Beginning DotNetNuke 4.0 Website Creation in C# 2005 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express phần 3 doc

It will have the following features: • A button to click that punches you into work at the beginning of your shift • A button to click that punches you out at the end of the day • A plac

• Create a deployment package so you can install it somewhere when you are done

• Manage all your projects

• Interface with both local and online help in a context-sensitive manner

• Suggest code for you to insert into your program

I can think of more things, but I will leave it at that For everything this C# IDE can do, the other IDEs can do the same In fact, as you know from the installation, the VWD IDE can also act as a small web server

The Look and Feel

Start up Visual C# and you should get a screen similar to that shown in Figure 4-1

Figure 4-1. The C# IDE start screen

You will see a standard menu on top with a toolbar below Below this, you will see three

pinnable panes The first is the toolbox, which is on the left-hand side and is currently

mini-mized Run you mouse over it—you will see what looks like a pushpin in the top-right corner of

the pane This is shown in Figure 4-2

Figure 4-2. The toolbox pushpin, showing Auto Hide

Click this pushpin—it will rotate vertically and the toolbox will stay maximized Note that

the Solution Explorer acts this way as well

This pinnable menu and pane system is a really big help in developing code Many times you

won’t need the toolbar or, in some cases, even the Solution Explorer This feature allows you to

maximize the screen space you have for visual screen development or coding

One last thing to note about the menu system is that it is completely configurable If you

do not like the way it looks, you can move panes around, add new ones, or delete some choices

from other toolbars It is up to you I would suggest, however, that you use the system as it is for

now just to get used to it

Creating a New Project

The project you will create in this chapter is a simple time sheet This time sheet will allow you

to press a button to punch in and out of work It will have the following features:

• A button to click that punches you into work at the beginning of your shift

• A button to click that punches you out at the end of the day

• A place that shows how many hours you’ve worked that day after you punch out

• A grid that shows how many hours you’ve worked in the current week

The intention of this project is to handle the design work and the business logic so you can

bring it over to the Web In Chapter 7, you will be creating a DNN module that will do this work

All the business logic you create in C# here will be used there

Starting the Project

The name of this project will be “Punch.” Clever, eh?

Open the C# IDE and click the menu option File ➤ New Project Choose a Windows cation project and name it Punch This is shown in Figure 4-3

Appli-Figure 4-3. Creating a new project

Click OK and you will have a project with a single Windows form and a class that runs the code for this form Unfortunately, the name of the form is “form1” and the name of the code class is “program.” This is way too generic, and you should change it

Inside the Solutions pane, right-click the form1.cs file and select the Properties window It will show as in Figure 4-4

Change the file name from form1.cs to punch.cs Press Enter and you will get the prompt shown in Figure 4-5

Figure 4-4. The Properties window

Figure 4-5. Prompt to propagate changes

Click Yes here to continue In previous versions of the C# IDE, the name change did not

propagate throughout the project I used to have to open every file and change every reference

myself This new functionality is a big help

You now have a single form and a code file with which to write the program The next thing

to do is populate the form with controls so that the user can interact with your program.Click the form, and then click the Toolbox tab The tab will expand This is where you will click the pushpin to force the toolbox to stay open while you are using it You can see this in Figure 4-6

Figure 4-6. Opening the toolbox and making it stay open

Notice all the controls that Microsoft gives you for free here You have common things such as different types of buttons, labels, text fields, and so on It is possible (and probable) that when you create more Windows applications, you will need some more specialized controls not shown here There is a wealth of controls available for purchase online If you feel really comfortable with programming, you can even create new specialized controls out of the ones shown here If you feel so inclined, I wrote a book on how to write special data input controls,

called Data Entry and Validation with C# and VB NET Windows Forms This book is available

from Apress as well

Project Setup

Before diving into the project, I want to take a break here to explain the setup of a C# solution The setup of a web solution will be similar While I am on the topic, I will also show you some aspects of C# and programming itself This will not be anything too difficult, but it will be about the most complex thing you will see in programming the projects in this book

The Solution Explorer

The Solution Explorer is the pane shown in the upper right of the screen It is essentially a list

of all the files in your project This project’s solution is shown in Figure 4-7

Figure 4-7. The Solution Explorer window

My list here is expanded to show some other files Let’s look at what some of these files are

AssemblyInfo.cs: This file includes information about your project that can be accessed by

other programs This information includes things such as version number and name

Resources.resx: This file is an XML file that includes localized text you can use in your

pro-gram You are not localizing this program, so your text is hard-coded in the class

Settings.settings: This file has information about user preferences You can store the last

known state of a program in here, and the next time a particular person logs in, the

pro-gram will return to the state that person left it

References: The files included under this folder contain the core functionality of NET If

you write a DLL with some neat methods, you can include it here so you can reference the

methods in your program

Program.cs: This is the most upper-level class that instantiates your Punch class Basically

it starts the program running

punch.cs: This is the visual form you see on the screen

punch.Designer.cs: This is the code that Visual C# generates when you place and late controls on your form.

manipu-punch.resx: This file contains localized text that relates to your Punch class It will appear once you add components to your form

The blank form that you see in Figure 4-6 is the punch.cs file The code that runs this form

is called punch.Designer.cs This file contains all the code that places controls on the form It also contains all the code that handles the properties of the form Double-click the

punch.Designer.cs file name in the Solution Explorer and you will see the code shown

/// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be

/// disposed; otherwise, false.</param>

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)

private System.Windows.Forms.Button cmdPunch;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtHoursToday;

private System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel tlp1;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label2;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtMon;

private System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox cmbWeek;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtSat;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtFri;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label7;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label5;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtSun;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label6;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtThu;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtWed;

private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtTue;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label4;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label3;

private System.Windows.Forms.Label label8;

}

}

There are some things to note here First is the fact that there is a namespace called Punch

A namespace is a way to keep names of controls and methods from conflicting with some other

controls or methods that may be named the same A namespace is like the town part of an

address You may live on 5 Main Street, and I may live on 5 Main Street as well The way we

keep these addresses unique is to define the towns we live in A namespace allows you to avoid

naming conflicts and provide what is called a fully quallified name

The next thing to note is that you have a class called Punch It is actually a partial class, but I

will get to that later Writing code in NET—or any modern language nowadays—means writing

object-oriented code A class is a way of encapsulating a set of funtionality Functionality could

be the visual aspects and code that runs in the background Everything that has anything to do

with this form is encapsulated in this class

Next you will notice a region called Windows Form Designer generated code You may click

the plus sign next to it to expand and edit this section if you want I do not recommend this, and

neither does Microsoft Suffice it to say that this section is reserved for the IDE, and this is

where it puts code that places the controls on the form

■ Caution You may look at the code in the Windows Forms Designer region, but do not change it The

IDE relies on the code here to be exaclty what it put in here If you change it, you may change the behavior of

your form

Finally, you see a bunch of controls and their names These are definitions of all the

con-trols you will be placing on this form You will not have this code yet

The next file I want you to look at is the file called punch.cs There are a few ways to see

the code in this file The first and most common way is to double-click the form This adds what

is called an event handler for the form to the code, and the IDE shows the code The other way

is to click the View Code button on the Solution Explorer This is shown in Figure 4-8

Figure 4-8. The View Code button

The code that you will see is shown in Listing 4-2

Listing 4-2. Initial code for the Punch class

Punch class is broken up between two files Hence the word partial You can define part of a

class in one file and another part in another file The reason for doing this is to keep the IDE forms designer–generated code away from the code that you will be writing It is a way of hiding what you really don’t need to see, and prevents some confusion

I got this code to show up by double-clicking the form You will see from this piece of code

that there is a method called Punch_Load This is the event handler method that is given to you

by the IDE Since this code is in this file, you are free to edit it as you see fit

You do not have to add anything to the Page_Load event handler If you double-click the

form to get to the code page, the Page_Load event handler is what you get

So this is the basic layout of a C# Windows program As I said before, the layout of a web

solution, as far as the files go, is pretty much the same Now on to the visual layout

Designing the Form

Designing the form involves knowing what the user will need to see, and laying out the controls

correctly The controls you will need for this form are as follows:

• A button to punch in and out

• A table to see a week’s time

• Several labels to view in and out punches

• A drop-down control to choose which week to view

• A label to see daily time

The list that follows instructs you on placing the control on the form When you are done

with the form, it should look like the one shown in Figure 4-9

1. From the toolbox, click the ComboBox control and place it on the form using your right

mouse button In the Properties window, name it cmbWeek

2. Choose a button from the toolbox and place it on the form as shown in Figure 4-9

Name this button cmdPunch Fill in the Text property as Punch In Make the Font

prop-erty for this button 14-point bold You’ll use just one button here to do double duty; it

punches the user in and out

3. Choose a label from the toolbox and place it on the form as shown in Figure 4-9 No

need to name this label Fill in the Text property as Hours Worked Today

4. Below this label, add a text box called txtHoursToday Change the BorderStyle property

to FixedSingle Change the ReadOnly property to True

5. Add seven labels to the form, representing the days Sunday through Saturday There is

no need to name these labels Change the Text property of each label to represent each

day of the week, as shown in Figure 4-9

6. Add seven text boxes to the form below the day-of-week labels, as shown in Figure 4-9

Name the text boxes txtSun, txtMon, txtTue, txtWed, txtThu, txtFri, and txtSat,

respec-tively Change the BorderStyle of each to FixedSingle Change the ReadOnly property of

each to True

Figure 4-9. Final layout of controls on the form

Your final layout should look like that shown in Figure 4-9 You should now have a able form with absolutely nothing behind it It is time to add some code to this form

work-Adding the Code

There are two events you need to handle in this form The first is when a user clicks the down box The second is when the user clicks the Punch button There are two ways to add the event handlers to this code The first way is the way I prefer, which involves some hand-coding and a good deal of knowledge about the way the IDE generates code So, let’s get started Just kidding

drop-The easy way to add event handlers to the code is to click the control So click the drop-down box, and you will see a method appear in the punch.cs file This is the code you will see generated:

private void cmbWeek_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

Whenever someone clicks the button, the code in this method will run You can generate

event handling methods this way for any control However, just as an aside, there are many

more events that you can handle for these and all other controls These other events must be

wired up manually You will not be handling any other events in this project

You are now over the easy part

When it comes to software engineering, nothing is ever a single-syllable word I think that

these three words are meant to confuse the uninitiated, and should be used as ammunition to

ask for a raise Use these three words in a single sentence, and when your boss gives you a

quiz-zical look, ask for a raise

When I first learned object-oriented programming (OOP) with C++, I spent a lot of time

trying to use these words with my colleagues It soon became apparent that developers never

really talked this way Here is what they actually mean:

Polymorphism: This feature allows you to have the same function for different objects

While the function Circle.Draw() may render a circle, the function Square.Draw() does a

completely different thing, even though they both draw a shape

Inheritance: This feature allows you to have a generic class—for example, one called House.

This class could have some basic properties, such as bedrooms, doors, a kitchen, and so on

You could then derive a class—for example, RanchHouse—from House, and it would “inherit”

House’s properties You could then add properties that are specific to a RanchHouse—for

example, that it has only one floor

Encapsulation: This feature allows you to store data and functionality inside an object

while limiting access to them from outside This is the OOP feature you will be using most

often in this project and other projects in this book It’s often called “data hiding,” but one

can also “hide” functionality

The following is a small side project to show you how you will use classes I will use the

IntelliSense feature of the IDE to show how classes work You can join in the fun or not

Start a project for a Windows Console Application This is the simplest application, with

virtually no IDE-generated code to get in the way Name the project “Encapsulation.” The

Program.cs file should look like Listing 4-3

Listing 4-3. Start of the Encapsulation project

private int mPrivate_integer;

private string mPrivate_string;

public int mPublic_integer;

public string mPublic_string;

//This is a constructor It is used to initialize the object

// that is created from this class

//Property to get and set the private integer

public int Private_integer

{

get { return mPrivate_integer; }

set { mPrivate_integer = value; }

}

//Property to get and set the private string

public string Private_string

{

get { return mPrivate_string; }

set { mPrivate_string = value; }

}

}

// This is the method that gets run when the program is started

static void Main(string[] args)

{

}

}

}

The variables that are not allowed to be accessed by any code outside this class are

declared Private The variables that can be accessed outside this class are declared Public

Notice that the variables have an m in front of them I use this convention to let myself know

that these variables are internal members of a class and not directly accessible

The properties called Private_Integer and Private_String are the ways to get and set the vate variables from outside the DataHiding class These properties allow you to control what values are allowed, and whether or not a variable can be just read, or both read and written.The best way to see how this all works is to create an object and use the IntelliSense feature

pri-of the IDE to tell you the level pri-of accessibility pri-of this class This will be done inside the Mainmethod Listing 4-5 shows the Main method with the appropriate code

Listing 4-5. Accessing the new class

// This is the method that gets run when the program is started

static void Main(string[] args)

{

//Create the new object fom the class

DataHiding dh = new DataHiding();

//get the public values

Figure 4-10. IntelliSense showing what is available

IntelliSense shows here that you can access the public variables directly, because it shows

mPublic_integer and mPublic_string, but not mPrivate_integer and mPrivate_String

IntelliSense also shows that you can access the private variables though the properties

Private_integer and Private_string This is encapsulation for you!

■ Tip IntelliSense is fantastic in NET It tells you everything you need to know about a method or an object

If you expect a variable to show and IntelliSense does not show it, you know you are doing something wrong

Polymorphism

Let’s use IntelliSense once more to show polymorphism at work I had you use the

Console.WriteLine method to output some variables to the screen The WriteLine method of

the Console object is one of the most “overloaded” methods in NET When you were typing it

in and you typed the opening parenthesis after Console.Write, IntelliSense showed 18 ways to

use it This is shown in Figure 4-11

Figure 4-11. Method overloading shown via IntelliSense

See how IntelliSense shows 18 different ways to use this method? This is because you can

write out any of the types that NET allows, with and without formatting Outside the Console

class, it looks like there is only one Write method

Now that I have explained some of what you will see as far as object-oriented

program-ming goes, let’s get to the code of this main project

Back to the Project

Writing code in C# or VB entails some basic knowledge of object-oriented programming I

already told you about classes, namespaces, variables, methods, and properties There are a

few other concepts you need to be aware of before you go on, such as how to use them

This project is about keeping time on a per-person basis for two weeks The two weeks

in question are last week and this week The module you will write for the DNN project will

encompass as many weeks and as many people as you want

If you think about the data, you’ll find that you need to keep the times that a person punched in and out on a daily basis To further organize the data, it would be nice to keep this data in a weekly format So the data you need is as follows:

This data will enable you to figure the hours worked for any day There is no need to keep the actual hours worked because there are rules (not included here) that adjust the hours worked based on rounding rules It is not necessarily true that the total hours worked in a day are continuous from start to end

The best way to keep and manage this data is with classes You have seen the class that encompasses the form and its controls You will need to define your own class that encom-passes a person and the time associated with punching in and out Once you define the proper class, you can scale the program to include as many weeks of data for as many people as you need, with no extra code I will show you how to do this

The Private Class

You need a class to hold all the information necessary to run this form The information you need is the in and out times of each day of the week Therefore, you will create a WeekPunchesclass Go into your punch.cs class file and add a new class Listing 4-6 shows the complete code for this class Put this class within the Punch class, near the top

Listing 4-6. The new WeekPunch class

private class WeekPunches

{

#region Class local variables

private DateTime mMondayStart;

private DateTime mMondayEnd;

private DateTime mTuesdayStart;

private DateTime mTuesdayEnd;

private DateTime mWednesdayStart;

private DateTime mWednesdayEnd;

private DateTime mThursdayStart;

private DateTime mThursdayEnd;

private DateTime mFridayStart;

private DateTime mFridayEnd;

private DateTime mSaturdayStart;

private DateTime mSaturdayEnd;

private DateTime mSundayStart;

private DateTime mSundayEnd;

#endregion

#region Accessor Get / Set Methods

public DateTime MondayStart

{

get { return mMondayStart; }

set { mMondayStart = value; }

}

public DateTime MondayEnd

{

get { return mMondayEnd; }

set { mMondayEnd = value; }

get { return mTuesdayStart; }

set { mTuesdayStart = value; }

}

public DateTime TuesdayEnd

{

get { return mTuesdayEnd; }

set { mTuesdayEnd = value; }

get { return mWednesdayStart; }

set { mWednesdayStart = value; }

}

public DateTime WednesdayEnd

{

get { return mWednesdayEnd; }

set { mWednesdayEnd = value; }

get { return mThursdayStart; }

set { mThursdayStart = value; }

}

public DateTime ThursdayEnd

{

get { return mThursdayEnd; }

set { mThursdayEnd = value; }

get { return mFridayStart; }

set { mFridayStart = value; }

}

public DateTime FridayEnd

{

get { return mFridayEnd; }

set { mFridayEnd = value; }

get { return mSaturdayStart; }

set { mSaturdayStart = value; }

}