IWebPart Interface

Reference

Definition

Namespace:: System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts

Assembly:: System.Web.dll

Important

Some information relates to prerelease product that may be substantially modified before it’s released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

Defines common user interface (UI) properties used by ASP.NET WebPart controls.

public interface class IWebPart

public interface IWebPart

type IWebPart = interface

Public Interface IWebPart

Derived: System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to implement the IWebPart interface in a user control. This is a simple implementation that shows minimally how to implement the properties.

The first part of the code example shows the user control. The user control implements all the properties of the IWebPart interface, plus two additional public properties tied to controls in the user interface. The two custom properties each use the Personalizable attribute, which enables the values in those properties to be saved across browser sessions. Note that in the base WebPart class implementation, all the properties of the IWebPart interface are implemented as personalizable as well, though they are not in this code example.

<%@ control language="C#" classname="AccountUserControlCS"%>
<%@ implements interface="System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.IWebPart" %>

<script runat="server">

  private string m_Description;
  private string m_Title;
  private string m_TitleIconImageUrl;
  private string m_TitleUrl;
  private string m_CatalogIconImageUrl;
  
  [Personalizable]
  public string UserName
  {
    get
    {
      if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(Textbox1.Text))
        return String.Empty;
      else
        return Textbox1.Text;
    }
    
    set
    {
      Textbox1.Text = value;
    }
  }
    
  [Personalizable]
  public string Phone
  {
    get
    {
      if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(Textbox2.Text))
        return String.Empty;
      else
        return Textbox2.Text;
    }
    
    set
    {
      Textbox2.Text = value;
    }
  }

  // <snippet3>
  public string Description
  {
    get
    {
      object objTitle = ViewState["Description"];
      if (objTitle == null)
        return String.Empty;

      return (string)objTitle;
    }
    set
    {
      ViewState["Description"] = value;
    }
  }
  // </snippet3>

  // <snippet4>
  public string Title
  {
    get
    {
      object objTitle = ViewState["Title"];
      if (objTitle == null)
        return String.Empty;

      return (string)objTitle;
    }
    set
    {
      ViewState["Title"] = value;
    }
  }
  // </snippet4>

  // <snippet5>
  public string Subtitle
  {
    get
    {
      object objSubTitle = ViewState["Subtitle"];
      if (objSubTitle == null)
        return "My Subtitle";

      return (string)objSubTitle;
    }

  }
  // </snippet5>

  // <snippet6>
  public string TitleIconImageUrl
  {
    get
    {
      object objTitle = ViewState["TitleIconImageUrl"];
      if (objTitle == null)
        return String.Empty;

      return (string)objTitle;
    }
    set
    {
      ViewState["TitleIconImageUrl"] = value;
    }
  }
  // </snippet6>

  // <snippet7>
  public string TitleUrl
  {
    get
    {
      object objTitle = ViewState["TitleUrl"];
      if (objTitle == null)
        return String.Empty;

      return (string)objTitle;
    }
    set
    {
      ViewState["TitleUrl"] = value;
    }
  }
  // </snippet7>

  // <snippet8>
  public string CatalogIconImageUrl
  {
    get
    {
      object objTitle = ViewState["CatalogIconImageUrl"];
      if (objTitle == null)
        return String.Empty;

      return (string)objTitle;
    }
    set
    {
      ViewState["CatalogIconImageUrl"] = value;
    }
  }
  // </snippet8>
  
  // <snippet9>
  // Update the selected IWebPart property value.
  void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    String propertyValue = Server.HtmlEncode(TextBox3.Text);
    TextBox3.Text = String.Empty;

    switch (RadioButtonList1.SelectedValue)
    {
      case "title":
        this.Title = propertyValue;
        break;
      case "description":
        this.Description = propertyValue;
        break;
      case "catalogiconimageurl":
        this.CatalogIconImageUrl = propertyValue;
        break;
      case "titleiconimageurl":
        this.TitleIconImageUrl = propertyValue;
        break;
      case "titleurl":
        this.TitleUrl = propertyValue;
        break;
      default:
        break;
    }
  }
  // </snippet9>
  
</script>
<div>
<asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="Textbox1">
  Name</asp:label>
<asp:textbox id="Textbox1" runat="server" />
</div>
<div>
<asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="Textbox2">
  Phone</asp:label>
<asp:textbox id="Textbox2" runat="server"></asp:textbox>
</div>
<div>
<asp:button id="Button2" runat="server" text="Save Form Values" />
</div>
<hr />
<asp:Label ID="Label3" Runat="server" Text="Label" 
  AssociatedControlID="RadioButtonList1">
  <h3>Update selected IWebPart property values.</h3>
</asp:Label>
<asp:RadioButtonList ID="RadioButtonList1" Runat="server">
  <asp:ListItem Value="title">Title</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="description">Description</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="catalogiconimageurl">CatalogIconImageUrl</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="titleiconimageurl">TitleIconImageUrl</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="titleurl">TitleUrl</asp:ListItem>
</asp:RadioButtonList>
<br />
<asp:Label ID="Label4" runat="server" Text="Label"
  AssociatedControlID="TextBox3">
Property Value:  
</asp:Label>
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox3" runat="server">
</asp:TextBox>  
<br />  
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" 
  Text="Update Property" 
  OnClick="Button1_Click">
</asp:Button>

<%@ control language="VB" classname="AccountUserControlVB"%>
<%@ implements interface="System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.IWebPart" %>

<script runat="server">

  Private m_Description As String
  Private m_Title As String
  Private m_TitleIconImageUrl As String
  Private m_TitleUrl As String
  Private m_CatalogIconImageUrl As String


  <Personalizable()> _
  Public Property UserName() As String
    Get
      If String.IsNullOrEmpty(Textbox1.Text) Then
        Return String.Empty
      Else
        Return Textbox1.Text
      End If
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      Textbox1.Text = Value
    End Set
  End Property

  <Personalizable()> _
  Public Property Phone() As String
    Get
      If String.IsNullOrEmpty(Textbox2.Text) Then
        Return String.Empty
      Else
        Return Textbox2.Text
      End If
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      Textbox2.Text = Value
    End Set
  End Property

  ' <snippet3>
  Public Property Description() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.Description
    Get
      Dim objTitle As Object = ViewState("Description")
      If objTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return String.Empty
      End If
      Return CStr(objTitle)
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      ViewState("Description") = value
    End Set
  End Property
  ' </snippet3>
  
  ' <snippet4>
  Public Property Title() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.Title
    Get
      Dim objTitle As Object = ViewState("Title")
      If objTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return String.Empty
      End If
      Return CStr(objTitle)
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      ViewState("Title") = value
    End Set
  End Property
  ' </snippet4>
  
  ' <snippet5>
  ReadOnly Property Subtitle() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.Subtitle
    Get
      Dim objSubTitle As Object = ViewState("Subtitle")
      If objSubTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return "My Subtitle"
      End If
      Return CStr(objSubTitle)
    End Get
  End Property
  ' </snippet5>
  
  ' <snippet6>
  Public Property TitleIconImageUrl() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.TitleIconImageUrl
    Get
      Dim objTitle As Object = ViewState("TitleIconImageUrl")
      If objTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return String.Empty
      End If
      Return CStr(objTitle)
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      ViewState("TitleIconImageUrl") = value
    End Set
  End Property
  ' </snippet6>
  
  ' <snippet7>
  Public Property TitleUrl() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.TitleUrl
    Get
      Dim objTitle As Object = ViewState("TitleUrl")
      If objTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return String.Empty
      End If
      Return CStr(objTitle)
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      ViewState("TitleUrl") = value
    End Set
  End Property
  ' </snippet7>
  
  ' <snippet8>
  Public Property CatalogIconImageUrl() As String _
    Implements IWebPart.CatalogIconImageUrl
    Get
      Dim objTitle As Object = ViewState("CatalogIconImageUrl")
      If objTitle Is Nothing Then
        Return String.Empty
      End If
      Return CStr(objTitle)
    End Get
    Set(ByVal value As String)
      ViewState("CatalogIconImageUrl") = value
    End Set
  End Property
  ' </snippet8>
  
  ' <snippet9>
  ' Update the selected IWebPart property value.
  Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Dim propertyValue As String = Server.HtmlEncode(TextBox3.Text)
    TextBox3.Text = String.Empty
      
    Select Case RadioButtonList1.SelectedValue
      Case "title"
        Me.Title = propertyValue
      Case "description"
        Me.Description = propertyValue
      Case "catalogiconimageurl"
        Me.CatalogIconImageUrl = propertyValue
      Case "titleiconimageurl"
        Me.TitleIconImageUrl = propertyValue
      Case "titleurl"
        Me.TitleUrl = propertyValue
      Case Else
    End Select

  End Sub 'Button1_Click
  ' </snippet9>
  
</script>
<div>
<asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="Textbox1">
  Name</asp:label>
<asp:textbox id="Textbox1" runat="server" />
</div>
<div>
<asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="Textbox2">
  Phone</asp:label>
<asp:textbox id="Textbox2" runat="server"></asp:textbox>
</div>
<div>
<asp:button id="Button2" runat="server" text="Save Form Values" />
</div>
<hr />
<asp:Label ID="Label3" Runat="server" AssociatedControlID="RadioButtonList1">
  <h3>Update selected IWebPart property values.</h3>
</asp:Label>
<asp:RadioButtonList ID="RadioButtonList1" Runat="server">
  <asp:ListItem Value="title">Title</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="description">Description</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="catalogiconimageurl">CatalogIconImageUrl</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="titleiconimageurl">TitleIconImageUrl</asp:ListItem>
  <asp:ListItem Value="titleurl">TitleUrl</asp:ListItem>
</asp:RadioButtonList>
<br />
<asp:Label ID="Label4" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="TextBox3">
Property Value:  
</asp:Label>
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox3" runat="server">
</asp:TextBox>  
<br />  
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" 
  Text="Update Property" 
  OnClick="Button1_Click">
</asp:Button>

The second part of the code example shows the Web page that hosts the user control. The page has a WebPartZone control, within which the user control is referenced. Notice that several of the IWebPart interface's property values are set declaratively in the markup for the user control, which enables it to both behave and appear similar to a WebPart control at design time and run time. If you load the page in a browser, you can use the UI on the page to demonstrate the ability to programmatically change the values of the implemented IWebPart properties at run time. When you change some of the property values, the changes are not evident on the page, but are visible in the page source (the TitleIconImageUrl property), or are stored in the application's state data (the CatalogIconImageUrl property).

Important

This example has a text box that accepts user input, which is a potential security threat. By default, ASP.NET Web pages validate that user input does not include script or HTML elements. For more information, see Script Exploits Overview.

<%@ page language="c#" %>
<%@ register tagprefix="uc1" 
    tagname="AccountUserControlCS" 
    src="AccountUserControlcs.ascx"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>
      Personalizable User Control with IWebPart Properties
    </title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <asp:webpartmanager id="WebPartManager1" runat="server" />
      <asp:webpartzone 
        id="zone1" 
        runat="server" 
        headertext="Main" 
        CloseVerb-Enabled="false">
        <zonetemplate>
          <uc1:AccountUserControlCS 
            runat="server" 
            id="accountwebpart" 
            title="Account Form"
            Description="Account Form with default values."
            CatalogIconImageUrl="MyCatalogIcon.gif"
            TitleIconImageUrl="MyTitleIcon.gif"
            TitleUrl="MyUrl.html"/>
        </zonetemplate>
      </asp:webpartzone>    
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

<%@ page language="VB" %>
<%@ register tagprefix="uc1" 
    tagname="AccountUserControlVB" 
    src="AccountUserControlvb.ascx"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
  <head runat="server">
    <title>
      Personalizable User Control with IWebPart Properties
    </title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
      <asp:webpartmanager id="WebPartManager1" runat="server" />
      <asp:webpartzone 
        id="zone1" 
        runat="server" 
        headertext="Main" 
        CloseVerb-Enabled="false">
        <zonetemplate>
          <uc1:AccountUserControlVB 
            runat="server" 
            id="accountwebpart" 
            title="Account Form"
            Description="Account Form with default values."
            CatalogIconImageUrl="MyCatalogIcon.gif"
            TitleIconImageUrl="MyTitleIcon.gif"
            TitleUrl="MyUrl.html"/>
        </zonetemplate>
      </asp:webpartzone>    
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

Remarks

The IWebPart interface provides several UI-oriented properties that enhance the user experience of working with WebPart controls. When you create controls that derive from the base WebPart class, you get an implementation of all the properties in the IWebPart interface, because the WebPart base class implements this interface.

You can use existing user controls, ASP.NET controls, or custom server controls that do not inherit from the WebPart class as part of a Web Parts application, and they can also use these UI-oriented properties declared by the IWebPart interface. If you place existing server controls in a WebPartZoneBase zone, at run time they are wrapped with a GenericWebPart object. Because the GenericWebPart class inherits from the WebPart base class, it enables existing server controls to act as true WebPart controls and it adds to them the properties of the IWebPart interface.

If you place server controls that are not WebPart controls in zones, they can use the IWebPart properties at run time, and you can also declare values for those properties on server controls in the markup of the page (in page persistence format). However, because these properties are only available to the server controls at run time, design-time coding features such as IntelliSense do not recognize IWebPart properties that are declared on server controls. Declared properties on these controls still work when you load the page, but Microsoft Visual Studio does not recognize the properties as valid at design time. If you want to add the IWebPart properties to existing server and user controls to enhance the design-time user experience, you can implement the IWebPart interface in a server control.

Perhaps the main reason to implement the IWebPart interface is for controls that do not support the use of expando (custom) properties. Expando properties are strings that can be added to a class dynamically as a property, by means of the IAttributeAccessor interface. Controls that implement this interface, including the WebControl class and its children, can use expando properties. Therefore, all ASP.NET server controls, custom controls that derive from them, Web user controls, and WebPart controls support the use of expando properties. But custom controls that inherit directly from the base Control class do not support expando properties. Thus, if you declare these controls within a WebPartZone, you will not be able to declare the common IWebPart properties on the controls, properties such as Title and Description. If you want to use these properties with such controls, you must implement the IWebPart interface.

Notes to Implementers

Normally you do not need to implement the IWebPart interface, either on custom WebPart controls or server controls, because the base WebPart class already implements the interface. Custom WebPart controls, and other server controls that are placed in WebPartZoneBase zones, can use all the IWebPart properties.

The main reason to implement the IWebPart interface yourself, whether in a custom WebPart control or another server control, is if you want to change the default implementation. For example, you might want to provide default values for some of the properties. Another reason to implement the interface in a user or server control is so that the design-time experience of working with these properties on the control will be enhanced.

Properties

CatalogIconImageUrl	Gets or sets the URL to an image that represents a WebPart control in a catalog of controls.
Description	Gets or sets a brief phrase that summarizes what a control does, for use in ToolTips and catalogs of WebPart controls.
Subtitle	Gets a string that is concatenated with the Title property value to form a complete title for a WebPart control.
Title	Gets or sets the title of a WebPart control.
TitleIconImageUrl	Gets or sets the URL to an image used to represent a Web Parts control in the control's own title bar.
TitleUrl	Gets or sets a URL to supplemental information about a WebPart control.

Applies to

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