Hi Mahmoud,

The SampleExternalWebPart is a server control implemented by inheriting from WebPart so it cannot contain user controls, it can only contain other server controls.

However, any user control (.ascx) can be made into a WebPart by implementing IWebPart as we have done in SiteModuleControl which is the base class for mojoPortal modules. User controls that implement IWebPart can contain other user controls.

All the mojoPortal built in Modules can be used as WebParts and made available on the MyPage feature.

Hope it helps,

Joe

You did not understand, you are still inheriting from WebPart. IWebPart is an interface already implemented in WebPart so it makes no sense to specify IWebPart in your example.

Don't start with SampleWebPart as it is a server control not a user control.

Just add a UserControl (.ascx) to your web project the usual way. So you will have SomeControl.ascx and SomeControl.ascx.cs. Look in the SomeControl.ascx.cs file and you will see

public class SomeControl : UserControl

change that to

public class SomeControl :UserControl, IWebPart

then implement the requirements for IWebPart

#region IWebPart Members

         private string m_title = String.Empty;
         private string m_subTitle = String.Empty;
         private string m_description = String.Empty;
         private string m_titleUrl = String.Empty;
         private string m_titleIconImageUrl = String.Empty;
         private string m_catalogIconImageUrl = String.Empty;


         // Title
         public string Title
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_title;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_title = value;
             }
         }
         //  Subtitle
         public string Subtitle
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_subTitle;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_subTitle = value;
             }
         }
         //  Description
         public string Description
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_description;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_description = value;
             }
         }
         //  TitleUrl
         public string TitleUrl
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_titleUrl;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_titleUrl = value;
             }
         }
         //  TitleIconImageUrl
         public string TitleIconImageUrl
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_titleIconImageUrl;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_titleIconImageUrl = value;
             }
         }
         //  CatalogIconImageUrl
         public string CatalogIconImageUrl
         {
             get
             {
                 return m_catalogIconImageUrl;
             }
             set
             {
                 m_catalogIconImageUrl = value;
             }
         }


         #endregion

Now you will have a UserControl which implements IWebPart and can be used as a WebPart and contain other UserControls

Hope it helps,

Joe

ps, a good place to get help with WebParts is the WebParts forum on asp.net

Hi Mahmoud,

The problem is its not a good idea to load a UserControl inside a Server Control

UserControls inherit from UserControl and have an associated .ascx file
Server Controls have no associated .ascx files and can be compiled into a dll

I meant for you to use the SomeUserControl.ascx as the WebPart instead of SampleExternalWebPart
I did not mean for you to try to use SomeUserControl.ascx inside SampleExternalWebPart because SampleExternalWebPart is a Server Control and you should not use User Controls inside Server Controls

I don't mean it is not possible to use a UserControl inside a WebPart Server control, its just a bad idea and I don't recommend it.

However if you really want to know how to do it, you must load User Controls by loading the .ascx file like this:

namespace SampleExternalWebPart
{

    public class SimpleWebPart : WebPart
    {      

        public SimpleWebPart()
        {          
            this.Title = "Simple Web Part";
            this.Description = "Simple WebPart Description";
            MyUserControl my = (MyUserControl)Page.LoadControl("~/PathTo/SomeControl.ascx");
            this.Controls.Add(my);
 }
    }
}

I do not recommend this but it should work.

It is ok to use Server Controls inside UserControls but in my opinon it is not a good idea to use User Controls inside Server Controls

Hope it helps,

Joe