Left Sidebar in AC Gold (scriptlet in old version)

[surf]

Can someone please explain how to create a custom left sidebar in AC Gold. In the prevsious version it was easy to create a side bar with the scriptlets. Do you have to hard code custom sidebars in Gold?? In the previous version you could create headers, footers, sidebars, etc.. with scriptlets.

[jmestep]

I haven't tried it yet, but Able has been adding capabilities and it looks like you need to create one implementing ISidebar.
viewtopic.php?f=65&t=16733

Available controls gets populated by examining the controls in the ConLib folder (and it's subdirectories). It looks for controls that implement the CommerceBuilder.UI.ISidebarControl interface. If you create new controls, you can do the same and your control will be included into the list. (In our next update, header and footer controls will additionally be supported in this fashion with IHeaderControl and IFooterControl interfaces.)

[david-ebt]

It's still pretty simple to make customer sidebar controls or headers and footers.

For sidebars, you need to include the ISidebarControl in the code behind like this:

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public partial class SimpleCategoryList : System.Web.UI.UserControl, ISidebarControl

for headers you need to include IHeaderControl:

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public partial class StoreHeader : System.Web.UI.UserControl, IHeaderControl

and for footers you need to include IFooterControl:

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public partial class StoreFooter : System.Web.UI.UserControl, IFooterControl

Adding these to your code behind declarations will let the layout editors understand which controls to include in which lists.

[jasonhendee]

To save someone else frustration here, I wanted to point out an apparent bug (which I have logged using AC's new feedback tool within the admin panel).

I am using Gold R3 B5078, btw.

If you want to place your custom controls within a nested directory for organization (i.e. 'ConLib/Custom/'), the Edit Layout form within the admin panel will not properly mange these nested controls. When adding a given nested control to one of the "Selected Controls" list boxes, and clicking save, the control will be moved back over to the "Available Controls" list box, as if it didn't "take." Note that the control IS actually being added to appropriate Master Page, but the Edit Layout form doesn't see this because of a discrepancy in references to the control's name.

Here is how I fixed it if you're interested: I added a helper method to compare the controls' names properly:

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/// <summary>
/// Looks through a collection of ConLibControl(s) and returns the first instance whose name matches a supplied string
/// </summary>
/// <param name="controlName">The name of the control to look for</param>
/// <param name="controlCollection">The collection to look through</param>
/// <returns>A ConLibControl reference</returns>
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name":
private ConLibControl FindSelectedControls(string controlName, ConLibControlCollection controlCollection)
{
    ConLibControl selectedControl = null;

    foreach (ConLibControl control in controlCollection)
    {
        string name = control.Name;
        if (name.Contains("/")) name = name.Substring(name.LastIndexOf("/") + 1);

        if (controlName == name)
        {
            selectedControl = control;
            break;
        }
    }

    return selectedControl;
}
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name": End

and then called this method for each of the 4 possible control types:

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// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name":
//ConLibControl selectedControl = _HeaderControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(headerControl));
ConLibControl selectedControl = FindSelectedControls(headerControl, _HeaderControls);
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name": End

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// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name":
//ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(leftSidebarControl));
ConLibControl selectedControl = FindSelectedControls(leftSidebarControl, _SidebarControls);
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name": End

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// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name":
//ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(rightSidebarControl));
ConLibControl selectedControl = FindSelectedControls(rightSidebarControl, _SidebarControls);
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name": End

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// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name":
//ConLibControl selectedControl = _FooterControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(footerControl));
ConLibControl selectedControl = FindSelectedControls(footerControl, _FooterControls);
// 2013-02-27:CFL_JPH - Nested controls were not being found because of the extra characters (the nested directory names) in their "name": End

[euroluxantiques]

I've reported the nesting conlib problems several times myself. They totally don't work with the layout editor, so I end up making my layout changes directly in Visual Studio. I just installed R4, and it seems it didn't fix the problem there, either. I can see the custom controls in level ConLib/Custom/NonStandard but not at level ConLib/Custom. I use the NonStandard folder for 3rd party add-ons or things I write and the Custom level is just standard conlibs that I have modified a little. When I loaded R4 just now, None of the layouts that I have specified in the masters via Visual Studio are registering as selected controls. I'm not going to bother with selecting them now because I think it will just hose everything up and I will have to change the layouts manually again. This layout editor is buggy at best, and I've submitted several bugs and suggestions.

[mazhar]

This cab easily fixed by makking few changes to Edit Layout page. Edit your Admin/Website/Layout/EditLayout.aspx.cs file and then do the following updates.

locate

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _HeaderControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(headerControl));

and update it

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _HeaderControls.FirstOrDefault(control => (control.Name.Equals(headerControl) || control.Name.EndsWith("/" + headerControl)));

locate

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(leftSidebarControl));

and updated it

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => (control.Name.Equals(leftSidebarControl) || control.Name.EndsWith("/" + leftSidebarControl)));

locate

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(rightSidebarControl));

and update it

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _SidebarControls.FirstOrDefault(control => (control.Name.Equals(rightSidebarControl) || control.Name.EndsWith("/" + rightSidebarControl)));

locate

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _FooterControls.FirstOrDefault(control => control.Name.Equals(footerControl));

and udpate it

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ConLibControl selectedControl = _FooterControls.FirstOrDefault(control => (control.Name.Equals(footerControl) || control.Name.EndsWith("/" + footerControl)));

[jasonhendee]

Mazhar,

Thank you for the LINQ-based fix; much less modification than mine