ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Drag/Drop Browser Support in FireFox w/ Atlas

Mike and Andres on my team have been doing some really cool work with integrating the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part functionality with Atlas.

One of the really cool scenarios that Web Parts enable is that they allow developers to build portal-like composition UI's really, really easily.  All you need to-do is create a few user-controls (.ascx files) with content or data, place them within the new <asp:webpartzone> container, and enable personalization on the page -- and then you have per-user drag/drop customization enabled (the entire scenario can be enabled in about 3 lines of code total). 

One missing feature with the release of the Web Part controls in ASP.NET 2.0 is support for drag/drop within FireFox (note: there are other ways to move them in the zone -- what is missing though is the slick translucent drag/drop behavior).  This was a feature-cut we unfortunately had to-do late in the product cycle because of time (btw: it is the only "uplevel" feature of ASP.NET 2.0 client scripting that doesn't support FireFox -- the new menu, treeview, validation controls, script OM features, callbacks, etc all now support FireFox fully).

What Mike and Andres figured out was a way to enable FireFox drag/drop support within an upcoming Atlas release (they are also adding a number of cool other features that I'll save for another blog post <g>).  Here is a screen-shot of a simple unit test in action with FireFox:

Fun stuff...

Scott

18 Comments

  • The current release of Atlas does not support webparts, even in IE, right?

  • Hi Wessam,



    I believe you can use Web Parts with pages that use Atlas -- although not for all scenarios (for example: I don't think you can drag/drop a part from an atlas:updatepanel to another).



    As part of the above WebPart+Atlas update we will be enabling a whole bunch of these types of scenarios (including the ability to drag/drop between zones without doing a post-back).



    Hope this helps,



    Scott

  • Hi Scott,



    I have always wondered what s/w you use to do screen capture. It is quite nice. I use SnagIt by TechSmith.

  • Hi Yaip,



    I am fairly embarrased to say that I usually use either alt-prntscreen or just printscreen and then paste into mspaint. Very low tech, but it seems to work for me. :-)



    Thanks,



    Scott

  • Hi Scott,



    Atlas is very nice but I don't think we can use it for commercial production sites yet. Is that correct? Do you know when a license might be available?



    Thanks for all the cool stuff you are showing us :)

  • Hi Stacy,



    We are looking to have a commercial use license of Atlas available this spring. Check back on my blog in a week -- I think we will have the announcement of exactly when then. :-)



    Thanks,



    Scott

  • Hi Dion,



    We are going to allow &quot;go-live&quot; usage of Atlas well before Orcas -- so hopefully not too far off (as I mentioned to Stacy above -- I think we'll have an announcement regarding timeframe in the next week).



    Your MagicAjax.Net demo above is very cool btw!



    Thanks,



    Scott

  • Nice!

    Thank you for idea Scott!

    I really have the same problem with drag-drop controls from repositary to editing page for my application with FF (because it doesn't support the behavior library). But seems i found the way to do it (but of course only with ATLAS &amp; ASP.NET 2) regards your blog. Great!

    Sincerely, LukCAD

  • Hi Scott,

    In SharePoint Server 2.0 there is a clientside connection support for web parts. Is it going to be available in ASP.NET 2 other than via SharePoint server? If not, will Atlas add support to data exchange between web parts from the clientside?

  • Hi David,



    The plan is for Atlas to enable those types of client-part to client-part communication options. This won't be in the next Atlas refresh, but will show up at somepoint in the future.



    Hope this helps,



    Scott

  • Cool! Now how about drag-drop from a catalog part? :)



    Great news about the Atlas licensing schedule. Looking forward to the details.

  • Really cool!

    And where can I see the example code?

  • would u help me in doing web part

    i am using vs 2005 and sql 2000....i just want the minimizing and restoring ... i don wat to customize

  • Can someone explain to me why this feature has been REMOVED from the latest AJAX 1.0 Beta 1-2 release? See the quoted item from earlier in this thread.


    # re: ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Drag/Drop Browser Support in FireFox w/ Atlas
    Friday, January 20, 2006 5:36 PM by scottgu
    Hi Wessam,

    I believe you can use Web Parts with pages that use Atlas -- although not for all scenarios (for example: I don't think you can drag/drop a part from an atlas:updatepanel to another).

    As part of the above WebPart+Atlas update we will be enabling a whole bunch of these types of scenarios (including the ability to drag/drop between zones without doing a post-back).

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi Sean,

    This support is still provided in the ASP.NET AJAX Futures CTP that you can download. It isn't in the core download - but you can get it by installing this second one.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott

    Can you tell me how to get drag/drop of webparts working in firefox?
    I want Some explanation about how to do this .....................

  • re: ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Drag/Drop Browser Support in FireFox w/ Atlas

  • Is the drag drop of webparts on Firefox supported with Ajax v1.0 also like CTP?

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