Chapter 2. Web parts: the building blocks of portals

 

This chapter covers:

  • 2.1 Introduction 32
  • 2.2 Exploring web parts 33
  • 2.3 Understanding the WebPart class 38
  • 2.4 Understanding web part internals 45
  • 2.5 Applying themes and styles 54
  • 2.6 Adding web parts to the Adventure Works Solution 59
  • 2.7 Summary 64

2.1. Introduction

You may already be acquainted with web parts and web part controls, and if you’ve worked with products such as SharePoint you have already used them quite extensively. (If these topics are not familiar, please dip into chapter 1 for a quick refresher.) Before you start this chapter, I recommend that you whet your appetite by seeing real examples of how web part controls allow users to customize the look and feel of web applications. To do so, visit http://Start.com. This is a web-based portal created by Microsoft Research. Notice how it provides a variety of methods to customize the page, by adding web parts and configuring them. For example, while at that page you could add a web part to display the current news from one of a dozen news providers, or display the weather for any city in the world. If you’re like me, you could lose many hours configuring that page to exactly suit your fancy. And guess what—once you’ve done it, it’s your page! Every time you visit that page, all the web parts you added, configured, and moved around will be there for you—just the way you left them.

2.2. Exploring web parts

2.3. Understanding the WebPart Class

2.4. Understanding web part internals

2.5. Applying themes and styles

2.6. Adding web parts to the Adventure Works Solution

2.7. Summary