Thread: Using Skin Tokens in User Controls

I've set up a template and specified a different hometemplate. Because the menus and footers should be the same for both templates, I'm using two user controls: GlobalHeader.ascx and GlobalFooter.ascx. Everything has worked great for the past couple years.

Enter new requirements. I've created a custom XmlPackage called part.categorymenus.xml.config. I want to include it using the skin token syntax within the GlobalHeader file, like so:

Code:

(!XmlPackage name="part.categorymenus"!)

But I get the following output to my page:

Code:

  Home |  Products  (!XmlPackage name="part.categorymenus"!)  |  Services  |  Contact Us

Rather than rendering the contents of the XmlPackage, the skin token is treated merely as regular text within the user control.

Now, I think I have a clue as to why this happens. But I don't know how to solve it. User controls inherit from System.Web.UI.UserControl. In order for tokens to resolve, or interpret correctly by the aspdnsf parser, they must be part of a control or page that inherits AspDotNetStorefront.TemplateBase. But as far as I know, I cannot inherit from both...

How can I use Skin Tokens within a User Control?

This is going to depend on when/how you load the control. For example, if you load the control directly in the template

Code:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="Custom" TagName="Control" Src="~/controls/CustomControl.ascx" %>
...
...
...
<Custom:Control ID="cControl" runat="server" />

and then in your control have something like this:

.ascx

Code:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="CustomControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="AspDotNetStorefront.Controls.CustomControl" %>
(!XmlPackage Name="news.xml.config"!)

.ascx.cs

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace AspDotNetStorefront.Controls
{
    public partial class CustomControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl 
    {

    }
}

the Parser will pick up on the token and render it appropriately. Now if you are loading it somewhere programmatically (eg. LoadControl("~/controls/CustomControl.ascx"); or by adding it to an .aspx webpage), then the Parser will have already fired and the token will render as plain text.

The easiest thing to do would just be to create a simple custom control that can execute the xmlpackages and then use this control in all of your other custom controls any time you need an xmlpackage. First the XmlPackage custom control:

.ascx

Code:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="XmlPackage.ascx.cs" Inherits="AspDotNetStorefront.Controls.XmlPackage" %>
<asp:Literal ID="lit1" runat="server" Mode="PassThrough" />

.ascx.cs

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using AspDotNetStorefrontCore;

namespace AspDotNetStorefront.Controls
{
    public partial class XmlPackage : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
        public String Name { get; set; }

        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
        {
            SkinBase sb = Page as SkinBase;

            if (Name.Length != 0 && Name.Contains("xml.config"))
            {
                lit1.Text = AppLogic.RunXmlPackage("news.xml.config", sb.GetParser, sb.ThisCustomer, sb.SkinID, String.Empty, String.Empty, true, true);
            }
            
            base.OnLoad(e);
        }
    }
}

And then, utilizing the above custom control:

.ascx

Code:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="CustomControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="AspDotNetStorefront.Controls.CustomControl" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Custom" TagName="XmlPackage" Src="~/controls/XmlPackage.ascx" %>

<Custom:XmlPackage Name="news.xml.config" runat="server" />

.ascx.cs

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace AspDotNetStorefront.Controls
{
    public partial class CustomControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl 
    {
        
    }
}

Hi, this was exactly what I was looking for. I followed your directions, and it's rendering as:

(!XmlPackage Name="news.xml.config"!)

my ascx file looks like this:

Code:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="NewsLoader.ascx.cs" Inherits="AspDotNetStorefront.Controls.NewsLoader" %>
(!XmlPackage Name="news.xml.config"!)

and the cs file looks like this:

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace AspDotNetStorefront.Controls
{

    public partial class NewsLoader : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
 
    }
}

I want to output that exact xml package. Any ideas?

Are you on 9x? The skin token format has changed a bit. Instead of:

Code:

(!XmlPackage Name="news.xml.config"!)

...try:

Code:

<%$ Tokens:XMLPACKAGE news.xml.config%>

You'll have to put that in something like an asp literal. Take a look at how we add tokens in the stock template.master file and you should see what I mean.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried this:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="NewsLoader.ascx.cs" Inherits="AspDotNetStorefront.Controls.NewsLoader" %>
<asp:Literal ID="Literal1" runat="server" Text="<%$ Tokens:XMLPACKAGE news.xml.config%>" />

and I'm getting nothing at all now... And I am running Multistore 9.1

figured it out, it's actually this:

Code:

<%$ Tokens:XMLPACKAGE,news.xml.config %>

missed the comma...

I am basically seeing the same symptoms with String Resources upgrading from 8.0.1.2 to 8.0.1.4. Has the string resource format changed at all?

@chese79

You may need to reload your string resources. Take a look at this aricle http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.co...ource-mgr.aspx

Note: Be careful not to inadvertently overwrite any existing modified strings.