Third-Party Custom Controls

I l @ ve RuBoard

As this book is going to print, there are already a number of custom controls available separately from the base install of ASP.NET. Microsoft has released a suite of Web controls that includes a TreeView, a ToolBar, and a TabStrip, and in fact once ASP.NET is released these may be integrated into the framework. Other vendors and authors are offering controls as well, most of them for free at this time, though certainly once .NET is released we will start to see some commercially licensed controls available. Here are several controls that are available today, some of which include source code, and so could make good examples for how to build your own custom controls.

Internet Explorer WebControls

The Internet Explorer WebControls collection of four controls is designed to facilitate user interface authoring. Although the name might suggest otherwise , these controls are designed to produce working HTML for all the commonly used browsers. In addition, however, the collection takes advantage of many of the advanced features of Internet Explorer 5.5 and later versions, such as DHTML behaviors. You can download this control suite from:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/WebControls/webcontrols_entry.asp

This package includes the following four controls:

• MultiPage enables the definition of collections of PageView elements, which can then be paged through one at a time.

• TabStrip simplifies the authoring of tabbed menus for site navigation.

• Toolbar acts as a container for other controls which can be used to create a toolbar similar to the toolbars commonly used in Microsoft Windows applications.

• TreeView provides a means of rendering data in a hierarchical fashion, such as a listing of folders, subfolders , and files.

ASPSmith VControls

Although they are still in development, I have written a set of controls called ASPSmith VControls, which encapsulate validation of common form elements, such as e-mail, telephone number, ZIP code, and so on. You can download this suite of controls from

http://aspsmith.com/vcontrols/

Right now, the following VControls are available, although by the time you are reading this more will probably be available: EmailBox, PhoneBox, ZipBox, PostalCodeBox, CreditCardBox, UrlBox, SsnBox.

SoftArtisans TreeView

SoftArtisans, a well-known ASP component vendor, has released a free TreeView control that functions similar to the Internet Explorer WebControl TreeView, but has several different features. You can download this control from

http://www.softartisans.com/softartisans/treeview.html

Other Controls

You will find a large number of controls and components available online. A good place to start your search for the control you need is the 411ASP.NET directory, whose .NET components section is at this URL:

http://www.411asp.net/home/components/

I l @ ve RuBoard