Try It Yourself: Write a Simple Application Page

1. Create a new empty SharePoint project and name it DemoApplicationPage. Add a new item of type Application Page named as SiteInfo.aspx. A new ASPX page and code behind file gets added to the project under the LayoutsDemoApplicationPage folder, as shown in Figure 6.8.

Figure 6.8. Demo-ApplicationPage project hierarchy

2. Edit the SiteInfo.aspx and update as follows:

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages" %>
<%@ Register
      Tagprefix="SharePoint"
      Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"
      Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register
      Tagprefix="Utilities"
      Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities"
      Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register
      Tagprefix="asp"
      Namespace="System.Web.UI"
      Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<%@ Assembly
      Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Page
      Language="C#"
      AutoEventWireup="true"
      CodeBehind="SiteInfo.aspx.cs"
      Inherits="DemoApplicationPage.Layouts.DemoApplicationPage.SiteInfo"
      DynamicMasterPageFile="~masterurl/default.master" %>

<asp:Content
      ID="PageHead"
      ContentPlaceHolderID="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead"
      runat="server">

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Main" ContentPlaceHolderID="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
<asp:Literal runat="server" ID="LiteralInfo"></asp:Literal>
</asp:Content>

<asp:Content
      ID="PageTitle"
      ContentPlaceHolderID="PlaceHolderPageTitle"
      runat="server">
Site Info
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content
      ID="PageTitleInTitleArea"
      ContentPlaceHolderID="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea"
      runat="server" >
Site Info
</asp:Content>

3. Edit the code behind as follows:.

using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using System.Text;

namespace DemoApplicationPage.Layouts.DemoApplicationPage
{
    public partial class SiteInfo : LayoutsPageBase
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

            StringBuilder html = new StringBuilder();
            html.Append("Some random info. about the current site <BR/>");
            html.Append("<OL>");
            html.AppendFormat("User Name: {0}  <BR/>",
web.CurrentUser.Name);
            html.AppendFormat("Url : {0}  <BR/>", web.Url);
            html.AppendFormat("User Name: {0}  <BR/>",
web.CurrentUser.Name);
            html.AppendFormat("Site Master Url: {0}  <BR/>",
web.CustomMasterUrl);
            html.AppendFormat("System Master Url: {0}  <BR/>",
web.MasterUrl);
            html.Append("</OL>");

            this.LiteralInfo.Text = html.ToString();
        }
    }
}

4. Build and deploy the solution. Browse to the application page by going to the URL http://localhost/_layouts/DemoApplicationPage/SiteInfo.aspx. You see the screen shown in Figure 6.9.

Figure 6.9. SiteInfo.aspx