ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1

Thomas van der Heijden — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:55:27 GMT

Thanks for this. Works like a charm. One thing you should know is that "FindSiteMapNode(string GUID)" still has some issues when you set the "StartingNodeUrl" property of the SiteMapDataSource. Entering an url obviously doesn't work, but neither does a GUID because VS.NET 2005 thinks it's a relative path and prepends the parent path. So I ended up writing a little GUID or Url detector anyway.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1

Stefan_Gossner — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 13:06:50 GMT

Hi Thomas,

thanks for the info! I haven't used this property till now - that's why I did not yet run into this issue.
I adjusted the article now to work correct in this situation. Please have a look if the issue is resolved now.

Cheers,
Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1

Thomas van der Heijden — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:40:13 GMT

Nice one. I found one other small bug. I'm consuming Sitemap data using my own controls, so this might not happen with the standard controls.

When creating a new page based on a template that uses SiteMap controls, I found that CMS fails to find the node passed to "GetParentNode" (Searches.GetByGuid(node.Key) returns null).
There is no check on this so the following "ci.parent" will throw an exception. Fixed it with a simple wrapper.

Also you might want to make "GetSiteMapNodeFromChannelItem" virtual. I found it much easier to override this method in my extension then to target the other methods.

I wrote my own extension to this class to deal with my site. Basically it folds channels that contain only a single posting into one node, so the channel looks like a posting to all sitemap controls. This is very useful when you want to apply specific security to only one posting (which you can't without a seperate channel) without stuffing up the layout on your sitemap controls.

Cheers,
Thomas

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:42:18 GMT

I just updated this SiteMapProvider. The GetParentNode contained a bug which prevented it from working correct for the SiteMapPath control when a new Posting was created.

Edward, thanks for this hint!

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Willie — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:18:05 GMT

I was trying to get this to work, i have the DLL generated, the way i have the channels setup i have 3 different sites 2 of which i already completed i wanted to use the nav controls for the 3rd. When i put on the menu control with the data source the page loads and no errors are reported, but it appears that the page is not reading any javascript files for the menu control. I can call another page from the server not going throught he CMS engine and it works fine. In my master page i do have a robottags for CMS as well. I also tried to just use a web.sitemap provider which i switchd the default to the XmlSiteMapProvider but either way it appears the javascript files do not get redered correctly. Any advice on this matter? I will switch back to my function that creates the navigation but the nav controls will be so much easier and much more flexible then the classic method.

FYI i am trying to do the nav on the master page and i do have the directives on the top. Everything else is working great.
ALSO the channel name is not the same as the directory in IIS i am not sure if that makes a difference, i thought it didnt' matter when being passed through the CMS engine but in reference to the javascript issue i am now thinking it may. I did test it by changing the name to the same but that didnt' seem to matter.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 00:06:49 GMT

Hi Willi,

this sounds interesting! Please send me a mail to webmasterATstefan-gossner.de to let us follow up offline. (Please replace AT with @)

Cheers,
Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Jason Olsan — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:35:34 GMT

Thanks for the info on that control :) It works great :)

However, I've discovered that there seems to be a problem utilizing the menu control (any site map provider) when using CMS and Master Pages. I haven't figured out why, but I thought it might be worth noting. I think that's what Willie might be referencing (if he has Master Pages).

Jason

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Jason Olsan — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:10:25 GMT

I should state that I seem to be having a problem with the Menu control and Master Pages. It might be a fluke :)

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:48:14 GMT

I have found a possible reason for the problems with the menu control. It does not work correct if the following tag is included in the web.config:

<xhtmlConformance mode="Legacy"/>

Removing this tag resolves the issue.
This affects as well normal ASP.NET webform projects and MCMS template projects.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Jason Olsan — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:49:08 GMT

That fixed it exactly. Thank you :)

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2 Resources

Andrew Connell [MVP MCMS] — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 22:00:57 GMT

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2 Resources

Andrew Connell [MVP MCMS] — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 22:09:35 GMT

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Gaya — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 23:32:14 GMT

Hi Stefan,

This can be used with ASP 2.0 but I have ASP1.1 with VS 2003. Is there a control to create the sitemap for ASP 1.1??

Thanks,
Gaya

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:00:13 GMT

Hi Gaya,

ASP.NET 1.1 does not support site maps and does not ship with any controls that use site maps.
You would need to reinvent the wheel.
I would suggest to upgrade your site to ASP.NET 2.0 and VS.NET 2005.

Cheers,
Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

daniel — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:20:57 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Is there a way for me to start the root node of the site map on a different level? I am able to make the sitemap, its just that I want the root channel to start on a different level..

Please help..

Thanks.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Caroline — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:29:50 GMT

Hi Daniel,

Yes, you would want to change the GetRoodNodeCore method to something like this:

// returns the first channel under the rootchannel

Channel root = CmsHttpContext.Current.RootChannel.Channels[0];

I hope this was helpfull.

Greetings,

Caroline

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

daniel — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:42:56 GMT

Hi Caroline,

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking that this is just a parameter I have to specify to a method. Is this possible?

Hi Daniel,

Yes, you would want to change the GetRoodNodeCore method to something like this:

// returns the first channel under the rootchannel

Channel root = CmsHttpContext.Current.RootChannel.Channels[0];

I hope this was helpfull.

Greetings,

Caroline

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:55:40 GMT

Hi Daniel,

a provider does not expose a method to call directly. What you could do is use application settings in your web.config and then read this application settings from inside your provider.

Cheers,
Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Angel del Olmo — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:20:46 GMT

Hi Stefan,

The provider returns the channels in alfabetical order?

Thanks,
Angel

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:30:47 GMT

Hi Angel,

in the code I use SortByDisplayName. So it returns first the channels in alphabetical order of the display name, then the posting in alphabetical order of the display name.

You can adjust this to your needs by modifying the sort instructions in the GetChildNodes method.

Cheers,
Stefan

ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 2

Stefan Goßner — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:29:35 GMT

In the first part of this article I discussed how to implement a SiteMapProvider for an MCMS website....

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

charles — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 04:51:51 GMT

getting a missing assembly / dependencies error

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:01:58 GMT

Hi Charles,

this is not sufficient information.
Feel free to follow up with me via email.

Thanks,
Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Steve — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 18:55:29 GMT

Getting following exception:
System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format. at line 43:
Line 41: public override SiteMapNode FindSiteMapNode(HttpContext context)
Line 42: {
Line 43: ChannelItem _channelItem = CmsHttpContext.Current.ChannelItem;
Line 44: return GetNodeFromChannel(_channelItem);
Line 45: }

I am using MCMS SP1a with ASP.NET 2.0 webproject. I have created a class library with the above MCMSSiteMapProvider. Please advice.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:53:33 GMT

Hi Steve,

MCMS SP1a does not support ASP.NET 2.0. You need to use MCMS 2002 SP2.
Beside that: it sounds as if CmsHttpContext.Current.ChannelItem is null. Means that you added this code to a page which is neither a MCMS template nor a channel rendering script. This will not work.

Cheers,
Stefan

ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS article series

Stefan Goßner — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 10:51:21 GMT

Now after MCMS 2002 SP2 has been released I would like to point you again to an article series I have...

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Harold — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:11:04 GMT

I'm using CMS with the host headers mapping feature. But when I create a new page an exception is thrown. I found that the above code doesn't detect host headers correctly for a new page. I changed the line:

return (ctx.RootChannel.UrlModePublished == "http://Channels/");

into:

return (ctx.RootChannel.UrlModePublished.StartsWith("http://Channels/");

and now it works fine!

By the way: great articles on CMS and .NET 2.0!

Cheers, Harold

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:57:08 GMT

Hi Harold,

thanks for the update!

Cheers,

Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Mike — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:23:33 GMT

Stephan,

I am implementing this as well, and similar to charles (above), I'm getting a runtime error regarding the assembly. Here is the error:

Could not load file or assembly 'MCMSSiteMapProvider' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

The only difference is I changed the namespace from "StefanG.SiteMapProviders" to one of my own.

Thanks...

Mike H.

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:53:57 GMT

Hi Mike,

sounds as if your provider DLL is not named MCMSSiteMapProvider but a different name.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Mike — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:25:07 GMT

Thanks, Stefan.

It didn't occur to me until I read your response that this was to be built as a separate project. It's all built now, ready to consume.

Mike

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Liza — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:09:30 GMT

Hi Stefan,

I know this is a bit out of scope, but can you perhaps point me in the right direction of how to bind a SiteMapProvider explicitly to my control?

/Liza

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:09:45 GMT

Hi Liza,

the navigation controls coming with ASP.NET have a property to assign the SiteMapProvider to use.

Cheers,

Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Liza — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:15:39 GMT

Thanks.

I have an other problem now though. I have used your SiteMapProvider with a custom navigation control, but it seems that Urls are rendered as published - even when I'm in edit mode. When I switch to edit site, the Urls get rendered correct, but as soon as I click the first node all Urls get rendered as publish mode again which means that I can not actually navigate in edit mode. Is this expected behavior or is it my bad?

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:41:38 GMT

Hi Liza,

see here:

http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2005/07/12/407579.aspx

Cheers,

Stefan

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

kiko — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:29:54 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Using a SiteMapPath control, the breadcrumb always starts at "Channels >". Even though I've modified GetRootNodeCore to return a first-level Channel, like /Channels/SomeSite.

Do I need to change another method? Like GetParentNode?

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:22:08 GMT

Hi Kiko,

the answer is yes.

Cheers,

Stefan

Code Samples

Stefan Goßner — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:04:43 GMT

As some of you already noticed: GotDotNet is now down and the code samples previously hosted there have

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Ankit — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:54:59 GMT

Hi Stefan,

Just needed some of your suggestion on the following query:

I have designed a MCMS Website, and it follows the concept of Master/Content

Page where content pages are nothing but MCMS Templates,the site was looked

by one of our Quality Analysis guy and he came up with queries on using

Tables instead of DIV with CSS and with a logic that a Page with DIV is

faster than a page with Table.I have no clue about that logic but is the

logic of having a DIV is good or a table, the reason why we used Table is to

have a structred layout with AMC(Auhtoring Mode Container) and

PMC(Presentation Mode Container) in one MCMS Template, can any one help me

re: ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - Site Navigation - Part 1 (last updated: 13.01.2006)

Stefan_Gossner — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:00:27 GMT

Hi Ankit,

there are different opinions on this. Current sites usually implement div rather than table for usability reasons as sites with DIVs can easier be read by (e.g.) blind reader machines.

Cheers,

Stefan