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Step 1: Enable dynamic style sheet changing.
In order to programmatically change the name of the style sheet file, we need access to the
"<link>" tag in the ASPX web page files. You cannot access this tag in the out-of-the-box design
themes since the tag does not have an ID. Accordingly, the first step is to modify the page layout
files. The page layout files are the actual containers for the different panels (such as menu panel,
table panel etc.) and include the page attributes to be generated in the application.
All design themes are usually found in:
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C:\Program Files\Iron Speed\Designer v4.2.0\Design Themes
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(assuming you are using Iron Speed Designer V4.2.0 and you installed it in the default location).
The Design Themes folder contains a folder tree for each design theme, and each design theme contains
a folder called “Pages” that includes these page layout files:
Empty Page.html
Mater Page.html
Scrolling Content Page.html
We will add the following <link> tag attribute in each of these files:
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id="MainStyle" runat="server"
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After this modification, the link attribute (for example in Master Page.html) should look like:
<link id="MainStyle" runat="server" rel="stylesheet" rev="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="../Styles/Style.css"/>
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Step 2: Add a global code customization to enable bi-directional language display on every application page.
Now we create a code customization that will modify, during run time, the display direction of the
page using the two style sheets provided by Iron Speed Designer. This code customization:
1. Gets a reference to the <link> tag
2. Removes the current style sheet reference
3. Adds an appropriate new style sheet reference
If you intend to allow dynamic language change in each page and not use the Set Language Page
provided by Iron Speed Designer, you'll most likely want to perform these actions every time
the page is displayed. My example performs these actions only when the page is loaded the first
time.
Here is my customized LoadData method, which I add to the Page class of every page:
Public Sub LoadData()
' LoadData reads database data and assigns it to UI controls.
' Customize by adding code before or after the call to LoadData_Base()
' or replace the call to LoadData_Base().
LoadData_Base()
' The Following code will allow for BiDi Application to use the correct
' stylesheet Based on the value of a session variable called LangCode
'
If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
Dim MyTopLinkControl As System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl
If Not IsNothing(Me.Page.Session("LangCode")) Then
MyTopLinkControl = CType(Me.FindControl("MainStyle"), _
System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl)
If Not IsNothing(MyTopLinkControl) Then
If CType(Me.Page.Session("LangCode"), String) = "HEB" Then
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Remove("href")
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Add("href", _
"../Styles/sAyle.RightToleft.css")
Else
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Remove("href")
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Add("href", _
"../Styles/style.LeftToRight.css")
End If
End If
End If
End If
End Sub
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My code customization refers to a session variable called "LangCode" which stores the logged in user’s
display language. In the next section I’ll show how to store it.
Now we need to apply this code customization to every page in our application. Here are several different
options:
Option #1:
Create a code customization template to be used by the Code Customization Wizard. A detailed
explanation for the steps needed to do this is provided in an article called "Using Iron Speed Designer as a code patterns repository".
The customization template file (an XML file) will look like the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<CodeCustomization>:
<Version>1.0</Version>
<Type>Page</Type>
<Description>
<![CDATA[
This customization shows how to add a BiDirectional Support for your page
]]>
</Description>
<FinishDescription>
<![CDATA[
The code customization you selected will be placed in the safe class of your page.
]]>
</FinishDescription>
<Substitutions>
</Substitutions>
<Customizations>
<Code>
<Class>Page</Class>
<Type>Sub</Type>
<Content>
<![CDATA[
''' <summary>
''' The MyPage_Load sub handles load event for page.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sender">The object that raised the load event.</param>
''' <param name="e">The object that contains the event data of the load event.</param>
Private Sub MyPage_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' The Following code will allow for BiDi Application to use the correct stylesheet
' Based on the value of a session variable called AppCultureUI set by the SetlanguagePage
'
' This code will work for both Hebrew and Arabic
'
Dim MyTopLinkControl As System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl
Dim Thisculture As String
If Not IsNothing(Me.Page.Session("AppCultureUI")) Then
Thisculture = UCase(CType(Me.Page.Session("AppCultureUI"), String))
MyTopLinkControl = CType(Me.FindControl("MainStyle"), _
System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl)
If Not IsNothing(MyTopLinkControl) Then
If Thisculture.IndexOf("HE") > -1 or Thisculture.IndexOf("AR") > -1 Then
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Remove("href")
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Add("href", "../Styles/style.RightToleft.css")
Else
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Remove("href")
MyTopLinkControl.Attributes.Add("href", "../Styles/style.LeftToRight.css")
End If
End If
End If
End Sub
]]>
</Content>
</Code>
</Customizations>
</CodeCustomization>
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Option #2:
Modify the Iron Speed BaseClasses module. Add the code customization to either the
BasePage.vb file or the GenericPage.vb file, which inherits from BasePage.vb. The best place
to put this code customization is in the Page_Load_InitPageSettings method in the BasePage.vb
file.
Option #3:
Modify the code generation template file. The page’s code generation template file is typically found in:
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..\Program Files\Iron Speed\Designer v4.2.1\CodeGenerator\Templates
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Modify the Page.Class.Methods.vb.xsl file.
| Option |
Pros |
Cons |
| Add a code customization to every page |
- Does not require knowledge of the base classes
- Does not require Visual Studio to create the modification
- Can be applied to already existing pages
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- Can only be used on a page by page basis, hence requires manual activation for each page
- The Code Customization Wizard template . Needs to be applied for every new release of Iron Speed Designer (using a simple copy and paste to the code customizations library)
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| Modify Base Classes DLL |
- Will automatically apply for every page in the application using the base classes DLL
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- Requires some knowledge of base classes and use of Visual Studio
- Needs to be applied for every new release of Iron Speed Designer
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| Modify the code generation template |
- Will automatically apply for every page generated after the template was changed
- Does not require Visual Studio
- Does not require knowledge of Base Classes
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- Needs to be done for every new release of Iron Speed Designer
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Since most of you either are familiar with base classes or do not want to touch them, I'll guide
you on how to modify the code generation template file.
Open the Page.Class.Methods.vb.xsl code generation template file and locate the string "Public Sub
LoadData()". This is the beginning of the code generated in every page as part of the code customization
region. I chose to place my customization here in order to always know this is not a part of the original
version but a part of my code customizations. Additionally, placing it on this region ensures that as long
as the code customization model of Iron Speed Designer does not change, any migration of this page to new
versions will not affect this behavior.
After the call to "LoadData_Base()", add the code listed above and you are ready. If you need the same
functionality for C# applications, just repeat the process for the Page.Class.Methods.cs.xsl file.
Step 3: Identify the user's preferred language at run-time.
In an application we developed for the Israeli Opera, we needed to automatically provide the user with
his default user language and page direction without asking him to specify it for us. We chose to do
this by adding an attribute to the Users table called “default language” to directly relate this information
to every user.
In order to set the language (called LangCode in the above example) we added a code customization into
the LoadData method of signin_control.ascx.vb that accepts the user name either from the form or, if needed,
using the silent login algorithm. It reads the Users table accordingly and sets this flag. Alternatively,
you could replace the LangCode flag with the AppCultureUi session variable that is used to specify the current
UI language and is also used by the SetLanguage.aspx page generated by Iron Speed Designer.
The customized LoadData method in the SignIn_Control class looks like:
Public Sub LoadData()
LoadData_Base()
If Not IsNothing(Me.Page.Session("LastPage")) Then
Dim OriginalUrl As String = CType(Me.Page.Session("LastPage"), String)
' Check if UserName was transfered
'
If Len(OriginalUrl) > 0 Then
If InStr(OriginalUrl, "UserId") > 0 Then
Dim MRMUserId As String = Mid(OriginalUrl, InStr(OriginalUrl, "UserId"), 9)
If Not IsNumeric(Mid(MRMUserId, 9, 1)) Then
MRMUserId = Left(MRMUserId, 8)
End If
MRMUserId = Mid(MRMUserId, 8, 3)
'
' Validate if user is logged into another asp application
Dim ExistingUser() As ExistingUsersViewRecord
Dim UserDetails As ExistingUsersViewRecord
Dim WC As WhereClause = New WhereClause
Dim User As String
Dim UserID As String
Dim UserPassword As String
Dim LangUser As String
WC.iAND(ExistingUsersViewView.User_ID, _
BaseFilter.ComparisonOperator.EqualsTo, MRMUserId)
ExistingUser = ExistingUsersViewView.GetRecords(WC, Nothing, 0, 10)
For Each UserDetails In ExistingUser
User = UserDetails.UserName0
UserID = CStr(UserDetails.User_ID)
If Not IsNothing(UserDetails.sPassword) Then
UserPassword = UserDetails.sPassword
Else
UserPassword = " "
End If
LangUser = UserDetails.DefaultLang ' This is the default user lang
Me.Page.Session("LangCode") = LangUser
Me.Page.Session("CurrentUserPermissionGroup") = _
UserDetails.UserGroup_ID
If UCase(LangUser) = "HEB" Then
Me.Page.Session("AppCulture") = "he-IL"
Me.Page.Session("AppCultureUI") = "he-IL"
Else
Me.Page.Session("AppCulture") = "en-US"
Me.Page.Session("AppCultureUI") = "en-US"
End If
Next
'
' Doing a silent login as a result of the fact user is already logged into
' another application using the user details.
'
Me.SystemUtils.SetLoginInfo(User, UserPassword, "Login Error")
If (Len(Trim(Me.SignInControl.SuccessURL)) > 0) Then
Response.Redirect(Me.SignInControl.SuccessURL)
Else
CType(Me.Page, BaseClasses.Web.UI.BasePage).RedirectBack(False)
End If
End If
Else
CType(Me.Page, BaseClasses.Web.UI.BasePage).RedirectBack(False)
End If
End If
End Sub
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