Professional ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX

12.1. Introducing Web Parts

To make it easier to retain the page customization settings that your end users apply to your page, Microsoft includes Web Parts in ASP.NET. Web Parts, as components of the larger Portal Framework, provide an outstanding way to build a modular Web site that can be customized with dynamically reapplied settings on a per user basis. Web Parts are objects in the Portal Framework, which the end user can open, close, minimize, maximize, or move from one part of the page to another.

The Portal Framework enables you to build pages that contain multiple Web Parts, which are part of the ASP.NET server control framework and are used like any other ASP.NET server controls. This means that you can also extend Web Parts if necessary.

The components of the Portal Framework provide the means to build a truly dynamic Web site, whether that site is a traditional Internet site, an intranet site, a browser-based application, or any other typical portal.

When you first look at Web Parts in ASP.NET 3.5, it may remind you of Microsoft's SharePoint offering. Be forewarned, however, that these two technologies are not the same. Web Parts, and the resulting Portal Framework, besides being offered in ASP.NET, are also used by the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Microsoft, as it often does, is simply creating a technology that can be used by other Microsoft offerings. In this process, Microsoft is trying to reach the Holy Grail of computing — code reuse!

The modular and customizable ...