Adding Web User Control To A Class Library In VS.NET 2005

Feb 7, 2006 visualstudio suggest edit

If you’ve started on module development with DotNetNuke 4.0 and above in Visual Studio.NET 2005, you might run into a problem with trying to add a Web User Control (*.ascx file) to a class library.

The fix is similar to what you had to do with Visual Studio.NET 2003.

For C#, follow these steps.

Close VS.NET 2005.
Open the directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Web\WebNewFileItems\CSharp (assuming a default installation of VS.NET).
Open the CSharpItems.vsdir file in Notepad. Select the text and copy it to the clipboard.
Now open up the file C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC#\CSharpProjectItems\CSharpItems.vsdir and paste the contents of the clipboard underneath the existing text.
Now copy the contents of C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Web\WebNewFileItems\CSharp (excluding CSharpItems.vsdir) into the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC#\CSharpProjectItems.

Now “Web User Control” should be an option when you select Add | New Item.

Found a typo or mistake in the post? suggest edit

Comments

14 responses

jon • February 8th, 2006
you can also just add the user control to the DNN project (since it is a web project rather than a class) and then drag and drop it to where it's needed. This is taking for granted that you are opening the desktop modules solution when you are developing new modules...

Thanks for the hack though!
Wessam Zeidan • February 13th, 2006
Hello Phil,

I just tried your hack to add web usercontrols to a class library, it works fine, but there are a couple of things that don't work. First, when you add a web usercontrol to the class library, you can't tell it to place the code in a seperate file. So what I did was I created a temp website, created the usercontrol there, and then copied the files to the class library project. This places the ascx and ascx.cs files in the class library project, but they will not be linked, although double clicking on a button control in the ascx file for instance will generate the correct event handler in the ascx.cs file. The other thing is that you can't get a reference to the controls that are defined in the usercontrol from the codebehind file.
Simon • August 21st, 2006
Yes.Same to Wessam Zeidan
Hamed Abdel-Haq • November 20th, 2006
I faced the same proplem that Wessam faced
Daniel Pratte • November 29th, 2006
I had the same problem, but I ended up with a good solution.. you don't wanna add directrly some WebUserControl to the class library, you just create a usual Class File, but you enherit it from System.Web.UI.UserControl.. So it will BE a WebUserControl and you will be able to add whatever you need in it..
ex:
class MyUserWebControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl
Good luck ;)
sarah • March 15th, 2007
nice solution!
Swathi • March 27th, 2007
HI Daniel,
I tried the way you suggested but I could not overcome the problem of accessing the controls in the .cs file.
Actually I have a DotNetNuke website and a class library project in my solution. DotNetNuke accepts only usercontrols to be added in it. But I am unable to access my controls designed in the .ascx file in my .ascx.cs file. Please anyone provide me a better solution
Regards,
Swathi
Doug • January 2nd, 2008
Neat solution, but it does not meet my needs. So others don't waste their time, what Wessam means is the ascx file gets one of these:
<%@ Control Language="C#" ClassName="WebUserControl1" %> <script runat="server"> put c# code here </script>
Where the C# code is embedded in the ascx.
Also, Wessam's solution did not work well for me. The designer adds events to the .cs file, but the associated partial control.ascx.designer.cs does not get managed by VS.
There seems to be some promising information here: http://geekswithblogs.net/d...
Bill Dodd • March 1st, 2008
Thanks for posting this -- I wanted to add what I've found to be a good solution.
As a module developer, I've struggled with this as well. Building your modules as a class library makes it convenient and quick to test your module progress but the class library output type jacks up your ability to add web user control's to the project.
The BEST solution is to open the project file for your module in a text editor-- find this line or add it-->
<ProjectTypeGuids>{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}</ProjectTypeGuids>
Add it below <ProjectGuid>
Good Luck in your Module Development!
Bill Dodd
Gulf Technology Company
http://www.gulf-technology.com
bill.dodd@gulf-technology.com
Cam • April 15th, 2008
Thanks Bill, That worked perfectly! and in VS.NET 2008.
shaun • June 9th, 2008
The project type guids for c# are as below.
<projecttypeguids>{349c5853-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</projecttypeguids>
Daniel • July 5th, 2008
Take a look at this:
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479318.aspx
I've tried this solution and its worked for me.
basically
-create web user control with code embedded in script tag ie. no code behind
-define classname attribute with a namespace prefix ie. <%@ Control Language="C#" ClassName="DKCS.FileUploadManager"%>
-publish your site (with certain settings) this will generate individual dlls for each of your controls
-add reference to dlls in your website
-register with these attributes: <%@ Register TagPrefix="DKCS" Namespace="DKCS" Assembly="App_Web_fileuploadmanager.ascx.cdcab7d2" %>
Corna • March 8th, 2010
How do I do this in VS.NET 2008?
Nikhil P • July 12th, 2010
I know its an Old thread, but its better late than never.
The Simples way
Refer Turning an .ascx User Control into a Redistributable Custom Control from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479318.aspx
My Additions / Tips to it:
* Use Web Site and NOT Web Application
* Add a Web Deployment Project and set properties to it as needed.
* Just Build the Deployment project & its done. Get the DLL form the Built path in reference or copy it anywhere as needed to use.