global or application variables based on conditional statement

[zerkat]

Hi,

I am redesigning a site in .net; I come from a Coldfusion background and when designing/writing a web site in coldfusion I could declare a global variable based on conditions in the coldfusion application file (which is coldfusion's equivalent to web.config). For instance, based on the url I would set file paths to graphics etc.

I would like to do that with this site but I read that I can not use conditional statements in the web.config. Is there a way to declare variables based on conditions so that the variables could be accessible to the whole app? If it is possible how would a person go about setting that up?

I am using VS 2005 with vb.net.
Thanks.

 

[adamroof]

Im not sure about VB, but you can use the App_Code folder to create your classes, and within those classes you can use structs. There might be other ways to get this done using namespaces, but i dont use Visual Studio.

public struct ComplaintData
{
    public int ID;
    public int TypeID;
    public string EntryForm;
    public bool IsPrivate;

    public ComplaintData(int id, int typeID, string Form, bool isPrivate)
    {
        this.ID = id;
        this.TypeID = typeID;
        this.EntryForm = Form;
        this.IsPrivate = isPrivate;
    }
}
public struct SiteData
{
    public string FavIcon;
    public string HeadLogo;
    public string SiteTitle;

    public SiteData(string Icon, string Logo, string Title)
    {
        this.FavIcon = Icon;
        this.HeadLogo = Logo;
        this.SiteTitle = Title;
    }
}
public class rtbData : ControlLoading
{
    string conString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["conString"];
    ComplaintData complaint;
    SiteData settings;

    /// <summary>
    /// Sets the Complaint Type By Virtual Directory
    /// "/ppl" = 0, "/cmcs" = 1
    /// </summary>
    public rtbData()
    {
        string Site = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsolutePath;
        complaint.TypeID = (Site.StartsWith("/ppl")) ? 0 : 1;
        complaint.EntryForm = (Site.StartsWith("/ppl")) ? "entryppl.aspx?id=" : "entry.aspx?crmid=";
        settings.FavIcon = (Site.StartsWith("/ppl")) ? "faviconPPL.ico" : "favicon.ico";
        settings.HeadLogo = string.Format("img/head{0}.gif", complaint.TypeID);
        settings.SiteTitle = (Site.StartsWith("/ppl")) ? "Internal Problem Log" : "Customer Complaints";
    }
...

...
    #region Site Settings
    //expose the structs to the class
    public string SiteFavIcon
    {
        get { return settings.FavIcon; }
    }

    public string SiteLogo
    {
        get { return settings.HeadLogo; }
    }

    public string SiteTitle
    {
        get { return settings.SiteTitle; }
    }

    #endregion
}

then in my default.aspx.cs code behind, i consume them like this...

public partial class _Default : Page
{
    alerts alert = new alerts();
    rtbData crm = new rtbData();

    public void Page_Init()
    {
        HtmlHead pageHead = (HtmlHead)Page.Header;
        pageHead.Title = crm.SiteTitle;
        HtmlLink favIco = new HtmlLink();
        favIco.Attributes.Add("rel", "shortcut icon");
        favIco.Attributes.Add("href", crm.SiteFavIcon);
        favIco.Attributes.Add("type", "image/x-icon");
        pageHead.Controls.Add(favIco);
        lbAddNewComplaint.NavigateUrl = crm.ComplaintEntryForm + "0";
    }

 

[zerkat]

hmm...ok. I'll check out what I can do with the App_Code folder....thanks for the pointer.

 

[jbenson001]

Anything placed in the app_code folder is accessable throughout the application in C# or VB or whatever language you use. That is not a language specific functionality. If you place a class in the app_code folder, just make sure your functions, etc are Public or Shared.

 

[zerkat]

So I looked into using the app_code folder and read that you can basically put whatever you want to in there. When I opened up VS 2003 and went to add a new item to my app_code my options are XML Schema, Report, XML File, SQL Database, Text File and Class Diagram. Not sure which one would be the best fit since all I want to do is set a variable based on the URL of the site. It just takes a simple Sub procedure to do this. Would I still want to use a class for this?

This is the code that I wrote for checking the URL:

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender AS Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
Dim Path As String
Dim serverURL = Request.Url.ToString
If serverURL = "

http://google.com"

Then
Path = "../subdirectory/someFile.aspx"
Else
Path = "../someOtherDirectory/someOtherFile.aspx"
End If
End Sub


Thanks for all your help. Everyone in this forum has been very helpful....

 

[jbenson001]

The app_code folder does not exist in VS2003, it is new to 2005. You will have to create a public class at the root.

 

[zerkat]

oops - sorry - just double checked - I am using vs 2005. I was really tired when I wrote that response...before I finished my first cup of coffee...

 

[zerkat]

i also see that what i thought was an app_code folder is actually app_data. That explains the options I get when I try to add an existing item. VS didn't create an app_code folder when I created the site - it created app_data. I created the site as an ajax enabled web site.

 

[jbenson001]

YOu can still add an app_code folder