Building portal-style pages that contain multiple items of information and yet are neat, attractive, andmore importantcustomizable has been a complex task in the past. In ASP.NET 2.0, the new portal framework, which integrates Web Parts of different types into a single development model, makes it extremely easy to build these kinds of pages. As we demonstrated in this chapter, by simply declaring a mix of several different types of Zone server controls plus a single WebPartManager instance on the page, you can create complex interactive layouts that require almost no server-side code. This includes enabling features for changing the layout of the page sections using drag and drop; changing the behavior and appearance of individual Web Parts; rolling up, closing, and/or hiding individual controls; and even being able to add new Web Parts to the page. Then, if you want to expand the capabilities of the page, you can write code that reacts to events in the page and interacts with the various controls that implement the zones and Web Parts. While we didn't cover this topic in any detail, you can find lists of properties and methods in the SDK provided with ASP.NET or on-line. Other features that we have not covered here in depth, mainly due to lack of space, include the following:
In the next chapter, we'll move on to look at how ASP.NET has evolved in version 2.0 to allow you to more easily accomplish some of the tasks that users found difficult in version 1.x. This includes things like cross-page posting and group validation. |