How to Check if Current Page is in Edit or Preview Mode

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:34:00 GMT

As part of the sequel “How to do simple things in DotNetNuke after you created your first module”, I’ll show you today how to recognize inside your module, when the page is in edit mode and when is in preview mode.

Me.EditMode property is not enough to show this state of the page. You need also to evaluate the a cookie used to indicate if the page is in preview or not.

If Me.EditMode Then
   Dim objPreview As HttpCookie
   objPreview = Request.Cookies("_Tab_Admin_Preview" & PortalSettings.PortalId.ToString)
   If Not objPreview Is Nothing AndAlso CType(objPreview.Value, Boolean) Then
     'the page is in preview mode
     '...
    
   Else
     'the page is in edit mode
     '...
  
   End If
End If

This is useful, obviously when you want to show different things when the page is in edit mode rather than preview.

How to Create a Page Programmatically in DotNetNuke

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:44:00 GMT

This snippet of code shows you how to programmatically create a page (tab) in DotNetNuke 4.x from a template.

It is called from the context of a module, so we have access to some of the main objects of DNN framework, such as PortalSettings.

Few properties are copied from the current active page: TabPermissions, SkinSrc, ContainerSrc. With a little effort you can specify your own values, if these ones are not appropriate.

The most important point is the use of the page template. By default, DotNetNuke comes with one template that is adding a HTML module to the main ContentPane. This template is placed in “…\Portals\_default\Templates\ Default.page.template” file. It is a XML file and you can easily change it or clone it to create your own template.

        'create new hidden page
        Dim ctrTab As New DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs.TabController
        Dim objTab As New DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs.TabInfo
        Dim objActiveTab As DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs.TabInfo
        objActiveTab = Me.PortalSettings.ActiveTab
        objTab.IsVisible = False
        objTab.PortalID = Me.PortalId
        objTab.TabID = Null.NullInteger
        objTab.PortalID = PortalId
        objTab.TabName = "Page Name"
        objTab.Title = "Page Name"
        objTab.Description = "Description"
        objTab.KeyWords = ""
        'we make it hidden this time
        objTab.IsVisible = False
        objTab.DisableLink = False
        objTab.ParentId = -1
        objTab.IconFile = ""
        objTab.IsDeleted = False
        objTab.Url = "N"
        'get the same permissions as the current active page
        objTab.TabPermissions = objActiveTab.TabPermissions
        'get the same skin as the current active page
        objTab.SkinSrc = objActiveTab.SkinSrc
        objTab.ContainerSrc = objActiveTab.ContainerSrc
        objTab.TabPath = GenerateTabPath(objTab.ParentId, objTab.TabName)
        objTab.StartDate = Null.NullDate
        objTab.EndDate = Null.NullDate
        objTab.PageHeadText = ""
        objTab.TabID = ctrTab.AddTab(objTab)
        'create the page from our template
        Dim xmlDoc As New System.Xml.XmlDocument
        xmlDoc.Load(Server.MapPath(Me.Page.TemplateSourceDirectory & "/Portals/_default/Templates") & _
        "\Default.page.template")

        Dim objPortals As New PortalController
        objPortals.ParsePanes(xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//portal/tabs/tab/panes"), _
                              objTab.PortalID, objTab.TabID, PortalTemplateModuleAction.Ignore, New Hashtable)

I will conclude that creating pages programmatically is not complicated in DotNetNuke, and can be useful in the process of custom module creation, when we want to save the admin user few extra steps.

Workaround Module Installer Problems With Same Filename In Different Locations

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:52:00 GMT

The problem I have with dnn module installer/packager is that I cannot pack files with same name that reside in different locations of your module subfolders.More...

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Mon, 24 Jul 2006 01:47:00 GMT

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