Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Creating Connectable Web Parts using SharePoint 2010 Visual Web Part.

In SharePoint 2010 we can create two type of web parts.

image

Here we are going to use Visual Web Part template to create Connectable Web parts. In  Asp.NET the Web Parts are communicated via interfaces  this allows Web Parts to exchange information with each other at run time.  This Interfaces will define the message structure which is passed between two connectable Web Parts.

Here are the steps we need to do to create a Connectable web parts .

  1. Define the Interface that will specify the data we wanted pass or exchange from one web part to another web part.
  2. Create Provider Web Part.
  3. Consumer Web Part.

First Fire of VS.NET 2010 and  create Empty SharePoint project.  

image

Now Visual studio  provides you to select Deployment options.  Here we are going with  Farm based solution. because Visual Web part can not be deployed in  Sandboxed solution .

image

If you select Sandboxed solution and deploy to SharePoint you get the following error.

image

Now we need to add the Interface to our project . Here I am calling it  ICommunicationChannel.

public interface ICommunicationChannel
   {
       int GetInvoiceId { get; }
   }

Now we need to Add both Provider & Consumer Visual  Web Parts .

In provider web part UI just add  Dropdown list box.

image

   Now add Consumer web part UI just  add GridView control.

image

    Now open of the Provider Web part and Add our Interface to Implement as shown here.

image

Now  open of the Consumer web part  and add method to receive Provider Web Part message.

image

I am using  LINQ to SQL to connect my Data Source. Invoice and Invoice Line are tables from my Database.


image


Now we need to populate the drop down List box with Invoice ID’s from our Database table called Invoice Line.

image

In consumer web part we need to Query the Invoice Details information for the Invoice ID passed by Provider web part . [which is selected in Provider web part drop down list].

image

Now build the project correct it if any compiler errors and then  deploy to SharePoint. Now go to the SharePoint site where you wanted add this web parts and test.

Click Edit -> Insert and select Web Part button from the Ribbon menu now select Custom from Categories ->select Provider web part->  click add button this will adds provider web part to the Page. follow the same steps to add Consumer Web Part as well .

image

Once Both Provider and Consumer web parts are added to the Page now we need to establish the connection between these two web parts.  To do click Edit Web Part on Provider web Part you will see the connections and select Consumer web Part as shown below.  

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   Here is the result of Connectable Web Parts.

image

Nandri(Thanks)

SreenivasaRagavan.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi
I've read your post but I can't make the connected web part to work
For changing just a simple label text I get the word Label instead of what it shoul be.
Can you help me ?

Sreeni.NET said...

John send me mail to my sragavan@hotmail.com with your questions

Rich said...

It should be "ReceiveProvider", not "RecieveProvider", mispelling.

The article missed positing out both provider and consumer class need to declare "Control control".

Also, the method SetListValue() is missing from the sample.

Rich said...

It's a great article overall. Thanks for sharing!

malli said...

Hi,It is good work for a sharepoint learners...like me.

where do i add interface
either in provider ro customer
In this article 'Connectable webparts using sharepoint 2010 visual webpart' where to

Arley Bequadro said...

Hi.

I would like to know if it works for MOSS as well.

Thanks in advance.

dramirak said...

Hi
I'm trying to add a Button to the consumer webpart. When this button is clicked I want to use data from the provider. But for some reason when I click the button in the myButton_Click method the object DataRow is allways null. It seems to me as if the webpart is loaded again but the provider is not called this time. Do you have an Idea how this can be done?

I Posted my entire Code here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8527002/how-to-use-data-from-a-iwebpartrow-connection-when-button-is-clicked-provider-i

Hi said...

Hi

How can i add connection using Code.
I don't want to insert webpart and the connect webpart tr manual..i want do tr code.

Gino said...

I'v got the error (Object reference not set to an instance of an object.) In this part
public string GetFolderName
{
get
{
return ((TreeDirectoriosUserControl)control).GetFolderName();
}
}

In the TreeDirectoriosUserControl i have this :

public string GetFolderName()
{
return FolderName;
}

And in my Interface

public interface ICommunicationChannel
{
string GetFolderName { get; }
}

Please some help; thanks in advance

jaja said...

Hi i'm Aaron , Thansk you shareing the article , it's very good for me

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