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Visual Web Parts enable developers to build Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Web Parts by using a design surface in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. This functionality enables developers to drag user controls from the Toolbox to build the Visual Web Part's user interface.
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This SharePoint Visual How To walks through the following process of creating and deploying a SharePoint Visual Web Part that uses LINQ to SharePoint. You will do the following:
Generate an entities file in the SPMetal command-line tool. Create a Visual Web Part project in Visual Studio 2010. Add the entities file to the Visual Studio project. Retrieve data and display it in a Treeview control.
You will create a Visual Web Part that queries the contents of two joined SharePoint lists by using LINQ to SharePoint.
Prerequisites
The Visual Web Part requires two SharePoint lists, Candidates and Interviews, which are joined by using a lookup field.
To create the two SharePoint lists
Create a list named Candidates that has the following columns:
Create a list named Interviews that has the following columns:
Title (Default column). Date (Date and Time). Candidate (Lookup to Candidate list by using the Name column). Outcome (Choice; Pending, Rejected, Offered). Interviewer (Person or Group).
To create sample data to use
Create sample candidates that you will assign to interview events. Create sample interviews that include those candidates.
Creating the Visual Web Part
The following steps describe how to create the Visual Web Part.
To create an entities file for LINQ to SharePoint
To create a SharePoint 2010 Visual Web Part by using Visual Studio 2010
Start Visual Studio 2010. On the File menu, click New, and then click Project. In the Installed Templates section, expand either Visual Basic or C#, expand SharePoint, and then click 2010. In the template pane, click Visual Web Part. In the Name text box, type InterviewSummary. Leave other fields with their default values, and then click OK. In the What local site do you want to use for debugging? combo box, select your site.
Note
You can deploy a Visual Web Part only as a Farm Solution.
Click Finish.
To include the LINQ to SharePoint references
In Solution Explorer, right-click InterviewSummary, and then click Add Reference. In the Add Reference dialog box, click the Browse tab, and then browse to the path C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI. In the selection box, click Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.dll, and then click OK.
In Solution Explorer, right-click InterviewSummary, click Add, and then click Existing Item. Browse to the path C:\temp, pick the entities file that you created in the earlier procedure, and then click Add.
To add a Treeview control to the User control
Ensure that the file VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx is open. At the bottom of the main window, click the Design view. In the Toolbox, from the Navigation section, drag a Treeview control to the design surface. Right-click the design surface, and then click View Code. Replace the code with the following.
Imports System
Imports System.Web.UI
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
Imports Microsoft.SharePoint
Imports Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq
Imports System.Linq
Partial Public Class VisualWebPart1UserControl
Inherits UserControl
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
Dim thisWeb As SPWeb = SPContext.Current.Web
Using ctx As EntitiesDataContext = _
New EntitiesDataContext("http://intranet.contos.com")
Try
Dim query = From interviews In ctx.Interviews _
Select interviews.Title, interviews.Candidate.Name,
interviews.Candidate.HomeCity, _
interviews.InterviewerImnName
For Each item In query
Dim interviewTreeNode As TreeNode = _
New TreeNode("Interview Details:" + item.Title, Nothing, Nothing, _
thisWeb.Lists("Interviews").DefaultViewUrl, "_self")
Dim applicantTreeNode As TreeNode = _
New TreeNode("Applicant:" + item.Name, Nothing, Nothing, _
thisWeb.Lists("Candidates").DefaultViewUrl, "_self")
Dim homecityTreeNode As TreeNode = _
New TreeNode("Home City:" + item.HomeCity, Nothing, Nothing, _
thisWeb.Lists("Candidates").DefaultViewUrl, "_self")
Dim interviewerTreeNode As TreeNode = _
New TreeNode("Interviewer:" + item.InterviewerImnName, Nothing, Nothing, _
thisWeb.Lists("Interviews").DefaultViewUrl, "_self")
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(applicantTreeNode)
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(homecityTreeNode)
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(interviewerTreeNode)
TreeView1.Nodes.Add(interviewTreeNode)
Next
Catch ex As Exception
TreeView1.Nodes.Add(New TreeNode("err" + ex.Message))
End Try
End Using
End Sub
End Class
using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
namespace InterviewSummary.VisualWebPart1
{
public partial class VisualWebPart1UserControl : UserControl
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SPWeb thisWeb = SPContext.Current.Web;
using (EntitiesDataContext ctx =
new EntitiesDataContext("http://intranet.contos.com"))
{
try
{
var query = from interviews in ctx.Interviews
select new { interviews.Title, interviews.Candidate.Name,
interviews.Candidate.HomeCity, interviews.InterviewerImnName };
foreach (var item in query)
{
TreeNode interviewTreeNode =
new TreeNode("Interview Details:" + item.Title, null, null,
thisWeb.Lists["Interviews"].DefaultViewUrl, "_self");
TreeNode applicantTreeNode =
new TreeNode("Applicant:" + item.Name, null, null,
thisWeb.Lists["Candidates"].DefaultViewUrl, "_self");
TreeNode homecityTreeNode =
new TreeNode("Home City:" + item.HomeCity, null, null,
thisWeb.Lists["Candidates"].DefaultViewUrl, "_self");
TreeNode interviewerTreeNode =
new TreeNode("SplInterviewer:" + item.InterviewerImnName, null, null,
thisWeb.Lists["Interviews"].DefaultViewUrl, "_self");
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(applicantTreeNode);
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(homecityTreeNode);
interviewTreeNode.ChildNodes.Add(interviewerTreeNode);
TreeView1.Nodes.Add(interviewTreeNode);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
TreeView1.Nodes.Add(new TreeNode("Err" + ex.Message));
}
}
}
}
}
To modify the category for the Visual Web Part
In Solution Explorer, expand VisualWebPart1, and then open Elements.xml. In the Property element, modify the Value attribute from Custom to Recruitment, as shown in the following markup.
<Property Name="Group" Value="Recruitment" />
To deploy the project
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, and then click Deploy. In SharePoint, on a standard Web Parts page, click Edit Page above the Server ribbon. On the ribbon, in the Editing Tools group, click the Insert tab. On the ribbon, click Web Part. In the Categories section, click the Recruitment category. In the Web Parts section, click VisualWebPart1. In the About the web part section, click Add. On the ribbon, click Save.
The Visual Web Part displays the interviews and interview details in a Treeview control by using LINQ to SharePoint to retrieve data from the joined lists.
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This Visual How To shows the following:
The solution uses LINQ to SharePoint to retrieve the contents of two lists, an Interview list and a Candidate list. The lists are linked in SharePoint through a lookup field, with the Interviews list linking back to the Candidates list. This provides the information needed to join the lists in the LINQ query. To use LINQ, the SPMetal command-line tool is used to generate an entity class, which provides an object-oriented interface to the lists and libraries in the SharePoint deployment. The entities file that is generated is added to the Visual Web Part project, and a reference is added to the Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq assembly through the using or imports statements to System.Linq and Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq. The code creates a DataContext, and then uses a LINQ to SharePoint query to retrieve data from the lists. An implicitly typed object is used in the foreach statement to build the Treeview control. |
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About the Author
.gif "Community Contributor") Ben Hedges is Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Point8020. Ben is particularly interested in modeling Talent Management, Compliance, and Learning and Development solutions on SharePoint. Ben has a wealth of experience fulfilling customer requirements by using Microsoft technologies.
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