Creating a Custom Control Feature

Heya folks,

It's time for another Feature! Woo HOO!! This a definite must know for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. Ok, so this feature will deploy a custom search box control that can be called in your own Master Page or Page Layout. Let's walk through the steps needed to create this Cool, reusable feature.

1.)Let's Create a Custom Control! Create a file named "CustomSearch.ascx", this file will be just a modified version of the current WSS 3.0/MOSS Search.

2.)Copy the following code into your "CustomSearch.ascx" control. This code only modifies the template of the "out-of-the-box" search (mainly just a little space between the search and drop-down) and still maintains all the functionality of the original.

< %@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SearchArea,Microsoft.SharePoint,Version=12.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" compilationMode="Always" % >
< %@ Register Tagprefix="wssawc" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" % >
< %@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" % >
< %@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" % >
< %@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" % >
< %@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" % >
< %
string strScopeWeb = null;
string strScopeList = null;
string strWebSelected = null;
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
string strEncodedUrl
= SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(
SPHttpUtility.UrlPathEncode(web.Url + "/_layouts/searchresults.aspx", false, false)
);
strEncodedUrl = "'" + strEncodedUrl + "'";
strScopeWeb = "'" + SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode( web.Url ) + "'";
SPList list = SPContext.Current.List;
if ( list != null &&
((list.BaseTemplate != SPListTemplateType.DocumentLibrary && list.BaseTemplate != SPListTemplateType.WebPageLibrary) ||
(SPContext.Current.ListItem == null) ||
(SPContext.Current.ListItem.ParentList == null) ||
(SPContext.Current.ListItem.ParentList != list))
)
{
strScopeList = list.ID.ToString();
}
else
{
strWebSelected = "SELECTED";
}
% >
< table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class='ms-searchform' >< tr >
< td >

< input name="SearchString" type="text" value="Search..." id="idSearchString" title="Enter Search Words" class="ms-searchbox" onfocus="if (document.getElementById('sb_state').value =='0') {this.value=''; document.getElementById('sb_state').value=1;}" onblur="if (this.value =='') {this.value='Search...';document.getElementById('sb_state').value = '0'} else {document.getElementById('sb_state').value='1';}" style="width:120px" maxlength="255" ACCESSKEY="S" onKeyDown="return SearchKeyDown(event, < %=strEncodedUrl% >);" title=< %SPHttpUtility.AddQuote(SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode(SearchTextToolTip),Response.Output);% >/ >
< input type="hidden" name="sb_state" id="sb_state" value="0" / >
< /td >
< td style="width:4px;" > < /td >
< td >
< select id='idSearchScope' name='SearchScope' class='ms-searchbox' title=< %SPHttpUtility.AddQuote(SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode(SearchScopeToolTip),Response.Output);% > >
< option value=< %=strScopeWeb% > < %=strWebSelected% > > < SharePoint:EncodedLiteral runat="server" text="< %$Resources:wss,search_Scope_Site% >" EncodeMethod='HtmlEncode' Id='idSearchScopeSite'/ > < /OPTION >
< %
if (strScopeList != null)
{
% >
< option value=< %=strScopeList% > SELECTED > < SharePoint:EncodedLiteral runat="server" text="< %$Resources:wss,search_Scope_List% >" EncodeMethod='HtmlEncode' Id='idSearchScopeList'/ > < /OPTION >
< %
}
% >
< /select >
< /td >
< td >
< div class="ms-searchimage" >< a target='_self' href='javascript:' onClick="javascript:SubmitSearchRedirect(< %=strEncodedUrl% >);javascript:return false;" title=< %SPHttpUtility.AddQuote(SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode(SearchImageToolTip),Response.Output);% > ID=onetIDGoSearch >< img border='0' src="/_layouts/images/gosearch.gif" alt=< %SPHttpUtility.AddQuote(SPHttpUtility.HtmlEncode(SearchImageToolTip),Response.Output);% >/ >< /a >< /div >
< /td >
< /tr >< /table >

3.)Create a feature folder named CustomSearch, this folder will host our feature.

4.)Next, let's create a "Feature.xml" file within our feature folder. This file will tell SharePoint that we have a feature we'd like it to acknowledge. Place the following code within your Feature.xml file:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ? >

< Feature Id="74CC942C-C6F9-48a7-A5CC-1856EE7BABEB"

Title="CustomSearch"

Scope="Farm"

Description="Our Custom Search"

Version="1.0.0.0"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" >

< ElementManifests >

< ElementManifest Location="CustomSearchArea.xml" / >

< /ElementManifests >

< /Feature >

You'll notice that we have all of the needed attributes for our feature.xml element (ID [guid], Title, description, etc..), this is fairly straight forward. The interesting piece of this xml file comes in the "ElementManifest" element, this element has a reference to a file not yet created called "CustomSearchArea.xml". "CustomSearchArea.xml" will contain specific meta-data for our new Custom Search control. Let's create that file.

5.)Create our "CustomSearchArea.xml" file within our feature folder and copy the following xml inside:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? >
< Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" >
< Control
Id="CustomSearchBox"
Sequence="100"
ControlSrc="~/_controltemplates/Customsearcharea.ascx" >
< /Control >
< /Elements >

This is the only "quasi" tricky part in this walkthrough. As we've seen with our previous Feature, the "Elements" element contains the actual definition for the item we're provisioning or creating. The "Control" element contains the definition of our new Custom Control. This element has ID, Sequence, and ControlSrc attributes which directly reference the control we're creating. In our control we define an ID of "CustomSearchBox", a custom sequence of "100", and in our ControlSrc we directly reference the "CustomSearchArea.ascx" file (In our case this file will live in the "ControlTemplates" folder of our 12 hive). These attributes gives SharePoint all the info it needs to declare a new Custom control.

6.)Now, let's test our feature (I'll do a Solution Pack for my next post, but for now we'll have to do the work around). Copy your the "CustomSearch" folder into the 12/Templates/Features folder. Now copy the "CustomSearch.ascx" file into the 12/Templates/ControlTemplates. Once everything is copied run the following commands:

stsadm -o installfeature -name CustomSearch -force

There you have it! If you open Central Administration => Application Management => Farm Features, you'll notice that our new custom search control is there waiting to be activated!

Well another bit of code well done. I know this was a whirl wind so if you have any questions just drop me a comment.

~:)