Hi Andi,

A .ascx file is what is known as a UserControl, it can't be laoded directly, it can be used inside a page. Its generally used to encapuslate some functionality that you want to use on more than one page.

If you are trying to add a page you created to the admin menu you can do it by using the file Web/Setup/initialcontent/supplementaladminlinks/00001myadminlinks.config

What you should do is copy this file and use a new name so it doesn't get overwritten if you update mojoportal. Name it whateveryoulikewithnospaces.config

You'll see a commented out example in the file, you just need to uncomment it and edit it:

<!--
<adminMenuLink
resourceFile="MyResource"
resourceKey="test google link"
url="http://www.google.com"

/>

<adminMenuLink
resourceFile="MyResource"
resourceKey="test extra link2"
url="~/Admin/SiteSettings.aspx"

/>
-->

To uncomment it, remove the <!-- and -->

Use ~/ to represent the root of the site.

You can put more links in the file using the same syntax.

Hope it helps,

Joe

To make a UserControl that you can put on a page, you must inherit from SiteModuleControl (which itself inherits from UserControl)

If you have Visual Studio, you should open the mojoportal-complete.sln solution and study the SampleExternalModule project as it is a basic hello world example of creating something that plugs into the content system and can be put on a page. It uses post build events to copy the files under the Web project.

You then have to tell mojoportal about your custom feature. Look in Administration > Feature Modules to see where to enter the information to install your feature, ie the path to your .ascx and a name for your feature.

Then create a page using the icon to create a page then after saving the page, click the edit content link and your feature will show up in the dropdown list.

Hope it helps,

Joe

There are several levels of inheritance going on. The SampleExternalModule.ascx file inherits from SampleExternalModule.SampleModuleControl class which lives in its code behind file SampleExternalModule.ascx.cs. But if you look at the code in this file you see it inherits from SiteModuleControl

public partial class SampleModuleControl : SiteModuleControl

the only difference with a normal User Control created by VS, it would be

public partial class SampleModuleControl : UserControl

SiteModuleControl inherits from UserControl and adds things needed to plug in to mojoportal.

Yes, the post build copies file to the correct location under the web project. The main thing is it copies its compiled dll (and any dlls it depends on) into the bin folder. You can have it put your .ascx file wherever you like. Notice how WebStore has all its files in a WebStore folder (both within its own project and when it copies to Web/WebStore. Thats a good way to keep your custom code organized and separate from the core of mojoportal.

So wherever your post build event puts the .ascx file, you set the correct path when you install it under Administration > Feature Modules

Notice that the Sample External Module is not installed in the site by default but you can install it by going into Administration > Feature Modules - Add New. For the control path enter

Modules/SampleExternalModule.ascx

and name it Sample or whatever you like. Now it will appear in the feature list and you can add instances of it to pages. Of course its not very useful but you can see how it plugs in.

Hope it helps,

Joe