12.4. Personalize with Complex Types

To make a useful commercial site, you often have to store complex user-defined types (classes) or collections.

In the next exercise, you'll edit the Web.config file to add a collection of strings called CHOSENBOOKS. Doing so will allow the user to choose one or more books, and have those choices stored in the user's profile.

Add a line to Web.config for your new property:

     <profile>       <properties>         <add name="lastName" />         <add name="firstName" />         <add name="phoneNumber" />         <add name="birthDate" type="System.DateTime"/>         <add name="CHOSENBOOKS"          type="System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection" />       </properties>     </profile> 

To see this collection at work, edit the page ProfileInfo.aspx, inserting a row with a CheckBoxList just above the row with the Save button, as shown in Figure 12-37.

Figure 12-37. Adding checkboxes to profile

Modify the Save button handler to add the selected books to the profile, as shown in Example 12-14.

Example 12-14. Code to modify Save button Click event handler

 Profile.CHOSENBOOKS = New System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection( ) For Each item As ListItem In Me.cblChosenBooks.Items     If item.Selected Then         Profile.CHOSENBOOKS.Add(item.Value.ToString( ))     End If Next 

Each time you save the books, you create an instance of the String collection, and you then iterate through the checked list boxes, looking for the selected items. Each selected item is added to the string collection within the profile (the CHOSENBOOKS property).

You also need to override Page_Load so that this page will open with the user's profile information updated, as shown in Example 12-15.

Example 12-15. Modified ProfileInfo.aspx.vb

 Partial Class ProfileInfo     Inherits System.Web.UI.Page    Protected Sub save_Click( _    ByVal sender As Object, _    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles save.Click       If Profile.IsAnonymous = False Then          Profile.lastName = Me.lastName.Text          Profile.firstName = Me.firstName.Text          Profile.phoneNumber = Me.phone.Text          Profile.birthDate = CType(Me.birthDate.Text, System.DateTime)          Profile.CHOSENBOOKS =             New System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection( )          For Each item As ListItem In Me.cblChosenBooks.Items             If item.Selected Then                Profile.CHOSENBOOKS.Add(item.Value.ToString( ))             End If          Next       End If       Response.Redirect("Welcome.aspx")    End Sub    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, _      ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load       If Not IsPostBack And Profile.UserName IsNot Nothing Then          If Profile.IsAnonymous = False Then             Me.lastName.Text = Profile.lastName             Me.firstName.Text = Profile.firstName             Me.phone.Text = Profile.phoneNumber             Me.birthDate.Text = Profile.birthDate.ToShortDateString( )          End If          If Profile.CHOSENBOOKS IsNot Nothing Then             For Each theListItem As ListItem In Me.cblChosenBooks.Items                For Each theProfileString As String In Profile.CHOSENBOOKS                   If theListItem.Text = theProfileString Then                      theListItem.Selected = True                   End If                Next             Next          End If       End If    End Sub End Class 

Each time you navigate to the Profile page, the values are updated from the existing profile (if any) in Page_Load and you are free to change them and save the new values, as shown in Figure 12-38.

Figure 12-38. Profile Information page with CheckBoxList

To confirm that this data has been stored, add a ListBox (name it lbBooks) to the pnlInfo panel you added to Welcome.aspx page, as shown in Figure 12-39.

Figure 12-39. ListBox added to panel

Bind the ListBox to the collection in the profile, as shown in Example 12-16.

Example 12-16. Modified Page_Load in Welcome.aspx.vb

 Protected Sub Page_Load( _ ByVal sender As Object, _ ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load    If Not IsPostBack And Profile.UserName IsNot Nothing Then       Me.pnlInfo.Visible = True       If Profile.IsAnonymous = False Then          Me.lblFullName.Text = Profile.firstName & " " & Profile.lastName          Me.lblPhone.Text = Profile.phoneNumber          Me.lblBirthDate.Text = Profile.birthDate.ToShortDateString( )       End If       If Profile.CHOSENBOOKS IsNot Nothing Then          For Each bookName As String In Profile.CHOSENBOOKS             Me.lbBooks.Items.Add(bookName)          Next       End If    Else       Me.pnlInfo.Visible = False    End If End Sub 

When you click Save in the Profile page and return to the Welcome page, your saved profile information is reflected, as shown in Figure 12-40.

Figure 12-40. Welcome page with chosen books