please excuse this simple question, I know I am missing something really basic here...

I want to alter the default configuration/layout for all users of the webparts on the home page (article RssReader in CenterZoneBottom latest threads in CenterZoneLeft etc.), but for the life of me I cannot find where to do this.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciateds
Cheers
Simon

It's a great question; I've struggled with this too. I'm wondering also if there is an easy way to make the WelcomeBox text and images editable on the live site, similar to how articles are created and posted. I've done it via the user control, but this seems odd given the ease of creating articles.

Gary

Gary Darling

The thing that you're missing is that web parts store their data in the database (or whatever provider you've specified in web.config). The tables aspnet_PersonalizationAllUsers and aspnet_PersonalizationPerUser are used for the data storage.

The web control PersonalizationManager provides everything you need to setup the default structure. Just log in with a user permission of editor or administrator and change the mode of the control to "all users".

I'm finding web parts to be a wonderful and fascinating addition to ASP.net.

MythicalMe
Thanks!! So bloody simple when you know how :D

in the PersonalizationManager menu click Switch Scope until it displays "Shared", then set up your layout - jobsagoodun!

Glad I woke up today, that was simple! I've been using Firefox as my default browser; drag and drop of web parts does not work in that. I knew I read that in Marco's book somewhere, but it slipped my mind. This is a very intimidating project fo a newbie, lot's of hours banging my head against the wall.

Gary

Here's some text that helps explain this:

You can add Web Parts directly to WebPartZone controls, so they are created by default in the shared view, without the need for an editor to put them in place at runtime.

Personalization is always at the page level, which means that even if you put all the Web Part Zones and the WebPartManager on a master page, different pages that use that same master page will have a different configuration, since the data is saved in different records according to the specific content page’s Url. Personalization for the shared views and for the per-user views are saved into two separate tables, but in both cases there’s a PageSettings image field which stores all the information in binary format.

If you sign in as admin you can change the context to edit the shared view. Otherwise you only see the "admin user" view by default.