IBuySpy Portal Documentation
 

Introduction
The IBuySpy Portal Solution Starter Kit demonstrates how you can use ASP.NET and the .NET Framework to build either an intranet or Internet portal application.   It also demonstrates a host of developer "best practices" to follow when building ASP.NET applications.   Please review the code below to see how the application was architected and built.

All code contained in the IBuySpy Portal download package is free for use in your own applications. Some images are copyrighted, however; please see below .

Portal Modules
Portal modules let you organize, display and maintain data. The IBuySpy Portal sample provides 10 "out of the box" modules you can use.   All 10 portal modules provide "desktop browser" rendering support -- meaning they can be used to target all standard html based browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc).   4 of the portal modules also provide "mobile device" rendering support -- meaning they can be used to target small mobile devices that support either HTML, WML/WAP, or CHTML rendering markup.

Each portal module UI element is implemented as an ASP.NET User Control that displays the module's data/content within a portal page. A portal module targeting mobile devices is implemented using the standard mobile controls that ship as part of the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit for ASP.NET (these server controls are typically denoted with the "mobile:" tag prefix). Optionally, each portal module may also include an Edit Page to let users interactively update the data, business components to interface to the data source, and stored procedures to fetch/update the data.

Click on the links below to view the files that implement the standard "out of the box" modules. Note that the portal framework is not limited to supporting only the built-in modules. It is easy for developers to develop and integrate their own custom modules into the portal as well.   Click here to discover how.

Announcements Contacts Discussion Documents Events Html Module Image Links QuickLinks <%--WebPart Module --%> Xml/Xsl Module

Portal Framework
All configuration for the portal is stored within a SQL Server database -- enabling web administrators to easily deploy an instance of the portal accross multiple front-end web servers (each pulling the appropriate configuration data out of the same portal configuration database).

The Portal Framework code listed below uses this configuration data to control the portal's content layout (ie: what portal tabs are displayed -- and what portal modules live on each tab) and security settings (ie: user roles, access permissions, etc).

Configuration is loaded on each request from within the Portal Application's Global.asax file using the Configuration business component.   It is then used from within either the Portal's DesktopDefault.aspx page (if the accessing browser is an HTML desktop device -- IE, Netscape, Opera, etc) or within the Portal's MobileDefault.aspx (if the accessing computer is a mobile device) to correctly render a tab view of the portal.
The portal framework logic is encapsulated within 3 pages, 3 user controls, 3 class files, 2 stored procedures, the global.asax file and an XML configuration file. Click on the links below to view the files that make up the portal framework:

Global.asax Pages User Controls Classes Stored Procedures Application Configuration File Portal Stylesheet
Portal Admin Tool
The IBuySpy Portal provides an online Admin tool that permits users in the "Admins" role to manage the content, layout and security of the portal. For information about how to use the Admin tool, see the "About the Portal" tab.

The Portal Admin Tool updates this portal configuration using an AdminDB component (referenced below):

User Controls on Admin Tab Admin Pages Business Components


About the IBuySpy Portal
All code contained in the IBuySpy Portal download package is free for use in your own applications. Images in the "images" subdirectory are an integral part of the portal or built-in portal modules, and are also free for your use.

The IBuySpy Portal Solution Starter Kit is intended only as a supplement to Microsoft Development Tools, the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK and/or on-line documentation. See these other materials for detailed information regarding Microsoft code samples.

THIS CODE AND INFORMATION ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The IBuySpy Portal was developed by Microsoft Corporation in partnership with Vertigo Software, Inc. Copyright (c) 2001 Microsoft Corporation. Portions Copyright by PhotoDisc, Inc. IBuySpy is a service mark of Vertigo Software, Inc.