Render TextBox (sever control) in WebPart and manage (text, visibility etc of) the server controls from editor part

Question

My initial goal is to achieve the following

1. Render dynamic TextBox in custom editor webpart

2. Manage Text (, visibility, height, width etc) of the TextBox from editor part.

3. We can consider Sharepoint webpart or asp.net webpart framework

I have tried following way ( with asp.net webpart framework) but I can not achieve the initial goal.

//CustomWebPart.cs
 private string _text;
 [WebBrowsable(false)]
 [Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared)]
 public string Text
 {
    get { return _text; }
    set { _text = value; }
 }
 protected override void CreateChildControls()
 {
    TextBox txt = new TextBox();
    txt.Text = Text;
    Controls.Add(txt);
 }

//CustomEditor.cs
 private TextBox txtExample;
 protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
 {
    base.OnInit(e);
    txtExample= new TextBox();
 }
 protected override void CreateChildControls()
 {
    Controls.Add(txtExample);
 }
 public override bool ApplyChanges()
 {
     EnsureChildControls();
     CustomWebPart part = WebPartToEdit as CustomWebPart;
     if (part != null)
     {
          part.SqlQuery = txtExample.Text;
     }
 }
 public override void SyncChanges()
 {
    EnsureChildControls();
    CustomWebPart part = WebPartToEdit as CustomWebPart;
    if (part != null)
    {
        txtExample.Text = part.SqlQuery;           
    }
 }

Problem is very clear:

After changing the text from editor webpart, once I click on OK or Apply button the system first triggers the CreateChildControls() event for CustomWebpart.cs before firing ApplyChanges(), even before firing CreateChildControls() for CustomEditor.cs , as a result Textbox of the webpart can not update on time.

So, how can we render asp.net server side controls in webpart and manage( changing text, visibility, width, height, etc) from editor part. ?

Please help.

Answer 1

You should be the Visual Web part template in Visual Studio 2010 which gives you a User-Control onto which you could arrange your controls. Then from tool-part you gain access very easily to whatever controls on the same manner you already did, by casting the the Web part and find your user control.

If you still would like to keep up on your way have a look at this article doing the same http://waelmohamed.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/create-custom-web-part-properties-using-custom-tool-parts-with-a-complete-example-code/ or this http://zimmergren.net/technical/how-to-custom-web-part-properties-toolpart

Answer 2

Try to remove EnsureChildControls(); of ApplyChanges()

Answer 3

try this:

 public override bool ApplyChanges() 
 { 
     EnsureChildControls(); 
     CustomWebPart part = WebPartToEdit as CustomWebPart; 
     if (part != null) 
     { 
          part.SqlQuery = txtExample.Text; 
     } 
     return true;
 } 

Your event is bool but your not returning anthing? return true; will return the changes, also are you inheriting from EditorPart in your class.

for further reference please look at:

http://sharepoint-snippets.com/custom-editorpart/

EDIT

Ok so make sure you follow the example on msdn!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.webpartpages.toolpart.applychanges.aspx

in the example above it will do exacly what you need and less code :) , its the WebPartReference (WebPart) object that will ammend the changes, just make sure you follow it through ;) .

to understand what events fire first look at this as a good reference :)

http://geekswithblogs.net/KunaalKapoor/archive/2012/07/18/sharepoint-webpart-life-cycle-events-and-event-sequence.aspx

hope it helps :)