Is it feasible to dynamically assign a VisualWebPart instance to a WebPart? - sharepoint-2010

I am working on a WebPart that needs to morph based on the current user; if one person, they will see a certain collection of controls, another person will see something else (based on their role/the situation).
Is a sensible way of accomplishing this to create N VisualWebParts, and then swap out the specific VWP hosted by the WebPart based on the current user? Or is there a standard way of doing this that is better/easier (I am new to Sharepoint, hence I don't know what's "normal").

I think there are many ways to dynamically change a webpart's contents. One way to accomplish this in a single VisualWebPart is to have multiple sections of controls each encapsulated by a panel control. Control the visibility of the panels using code to create your dynamic rendering.
<asp:Panel id="DefaultPanel" runat="server" Visible="True">
<h3>Default Text or controls here</h3></asp:Panel>
<asp:Panel id="SpecialPanel" runat="server" Visible="false">
<h3>Special Text or controls</h3></asp:Panel>
Then in code
bool showSpecialTextOnly = (someBooleanTestCondition);
if (showSpecialTextOnly )
{
DefaultPanel.Visible=false;
SpecialPanel.Visible=true;
}

Related

How can I change the styleClass of a control while also doing a partial refresh on another component?

I have a straightforward XPage that lets a user answer a question with a simple Yes/No/NA response using radio buttons. I have restyled the radio buttons to look like a bootstrap button group to make it visually more interesting for the user. If the user chooses "Fail" then they are informed that they need to do something else - easily done with a simple partial refresh to a div further down the page.
This all works fine.
The problem I'm having is that I'd like it so that when the user selects an option, I would like to add a new class of "active" to the selected option so that it highlights in a pretty colour. But for the life of me I can't get this to work and though I'm sure it's a straight forward problem, I can no longer see the wood for the trees.
My current (abridged) iteration of the radio button code is this:
<xp:div styleClass="btn-group item-result" id="edit-result" loaded="${Question.open}">
<xp:radio text="${lbl.kwPass1}" id="itemPass"
styleClass="btn btn-pass #{(item.itemResult eq '0')?'active':''}" groupName="itemResult"
selectedValue="1">
<xp:eventHandler event="onchange" submit="true"
refreshMode="partial" refreshId="actionAlert">
<xp:this.script><![CDATA[XSP.partialRefreshPost('#{id:edit-result}');]]></xp:this.script>
</xp:eventHandler>
</xp:radio>
<!-- other radio buttons -->
</xp:div>
<!-- other page compenents -->
<xp:panel id="actionAlert">
<!-- panel content and appropriate rendered value -->
</xp:panel>
This was attempting to do a chained partial refresh on the radio button container so that the EL would evaluate and apply/remove the 'active' style based on the document datasource ('item') value. I have also tried using dojo.addClass, dojo.removeClass, XSP.partialRefreshGet and other options. I don't mind what the solution is as long as it's efficient and works. I'd prefer not to move the actionAlert panel to within the same container as the radio buttons and I can't do a full page refresh because there are other fields which will lose their values.
Some notes:
I'm not using a RadioGroup control because it outputs a table and I haven't got around to writing my own renderer for it yet. Single Radio button controls work fine for what I need them to do.
I originally tried using the full Bootstrap solution of using "data-toggle='buttons'" (source) which sorts out applying the "active" style fine but then, inevitably, prevents the partial refresh from working.
the radio button styles are clearly not Bootstrap standard
Any assistance pointers or, preferably, working solutions would be appreciated.
You need to aim your partial refresh at the div containing all your radio buttons. Give it an id, so you can address it.
Partial refresh, as the name implies, refreshes one element and its content only. So you target the element that covers all of the items you need to recompute.
Stepping away from the problem, a couple of beers and an episode of iZombie later, I realized what I was doing wrong and sorted it out. So, for posterity, here is the simple solution that I swear I tried earlier but clearly works now:
<xp:div styleClass="btn-group item-result" id="edit-result" loaded="${Question.open}">
<xp:radio text="${lbl.kwPass1}" id="itemPass" value="#{item.ItemResult}"
styleClass="btn btn-pass" groupName="itemResult" selectedValue="1">
<xp:eventHandler event="onchange" submit="true" refreshMode="partial" refreshId="actionAlert">
<xp:this.script><![CDATA[dojo.query('.item-result > .btn').removeClass('active');
dojo.query('.btn-pass').addClass('active');]]></xp:this.script>
</xp:eventHandler>
</xp:radio>
<!-- et cetera -->
The many places I was going wrong:
In my code in the question, I was calling XSP.partialRefreshPost in the CSJS script of the radio button when it should have been in the onComplete of the eventHandler. It has to be chained to another partial refresh so that it runs after it, not at the same time. I did end up getting this right - but overlooked something I'll come to in point 3.
In my original attempt to use Dojo, my first mistake was to try and target the ID of the radio button, something like:
dojo.addClass(dojo.byId('#{id:radio2}'),'active');
This actually works as expected, so long as you remember that the ID of the radio button on the XPage refers to the actual radio button control and not the label wrapping; and the label is what I wanted to style. So the class "active" was being actually being added, just not to the element I thought it was. I should have spotted this in my browser code inspector except for the third thing I got wrong:
Ironically, I sorted out the first issue, remembering to put the XSP.partialRefreshPost into the onComplete - and then didn't remove it when trying to run the Dojo.addClass(). So I didn't notice the mistake with the addClass targeting the wrong element because after it ran, the partial refresh updated the container and removed the class I had just added which made me think that nothing was working.
So now I have some neatly styled radio buttons that don't look like radio buttons and it's all managed client side without any unnecessary partial refresh trips to the server barring the one where I actually need to look stuff up from the server. And the vital lesson is - sometimes you just need to step away from a problem and come back to it with fresh eyes later on.

Make button text A/B testable - Sitecore MVC

I have an MVC/angularJS page with a button, the button needs to call code to process the current page and proceed to the next step in the application, but they want the button text to be a/b testable with different variations. I'm new to Sitecore so am struggling to know the best way of doing things.
I thought of having a simple text component/template which just has a single line text property, but if I add that to the page template then it doesn't seem a/b testable because when you click on the test option it asks you to select content. Whereas the content was text they entered as part of the page template.
The only way I know of making a/b testable content so that they can click on the page in page editor and choose to select content / add test variation. I wouldn't add the button to the placeholder as it needs to call specific angular code and always be there, but should I be adding a placeholder where the text is? It seems like overkill to have to define a placeholder there, define a rendering, create a partial view, define placeholder settings to limit it to the simple text component, and then hope they don't try adding multiple items to the placeholder.
I would make a separate template (ie with the text field for your button) to represent your form, then either create the two test variation items as children of your page, or maybe place them in a shared components folder outside of your 'home' node.
EDIT
In order to move your form component into a new A/B testable component you would need to create a new Sublayout in Sitecore, then create a new ascx control for the sublayout. In the Page_Load handler of this control, you would use the following code to retrieve the datasource of the sublayout:
//assume you have a button on your usercontrol called btnSubmit
//assume your template has a single-line text field called 'SubmitButtonText'
Guid dataSourceId;
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item dataSource;
if (Guid.TryParse(sublayout.DataSource, out dataSourceId))
{
dataSource = Sitecore.Context.Database.GetItem(new ID(dataSourceId));
btnSubmit.Text = dataSource["SubmitButtonText"];
}
So I created a new template which just had a single line of text as a field, and added a content item in a shared data node.
In my partial view:
#model Digital.Models.SimpleTextItem
<button ....>
<span class="hidden-xs">#Model.SimpleText_Value<br></span>
</button>
In my main page - I was trying to statically bind it so that they could only change content rather than add new controls to the placeholder, but that only worked if I specified the datasource in this page.
Using a rendering, and in the page layout adding the rendering to the placeholder with a specified data source:
#Html.Sitecore().Placeholder("PremiumQuoteApplyNowPlaceHolder")
Not sure if it was the best approach but it achieves what I need it to.
A/B testing could be applied only to controls(XSLT renderings, sublayouts, action controller renderings, view renderings). If you want to make A/B testing only for button then you should create additional control for it as you did.
Technical details for MVC: A/B testing is applied on mvc.customizeRendering pipeline where rendering arguments are processed. This pipeline operates on renderings level. It means that you are not able to create A/B testing for particular field(button) without your own customization.

Reconnecting multiple Ajax.BeginForms when dynamically loading the forms

I have a long form made up of multiple sections, each with its own questions. Each section can be saved independently with an <input type="submit" value="Save" /> button.
Each section is loaded dynamically into the page (and there are a variable number of sections).
Each form is authored separately as an Ajax.Begin() ajax form, but with dynamic loading of the forms it appears UnobstrusiveJavaScript will not bind the submit buttons and they perform a standard postback.
What is the simplest way to reconnect the ajax functionality of the submit buttons?
After checking the source of UnobstrusiveJavaScript (which is quite small) it leaves permanent event handlers using .on('submit') so it should just work with dynamically loaded pages.
Turns out the master form was missing the inclusion of UnobstrusiveJavaScript:
#Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jqueryval")
Worth checking fiddler when this sort of thing occurs :)

Force reapply of ItemTemplateSelector in WinRT

I have a GridView as my zoomed out view in a SemanticZoom control. This GridView uses a custom DataTemplateSelector as the ItemTemplateSelector. It shows an item for each content group that my app shows.
The template is different depending on whether the group is empty or not. This works fine on load, but it doesn't update when a group becomes empty or stops being empty.
I've found that the ItemTemplateSelector is only run when the page is first shown. How can I force the DataTemplateSelector get run again.
The WPF questions on this topic all suggest triggers, but these aren't available in WinRT XAML.
I've found an answer to a similar WPF question that answers this in a way that works in WinRT:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/11327087/31569
Basically you set the ItemTemplateSelector to null and then set it again. Like this:
var templateSelector = MyGroupView.ItemTemplateSelector;
MyGroupView.ItemTemplateSelector = null;
MyGroupView.ItemTemplateSelector = templateSelector;
This works, but happy to be told if there is a better way to do this.
I find it easier to just just remove the item in need updating from the collection and adding it back. This forces the GridView or ListView to apply the template. This is easy to do in MVVM world.
var itemToReload; //The object who's template needs updating
var reloadIndex = this.SomeCollection.IndexOf(itemToReload);
this.SomeCollection.Remove(itemToReload);
this.SomeCollection.Insert(reloadIndex, itemToReload);
One thing to note, is that if the item is a "Selected" item, you'll need to reapply that selection.

WP7 dynamic controls

Is it possible to generate dynamic WP7 controls in code behind (.cs) using .xaml template (like inflating in Android) ,
or should I generate it all manually? For example I need dynamic tabs (PivotItems)
Pete Brown recently demonstrated how to dynamically generate xaml here if you'd like to look into that route.
Dynamically Generating Controls in WPF and Silverlight
You can definitely do this:
var newItem = new PivotItem { Header = "Added" };
MyPivot.Items.Add(newItem);
Beware of potential performance implications of having lots of times though.
It is possible to do so - but definitely not recommended.
I am not sure why you would want to have more than three pivot items in any application anyway. Simply have three and reuse them as they wrap around. You only need to change the data in the pivotItems on a page transition, not create more and more of them.