Thanks for all the feedback. Over the past few weeks, this idea started as a
simple tooltip on a webpage and has now evolved into a much more functional
version....
What I invision is the ability to hover over an object on a webpage and have
an "intellisense" like dropdownlist (just like in visual studio) appear below
that object. The collection in the intellisense list would have icons
associated with each item and when the user selects an item it will redirect
the user to a new page/window. When the user hover's off this object, the
intellisense dropdown will disappear. I feel this is a robust way to make
use of a web page's space and to also add much needed functionality to a
website.
Ken - I would like to see your finished product and any other
idea's/comments you may have. This would also be an opportune time to
cooperate and share some of the development work....
To share some of my work, I have started to develop a rudimentary custom
control that uses the select option html tag and some javascript to hide and
unhide the object when a user mouseover's an object on the form. Since the
select option tag will not accomplish all of the goals of the design, most of
this code will not be extendable.
Please be in touch!
Chris
using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
namespace Applications.Library.Controls
{
[DefaultProperty("Text"),
ToolboxData("<{0}:Intellisense runat=server></{0}:Intellisense>")]
public class Intellisense : WebControl
{
private string text;
[Bindable(true),
Category("Appearance"),
DefaultValue("")]
public string Text
{
get
{
return text;
}
set
{
text = value;
}
}
[
Bindable(true),
Category("Data"),
Description("HTML Select Box Collection")
]
private StringCollection _selectItems ;
public StringCollection SelectItems
{
get { return _selectItems;}
set{_selectItems = value;}
}
[
Bindable(true),
Category("Data"),
Description("HTML Select Box Collection")
]
private int _htmlSelectTagSize = 4;
public int HtmlSelectTagSize
{
get { return _htmlSelectTagSize;}
set{_htmlSelectTagSize = value;}
}
private string WriteJSScript()
{
// should provide alternative if browser can't js
return ("<script type=\"text/javascript\">function
show(elmnt){document.all(elmnt).style.visibility=\"visible\"} function
hide(elmnt){document.all(elmnt).style.visibility=\"hidden\"}</script>");
}
private string WriteCSScript()
{
return
"<style>body{font-family:arial;}table.menu{font-size:100%;position:absolute;visibility:hidden;}</style>";
}
protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnPreRender(e);
Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock("jsBlock",WriteJSScript());
Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock("cssBlock",WriteCSScript());
}
protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)
{
// write html around selectbox
output.Write("<table><tr><td onmouseover=\"show('{0}')\"
onmouseout=\"hide('{0}')\">HoverObject<table
class=\"menu\"><tr><td>",this.ClientID.ToString());
// try to render html listbox / textarea
output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Name, "optSelect");
output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Id,this.ClientID.ToString())
output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Size,_htmlSelectTagSize.ToString());
output.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Select);
// Goal is to loop through SelectItems which is type StringCollection
// StringCollection class implements IEnumerable Interface
if (SelectItems !=null)
{
System.Collections.IEnumerator myEnumerator =
((IEnumerable)SelectItems).GetEnumerator();
while ( myEnumerator.MoveNext() )
{
output.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Option)
output.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Value,myEnumerator.Current.ToString());
output.Write(myEnumerator.Current.ToString());
}
}
output.Write("</select>");
output.Write("</td></tr></table></td></tr></table>");
}
}
}
