thread.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------
X-Tomcat-ID: 314184656
References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:38:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple
examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 93
Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:191832
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.


--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple
examples)
Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID:

References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 159.204.59.25
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1069257645 4415 127.0.0.1 (19 Nov 2003
16:00:45 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:00:45 +0000 (UTC)
TK2MSFTNGXA05.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP0
news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews1
.

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Hi Jason,

In addition to the changes in the message below, you can implement the
following code to make your styles appear. At the end of the RenderContent
method, add the following:

If HttpContext.Current Is Nothing Then
output.Write("<LINK href=""newStyle.css"" type=""text/css""
rel=""stylesheet"">")
output.Write("<LINK href=""DTCIntraStyle.css?v5.1""
type=""text/css"" rel=""STYLESHEET"">")
End If

What this does is explicitly write out the style sheet links when you are
in the designer only. That will cause your formatting applied by your CSS
classes to persist to the page.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 541365211
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:08:34 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 197
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:194527
NNTP-Posting-Host: TOMCATIMPORT1 10.201.218.122

Hi Jason,

Sorry it has taken so long on this. We've been incredibly busy the last
few weeks.

First of all, you should be overriding RenderContents and not Render. When
you are inheriting from WebControl (which you definitely want to do because
you are rendering HTML to the page), you must override one or more of the
methods below:

AddAttribute
RenderBeginTag
RenderContents
RenderEndTag

You should not override Render because if you do, you will lose the
capabilities of the WebControl class to render HTML tags. That capability
is retained when you override RenderContents.

Secondly, your control does not appear as intended (with the styles intact)
because you are linking to a style sheet in your PreRender. The designer
doesn't know about that style sheet link, so it doesn't apply the styles.
I am looking into whether we can apply those styles somehow, but I haven't
found a way yet without explicitly linking to the style sheet in the
designer.

Third, you are specifying a DesignerAttribute in your meta data, but you
should not be doing so. You don't need a DesignerAttribute because you are
not implementing a custom designer. The build-in designer for server
controls provides you with all of the functionality that you need.

I will follow-up with information on the styles as soon as I have it worked
out.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 737891285
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 23:37:26 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 127
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:193618
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Jason,

Got it. I will look into this ASAP.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Jason Daley" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:45:26 -0800
Lines: 113
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300
Thread-Index: AcOznW+1G/TtwxIMRb6FXzIvxCBvKQ==
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:192743
NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftngxa05.phx.gbl 10.40.1.49
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet

Jim,

My company's mailsweeper software had quarantined my
outgoing mail (due to the script in an zip file) and I
didn't pay attention to the quarantine email notification
I received since I get them every few minutes due to
incoming spam. Sorry, that was my oversight.

I sent you the zip file again and I got your email that
you received it.

Thanks for opening this back up, and if you need anything
else from me, please let me know.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

It's been many days and I haven't received your code or
any word from you.
I am going to go ahead and close this issue, but if you
need assistance,
please post back to this thread.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and
confers no rights.


--------------------
X-Tomcat-ID: 314184656
References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire
[MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 13:38:30 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the
designer pane (simple
examples)
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 93
Path: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:191832
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182

Hi Jason,

As I explained in my e-mail to you, I am taking over
for Greg on this
issue. Can you please send the code to me? I will
respond in the
newsgroup once I get info for you.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and
confers no rights.


--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (Dales)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the
designer pane (simple
examples)
Date: 19 Nov 2003 08:00:45 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 52
Message-ID:
<[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 159.204.59.25
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1069257645 4415 127.0.0.1
(19 Nov 2003
16:00:45 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: (e-mail address removed)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:00:45 +0000
(UTC)
Path:
cpmsftngxa07.phx.gbl!cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl!
TK2MSFTNGXA05.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP0
8
.phx.gbl!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!
news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews1
.

 

[Jason]

Jim,

I applied all of your suggestions and what I have now is
a control that looks perfect when I drag and drop a new
one onto the page.

However, as soon as I change a property of the control in
the design pane, I lose my contents that the
control "wraps". This problem seemed to have been fixed
by implementing a ReadWriteControlDesigner, but you
suggested I don't need to implement a designer.

When I use a designer, I'm able to add controls and HTML
to my control in the Design Pane, but my control doesn't
render - it looks like a panel. I lose it's rendering.

I need for this control to do the following:

1. Allow html and/or controls to be added either
programatically or via the Design Pane to the "contents"
of the control.

2. Graphically reflect changes when the properties are
toggled in the Design pane (it's now doing this, but
destroying my contents).

Right now it's achieving #2, but not #1, and I need both.

I'm emailing you my current solution again with the
changes you suggested.

Thanks,

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

In addition to the changes in the message below, you can implement the
following code to make your styles appear. At the end of the RenderContent
method, add the following:

If HttpContext.Current Is Nothing Then
output.Write("<LINK href=""newStyle.css"" type=""text/css""
rel=""stylesheet"">")
output.Write("<LINK href=""DTCIntraStyle.css? v5.1""
type=""text/css"" rel=""STYLESHEET"">")
End If

What this does is explicitly write out the style sheet links when you are
in the designer only. That will cause your formatting applied by your CSS
classes to persist to the page.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 541365211
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:08:34 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the

designer pane (simple
examples)

X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 197
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:194527
NNTP-Posting-Host: TOMCATIMPORT1 10.201.218.122

Hi Jason,

Sorry it has taken so long on this. We've been incredibly busy the last
few weeks.

First of all, you should be overriding RenderContents

and not Render.
When

you are inheriting from WebControl (which you

definitely want to do
because

you are rendering HTML to the page), you must override one or more of the
methods below:

AddAttribute
RenderBeginTag
RenderContents
RenderEndTag

You should not override Render because if you do, you will lose the
capabilities of the WebControl class to render HTML tags. That capability
is retained when you override RenderContents.

Secondly, your control does not appear as intended

(with the styles
intact)

because you are linking to a style sheet in your PreRender. The designer
doesn't know about that style sheet link, so it doesn't apply the styles.
I am looking into whether we can apply those styles somehow, but I haven't
found a way yet without explicitly linking to the style sheet in the
designer.

Third, you are specifying a DesignerAttribute in your meta data, but you
should not be doing so. You don't need a

DesignerAttribute because you
are

not implementing a custom designer. The build-in designer for server
controls provides you with all of the functionality that you need.

I will follow-up with information on the styles as soon

as I have it
worked

out.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Jim Cheshire [MSFT]]

Jason,

In that case, you would be much better off implementing this as a templated
control.

This case has moved outside of what we can deal with in a newsgroup issue
and is not moving into the Advisory realm. If you need additional support
for your control, we can review the options if you'll open a case with us.

Thanks.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Jason" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Jason" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the designer pane (simple examples)
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 14:04:26 -0800
Lines: 162
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
Thread-Index: AcO56WrG2Z8bSfQYSKCvnw+SjWxiBw==
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:194876
NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftngxs01.phx.gbl 10.40.2.125
X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet

Jim,

I applied all of your suggestions and what I have now is
a control that looks perfect when I drag and drop a new
one onto the page.

However, as soon as I change a property of the control in
the design pane, I lose my contents that the
control "wraps". This problem seemed to have been fixed
by implementing a ReadWriteControlDesigner, but you
suggested I don't need to implement a designer.

When I use a designer, I'm able to add controls and HTML
to my control in the Design Pane, but my control doesn't
render - it looks like a panel. I lose it's rendering.

I need for this control to do the following:

1. Allow html and/or controls to be added either
programatically or via the Design Pane to the "contents"
of the control.

2. Graphically reflect changes when the properties are
toggled in the Design pane (it's now doing this, but
destroying my contents).

Right now it's achieving #2, but not #1, and I need both.

I'm emailing you my current solution again with the
changes you suggested.

Thanks,

Jason

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jason,

In addition to the changes in the message below, you can implement the
following code to make your styles appear. At the end of the RenderContent
method, add the following:

If HttpContext.Current Is Nothing Then
output.Write("<LINK href=""newStyle.css"" type=""text/css""
rel=""stylesheet"">")
output.Write("<LINK href=""DTCIntraStyle.css? v5.1""
type=""text/css"" rel=""STYLESHEET"">")
End If

What this does is explicitly write out the style sheet links when you are
in the designer only. That will cause your formatting applied by your CSS
classes to persist to the page.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.

--------------------

X-Tomcat-ID: 541365211
References: <[email protected]>

<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: (e-mail address removed) (Jim Cheshire [MSFT])
Organization: Microsoft
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:08:34 GMT
Subject: Re: Custom web control problems in the

designer pane (simple
examples)

X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
Lines: 197
Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl
Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:194527
NNTP-Posting-Host: TOMCATIMPORT1 10.201.218.122

Hi Jason,

Sorry it has taken so long on this. We've been incredibly busy the last
few weeks.

First of all, you should be overriding RenderContents

and not Render.
When

you are inheriting from WebControl (which you

definitely want to do
because

you are rendering HTML to the page), you must override one or more of the
methods below:

AddAttribute
RenderBeginTag
RenderContents
RenderEndTag

You should not override Render because if you do, you will lose the
capabilities of the WebControl class to render HTML tags. That capability
is retained when you override RenderContents.

Secondly, your control does not appear as intended

(with the styles
intact)

because you are linking to a style sheet in your PreRender. The designer
doesn't know about that style sheet link, so it doesn't apply the styles.
I am looking into whether we can apply those styles somehow, but I haven't
found a way yet without explicitly linking to the style sheet in the
designer.

Third, you are specifying a DesignerAttribute in your meta data, but you
should not be doing so. You don't need a

DesignerAttribute because you
are

not implementing a custom designer. The build-in designer for server
controls provides you with all of the functionality that you need.

I will follow-up with information on the styles as soon

as I have it
worked

out.

Jim Cheshire, MCSE, MCSD [MSFT]
Developer Support
ASP.NET
(e-mail address removed)

This post is provided as-is with no warranties and confers no rights.