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ASP .NET application and contextual awareness

Asked By: Jeanne Campos Date: Jul 17, 2008 Category: Sharepoint Views: 531

I am trying to develop an ASP .NET web application that resides within
SharePoint's _layouts directory. The application needs to context
aware, i.e. it needs to 1) display the navigation corresponding to the
site from which it is launched, and 2) it needs to obtain its data
from that site. I've been able to create an application that does
retain the look and feel of SharePoint by following the directions on
this blog:

weblogs.asp.net/.../SharePoint-2007-_2D00_-_2F005F0\
0_layouts-and-how-to-create-pages-that-run-in-site-context.aspx

That is, if I access the site from http://mysharepoint/sites/sitea/, I
should get a different Quick Launch bar and data from
http://mysharepoint/sites/siteb.

The problem is, no matter where the page is launched from, I get the
same navigation and data: that of the "main" page (http://mysharepoint/).

Is it possible to get contextual data/navigation using this method
(copying a web application to SharePoint's _layouts directory)?

Tagged:asp net application and contextual awareness

7 Answers Found

Answer #1 Answered By: Rita Ingram Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

What URL are you using to access the _layouts content? If you are using
http://mysharepoint/sites/sitea/_layouts/ and have setup your Master
Page/CSS references correctly you should get the context and look/feel
you are after.

Answer #2 Answered By: Christian Waters Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

I would like to do something similar, but have several questions:

a) Do the ASP.NET files have to be placed in the _layouts directory, or
could they be in a separate IIS virtual directory running under the same App
Pool?

b) In the referenced article, the page assumes the context of the calling
page. Is there any way to specify a certain context, no matter where it is
called from?

c) How do you control access to the page? Some of the pages that I need to
create must be strictly controlled through SharePoint groups and/or
individual users.

Answer #3 Answered By: Virendar Bahudur Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

The way I have it running is they are located in the SharePoint
layouts directory referenced in the article (C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Microsoft Shared\...).

Question B is the question that I was asking myself; it seems as if no
matter where I'm accessing the site, whether it be the root or a
subsite, I get the same context.
I am using "~/_layouts/application.master" as my master page file.

As for Question C, I am not sure, I haven't gotten that far yet and
this app doesn't require strict permissions (yet).

Answer #4 Answered By: Sierra Beck Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

For question B, what is the actual URL you are using to access the
custom page - is it something like
http://mysharepoint/sites/sitea/_layouts/custompage.aspx or
http://mysharepoint/_layouts/custompage.aspx? The former will give you
context, the latter will not.

Answer #5 Answered By: Elisabeth Walsh Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

Is it possible to place custom apps somewhere like
http://mysharepoint/sites/apps/app1 , which would map to a separate virtual
directory under IIS, using the same App Pool as SharePoint?

I want to segregate the ASP.NET apps from the server file structure, yet be
able to inherit master pages, CSS, permissions, etc. In other words, the
ASP.NET pages would look and feel just like the sharepoint pages, but with
custom content.

Answer #6 Answered By: Bhavesh Doshi Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

I just realized my problem, I was accessing the page via
http://mysharepoint/sites/sitea/_layouts/app/ instead of
http://mysharepoint/sites/sitea/_layouts/app/default.aspx.

Answer #7 Answered By: Elisa Santos Answered On: Jul 17, 2008

I'll be sure to post what I find out.

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