Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Technologies

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13

Building and Deploying Web Parts

13.1 Introduction

Throughout this book we have touched on the concept of Web Parts and

Web Part pages; by now you should understand that Web Parts remain a cor-

nerstone of the SharePoint architecture, in that they are responsible for pre-

senting much of the functionality to the user. For example, the

announcements that appear on the home page of a Team site are presented to

the user though a Web Part. This chapter examines the concept of Web Parts

and Web Part pages, and where they fit into the overall SharePoint architec-

ture. SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services come

equipped with a host of Web Parts that you can tailor to suit your business

needs. In this chapter we highlight two such Web Parts, the data view Web

Part and the content query Web Part, and show how they can be leveraged in

your SharePoint deployment. Finally, we show you how to increase the func-

tionality of your site by building your own custom Web Parts.

13.2 What is a Web Part?

The Web Part has come a long way since the Digital Dashboard days. The

Digital Dashboard technology was used by SharePoint Portal Server 2001,

and was superseded by the Web Part page in SharePoint Portal Server 2003

and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. The Web Part page still exists today

and is basically an ASP.NET page that presents the user with information

derived from a variety of sources. The information is served through the use

of Web Parts. A Web Part is basically a Web control that inherits from the

System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts namespace and renders content to

the user. A Web Part can be placed in the desired region of a Web page. Web

Parts became very popular among the developer community because they

were easy to develop and, if coded correctly, provided much in the way of

flexibility and portability. Their successful adoption rate ultimately led to the

inclusion of the Web Part framework architecture in ASP.NET 2.0, which

310 13.2 What is a Web Part?

means that you no longer require SharePoint to leverage Web Parts in your

Web applications. As discussed numerous times throughout this book,

SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 are built upon

ASP.NET 2.0, and consequently inherit and extend many of the ASP.NET

capabilities. The ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part framework architecture is an exam-

ple of one area that SharePoint has inherited and extended by replacing com-

ponents of the Web Part framework with SharePoint-specific components.

Figure 13.1 shows the composition of an ASP.NET 2.0 page that uses Web

Parts and a WSS 3.0 Web Part Page. Any ASP.NET 2.0 page that wants to

leverage the use of Web Parts must contain one, and only one,

WebPartManager control, and one or more WebPartZone controls. The

ASP.NET 2.0

WebPartManager control is responsible for keeping track of

the Web Parts that have been added to the page and the zone in which they

were added, and also manages the customization and personalization data for

the Web Parts. A

WebPartZone control’s sole function is to provide a home

for Web Parts. Pages in SharePoint are referred to as Web Part Pages and

house an

SPWebPartManager control and one or more SharePoint specific

WebPartZone controls. The SPWebPartManager inherits from the ASP.NET

WebPartManager, and the SharePoint specific WebPartZone inherits from

the ASP.NET

WebPartZone. Both controls are used to ensure that the data

associated with each Web Part is managed and maintained in the appropriate

SharePoint content database.

A Web Part page consists of one or more Web Part zones, which in turn

contain one or more Web Parts. Web Parts that live in a zone are referred to as

dynamic Web Parts. Dynamic Web Parts and their associated properties, such

as the title of the Web Part, are stored in the SharePoint database and can be

customized and personalized by users with the appropriate permissions.

Figure 13.1

ASP.NET 2.0

Web parts.