SmartPart: How to make use of personal storage?

Question

I have a user control which is deployed as a web part by using SmartPart.

I would now like to be able to define a property and have the value stored in the user's storage space. I guess I need to be able to trigger the dirty flag (SetPersonalizationDirty()) somehow when the property is changed programmatically.

How should I do this?

Answer 1

I don't believe the SmartPart is built to support your requirement and you'd need to do one of two things:

• Create your own webpart from scratch that calls the ascx, passing it the personalized property
• Extend the smartpart, customising the piece that loads the ascx, passing it the personalized property

To me, it sounds like a good time to move beyond the smartpart. It's pretty simple to create a webpart that loads a usercontrol anyways.

This article on msdn talks includes samples and guidance on how to support personalization in a webpart. Your custom property will look something like the code below:

// Create a custom category in the property sheet.
[Category("Custom Properties")]
// Assign the default value.
[DefaultValue(c_MyStringDefault)]
// Property is available in both Personalization
// and Customization mode.
[WebPartStorage(Storage.Personal)]
// The caption that appears in the property sheet.
[FriendlyNameAttribute("Custom String")]
// The tool tip that appears when pausing the mouse pointer over
// the friendly name in the property pane.
[Description("Type a string value.")]
// Display the property in the property pane.
[Browsable(true)]
[XmlElement(ElementName="MyString")]
// The accessor for this property.
public string MyString
{
    get
    {
        return _myString;
    }
    set
    {
        _myString = value;
    }
}