External page in Content Page?

RickSilver · Post by **RickSilver** » Wed May 02, 2012 5:18 pm

I need to display an external page as a Content Page. Can this be done?

Rick

david-ebt · Post by **david-ebt** » Wed May 02, 2012 5:27 pm

We created a little ConLib control to read an external file, chop off the top and bottom, then display.
Here's the LoadAPage.ascx:

Code: Select all

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="LoadAPage.ascx.cs" Inherits="ConLib_LoadAPage" EnableViewState="false" %>
<%--
<conlib>
<summary>Displays the contents of a web page..</summary>
<param name="WebURL" default="http://www.theexternalsite.com">Web page URL.</param>
</conlib>
--%>
<div class="section">
    <div class="pageHeader">
        <h1 class="heading"><asp:Localize ID="Caption" runat="server" Text="My Heading"></asp:Localize></h1>
    </div>
    <div id="hotDeals">
    <asp:PlaceHolder ID="WebPageContents" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>
    </div>
</div>

Here's the LoadAPage.ascx.cs:

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using CommerceBuilder.Common;
using CommerceBuilder.Orders;

public partial class ConLib_LoadAPage : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
	private string _WebURL = "http://www.theexternalsite.com/pagename.html";

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable()]
    public string WebURL
    {
        get { return _WebURL; }
        set { _WebURL = value; }
    }

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        HttpWebRequest myRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(WebURL);
        myRequest.Method = "GET";
        WebResponse myResponse = myRequest.GetResponse();
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(myResponse.GetResponseStream(), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
        string result = sr.ReadToEnd();
        sr.Close();
        myResponse.Close();

        int beginBody = result.IndexOf("<table width=\"834\"");
        int endBody = result.Substring(beginBody).IndexOf("</table>") + "</table>".Length;

        string asBody = result.Substring(beginBody, endBody);

        WebPageContents.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(asBody));

    }
}

You can adjust the beginBody and endBody search text. You might be okay just stripping after the <BODY> and before the </BODY>.

Hope this gets you on the right path.

RickSilver · Post by **RickSilver** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:30 pm

Thanks, however, I'm not sure how to use this with a content page.

david-ebt · Post by **david-ebt** » Thu May 03, 2012 1:06 pm

You'll have to create a new ASPX page. I don't think the webpages can process ConLib controls.

Make a copy of the default.aspx page in the root directory and give it a new name that makes sense based on the content you're going to display. For the sake of discussion, let's say you called it LoadAPage.aspx.

In the admin, go to WEBSITE >> MANAGE SCRIPTLETS and create a new CONTENT type scriptlet. For the Content section, put in the ConLib control:

Code: Select all

[[Conlib:Custom\LoadAPage]]

Login in as an admin, then browse to http://www.yoursite.com/LoadAPage.aspx and update the Content to your new CONTENT scriptlet. Save the page and providing you've updated the LoadAPage.ascx.cs to look for the correct page and filter text, you should see your remote content.

Here's an updated LoadAPage.aspx.cs that will display a subset of data from the AbleCommerce Software Support page:

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using CommerceBuilder.Common;
using CommerceBuilder.Orders;

public partial class ConLib_LoadAPage : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
    private string _WebURL = "http://www.ablecommerce.com/Software-Support-C112.aspx";

    [Personalizable(), WebBrowsable()]
    public string WebURL
    {
        get { return _WebURL; }
        set { _WebURL = value; }
    }

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        HttpWebRequest myRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(WebURL);
        myRequest.Method = "GET";
        WebResponse myResponse = myRequest.GetResponse();
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(myResponse.GetResponseStream(), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
        string result = sr.ReadToEnd();
        sr.Close();
        myResponse.Close();

        int beginBody = result.IndexOf("<div class=\"features\">");
        int endBody = result.Substring(beginBody).IndexOf("</div>") + "</div>".Length;

        string asBody = result.Substring(beginBody, endBody);

        WebPageContents.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(asBody));

    }
}

You could make the LoadAPage ConLib more generic by also passing in the beginBody and endBody text. Then you could use one LoadAPage.aspx page to display content from many other sites.

The tricky part can be pulling the correct content from the remote site, especially if the remote site uses local javascript or local CSS files.

I hope this helps.

RickSilver · Post by **RickSilver** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:45 pm

Thanks Dave. Closer but still having trouble. I've followed your steps to the letter, substituting my information where appropriate. When I go to http:MySite.com/MyNewPage.aspx, I see the site start to show but then the screen is replaced with my external page; it's appearing as the whole page, not as content in the store.

Rick

RickSilver · Post by **RickSilver** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 6:30 pm

I have the content displayed now. However, it's having a problem with its form submission. The external content has its own form but clicking the submit button no longer works An examination of the html source suggests it is trying to submit AC's form. I do not even see the external form's beginning <form>.

Rick

david-ebt · Post by **david-ebt** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:48 am

Can you provide your code for the find begin and end code and the URL with the form?

Code: Select all

int beginBody = result.IndexOf("<div class=\"features\">");
int endBody = result.Substring(beginBody).IndexOf("</div>") + "</div>".Length;

If you don't see the external <form> tag then it could be outside your begin/end code. If the form tag is there, then you'll probably just need to do a search/replace on the ACTION attribute to include the URL of the host site.

RickSilver · Post by **RickSilver** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:11 pm

My begin line is:

int beginBody = result.IndexOf("<table");

The first reference of that is just after the body line and after that is the form line. So I don't think I'm chopping it off.

The url I'm reading is: http://www.promoplace.com/ws/ws.dll?DistID=4637

The end line is:
int endBody = result.Substring(beginBody).IndexOf("<iframe") ;

Rick

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:02 am

You can put a conlib in a web page instead of what Able has where they use nVelocity only for the webpage description. You can enter the [[ConLib:xx]] into the webpage description in the admin.
Is there a reason for using an external page? Is it accessed by itself at any time? If not, you can take the form tag out of the external webpage and try it that way. If that doesn't work, here is a forum post about one way of handling it:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=8322

david-ebt · Post by **david-ebt** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:37 am

Rick,

There are a number of references on the promoplace page that refer back to the promoplace site. This will complicate using the LoadAPage approach.

The good news is, it looks like you don't mind having the powered by sage text on the page. If you are just trying to bring all the functionality and content of the promoplace page into your site, you can use an <iframe>. To do this, instead of calling the LoadAPage ConLib control, put this into the content for your page:

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<iframe src="http://www.promoplace.com/ws/ws.dll?DistID=4637" height="900px" width="750px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

You can adjust the different values so the information fits in your page. Take a look at this page for more info on the iframe parameters:
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_iframe.asp

AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

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