Ch7, p254: CSS Classes not recognized

mkaftor · December 15th, 2010, 10:25 PM

Have been doing good so far -- but following some of the changes of p254 TIO, the following CSS classes are not recognized in the master page:
HeadLink
MainMenu
StaticSelectedStyle
StaticMenuItemStyle
DynamicHoverStyle
DynamicMenuItemStyle
StaticHoverStyle

and the Errors tab indicate:
"Class or CssClass is not defined" for the above classes

and if I try to view the Default page in IE8, I get the following error:
"Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Imar · December 16th, 2010, 02:47 AM

Hi there,

It's not a problem that VWD can't find the classses. It's just a warning. At run-time the correct style sheet will be linked (coming from the theme) so the browser will know how to deal with them.

An "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means an error in your code somehow and is not related to missing CSS classes. Can you post the code surrounding the location of the error (the error message might mention the line nuber).

Cheers,

Imar

mkaftor · December 17th, 2010, 05:30 PM

The code is from the master.cs, and the exception occurs as the program is evaluating the expression in the switch line. During debug, with a break on the switch line, when I hover over on Page.Theme, the value displayed is null.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
publicpartialclassMasterPage : System.Web.UI.MasterPage
{
protectedvoid Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//if not post back
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
string selectedTheme = Page.Theme;
HttpCookie preferredTheme = Request.Cookies.Get("PreferredTheme");
if (preferredTheme != null)
{
selectedTheme = preferredTheme.Value;
}
if (lstPreferredTheme.Items.FindByValue(selectedTheme ) != null)
{
lstPreferredTheme.Items.FindByValue(selectedTheme) .Selected = true;
}
}
switch (Page.Theme.ToLower())
{
case"darkgrey":
Menu1.Visible = false;
TreeView1.Visible = true;
break;
default:
Menu1.Visible = true;
TreeView1.Visible = false;
break;
}
}

Imar · December 17th, 2010, 06:16 PM

Hi there,

If Page.Theme is null, then you haven't:

a) Set the theme in the <pages /> element in web.config

and / or

b) set the theme programatically in the BasePage class.

Can you confirm this is the case?

BTW: if you post code, can you please do the following:

a) Paste and copy the code in Notepad before you post it in the editor to remove color coding
b) Wrap the code in code tags (using the toolbar above the editor)

Because of the (stupid) way this forum handles colored code, it becomes pretty hard to read and debug code otherwise.

Cheers,

Imar

mkaftor · December 20th, 2010, 11:13 PM

Still having problems with switching of themes.

When web.config specifies monochrome, I get monochrome theme -- and when I set web.config to DarkGrey, that's the theme I get -- but unable to switch from the browser.

Web.config is given below:

Code:

      <!--<pages theme="DarkGrey" styleSheetTheme="DarkGrey">-->
      <pages theme="Monochrome" >
       <!--<pages >-->
        <controls>
          <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
          <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>
        </controls>
      </pages>

master page

Code:

<%@ Master 
   Language="C#" 
   AutoEventWireup="true" 
   CodeFile="MasterPage.master.cs" 
   Inherits="MasterPage" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="head" runat="server">
    </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
      <%--    the stylesheet will be used from the theme, and not from this master page as it was done originally      --%>      
      <%--    <link href="../Styles/Styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />      --%>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div id="PageWrapper">
         <div id="Header" ><a class="HeadLink" href="~/" runat="server">Header goes here</a></div>
         <div id="MenuWrapper">
            <asp:Menu ID="Menu1" runat="server" CssClass="MainMenu" 
               DataSourceID="SiteMapDataSource1" Orientation="Horizontal" 
               StaticEnableDefaultPopOutImage="False">
               <StaticSelectedStyle CssClass="StaticSelectedStyle" />
               <StaticMenuItemStyle CssClass="StaticMenuItemStyle" />
               <DynamicHoverStyle CssClass="DynamicHoverStyle" />
               <DynamicMenuItemStyle CssClass="DynamicMenuItemStyle" />
               <StaticHoverStyle CssClass="StaticHoverStyle" />
            </asp:Menu>
            <asp:TreeView ID="TreeView1" runat="server" DataSourceID="SiteMapDataSource1" 
               ShowExpandCollapse="False">
            </asp:TreeView>
            <asp:SiteMapDataSource ID="SiteMapDataSource1" runat="server" 
               ShowStartingNode="False" />
         </div>
         <div id="MainContent">
            <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="cphMainContent" runat="server">Main Content</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
         </div>
         <div id="Sidebar">Select a theme: 
            <asp:DropDownList ID="lstPreferredTheme" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True" 
               onselectedindexchanged="lstPreferredTheme_SelectedIndexChanged">
                  <asp:ListItem>Monochrome</asp:ListItem>
                  <asp:ListItem>DarkGrey</asp:ListItem>
            </asp:DropDownList>
         </div>
         <div id="Footer">&copy &reg Lanical Technlogies</div>
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

master.cs

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
public partial class MasterPage : System.Web.UI.MasterPage
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
       //if not postback
       if (!Page.IsPostBack)
       {
          string selectedTheme = Page.Theme;
          HttpCookie preferredTheme = Request.Cookies.Get("PreferredTheme");
          if (preferredTheme != null)
          {
             selectedTheme = preferredTheme.Value;
          }
          if (lstPreferredTheme.Items.FindByValue(selectedTheme) != null)
          {
             lstPreferredTheme.Items.FindByValue(selectedTheme).Selected = true;
          }
       }
       //execute either way: postbak or not
       switch (Page.Theme.ToLower())
       { 
          //change for "darkgrey", if selected 
          case "darkgrey":
             Menu1.Visible = false;
             TreeView1.Visible = true;
             break;
          //otherwise, initialize for "monochrome"
          default:
             Menu1.Visible = true;
             TreeView1.Visible = false;
             break;
       }
    }
    protected void lstPreferredTheme_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
       //declare and create the cookie
       HttpCookie preferredTheme = new HttpCookie("PreferredTheme");
       //set the experation time of the cookie: 3 months
       preferredTheme.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(3);
       //write to the cookie: the user selected theme
       preferredTheme.Value = lstPreferredTheme.SelectedValue;
       //add the cookie to the cookie collection
       Response.Cookies.Add(preferredTheme);
       //redirect the request to the same page, thereby reset the theme immediately
       Response.Redirect(Request.Url.ToString());
    }
}

Thanks for your help.

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Imar · December 21st, 2010, 04:22 AM

Hi there,

Can you also post the code for the BasePage that sets the theme? Then the code is complete and I can try to reproduce your problem.

Cheers,

Imar

mkaftor · December 21st, 2010, 02:10 PM

Here is the code for the BasePage.cs:

Code:

using System;
using System.Web;
/// <summary>
/// Summary description for BasePage
/// </summary>
public class BasePage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
   public BasePage()    //BasePage constructor
   {  
      //Event handler to execute when the PreRender event is thrown: specified by programmer
      this.PreRender += new EventHandler(Page_PreRender);
   }
   //PreRender event handler
   private void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
      if (this.Title == "" || this.Title=="Untitled Page")
      { 
         //throw new Exception("Page title cannot be \"Untitled Page\".");
         //Note how the user is notified via this exception w/ a user friendly message
         throw new Exception("Page title cannot be empty or untitled");
      }
   }
 
}

Imar · December 21st, 2010, 03:06 PM

Well, that makes it easy; you're missing the part that sets the ID.

Take a look at the exercise on page 226 and further which shows you how to modify the BasePage to apply the theme.

Cheers,

Imar

mkaftor · December 21st, 2010, 07:12 PM

Thanks Imar, that was a great help.

Apparently, I skipped the drill even though I did read the section because it is all colored and underlined.

A couple remaining questions:
1) What should have been my clue that I was missing some code?
(I did use the debugger, though)

2) Because in the past I used to do ASP.NET 2.0 in VB, I did not include the line to set up the connection between the event and its handler -- and suprisingly, it works anyhow.

Code:

public class BasePage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
   public BasePage()    //BasePage constructor
   {  
      //Manually setting event and its handler: page's PreRender event
      //this.PreRender += new EventHandler(Page_PreRender);
      //Manually setting event and its handler: page's PreInit event
      //this.PreInit += new EventHandler(Page_PreInit);
   }

3) I recall that in the past, using VB, in order to set up the skeleton for the event handler, one would select the object on the left drop down list, then select the event on the right -- to get the event handler skeleton -- rather than having to type the whole thing as the TIO suggested.

How would u do that in C#, in the .NET 3.5?

Thanks for all your help again,

mk