Template

CHAN Reference

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Name Template
CSS Class NA
Type NA

The Template class works as an intermediary between the Chan.Page's ASPX and a raw HTML file. It takes the contents of the ASPX, as well as any script and style definitions and places them in pre defined "Regions" within the HTML file.

In order to use a Template you must first create it and bind it to your page in the Page's Template_Init() method. This method is called before any other Page event especially for template binding. It is possible to assign the template at any point up to and including the Page_PreRender function, but this would be considered an advanced use case and is not recommended for simple sites. Instead you should create a base Page class that impliments Template_Init and derive your site's pages from that.

Built In Regions

These are automatically populated when the Page is rendered, so setting them from your own code will have no effect on their final contents

Qualifiers	Name	Description
	Head	This should go at the top of the HEAD block in the HTML and will contain references to the Chan CSS and JS resources as well as any scripts specified in Page.Page_Scripts and Page.Page_Styles
	Content	This is where the contents of the ASPX are rendered into the HTML, Excluding any Panels that have Region set.
	Title	A combination of Page.Page_Title and web.config:Chan_Site_Title. These are joined by a hyphen depending on web.config:Page_Title_Position
	Page_Title	The Page.Page_Title for the current Page
	Site_Title	web.config:Chan_Site_Title
	Keywords	This will contain a META tag combining Page.Page_Keywords with web.config:Chan_Site_Keyboards
	Description	This will contain a META tag combining Page.Page_Description with web.config:Chan_Site_Description
	Http_Root	web.config:Chan_Http_Root, without any trailing slash
	Site_Root	web.config:Chan_Site_Root, without any trailing slash
	Chan_Root	web.config:Chan_Chan_Root, without any trailing slash

Properties

Type	Name	Description
string	[ string ]	The default accessor allows you to set the contents of each region directly, new Regions are created automatically if they do not exist.
string	Template	The path to the file on disk that contains the templated HTML, it can be a full absolute path ("C:\private\templates\home.htm"), relative to the web site root ("/templates/purple.htm") or contain escaped Chan Paths ("[Chan_Fragments]/basic.htm").
HashTable	Regions	This is the actual collection that houses the Regions in the form of key/value string pairs, you can manually add and remove regions by referencing this collection.

Methods

Qualifiers	Type	Name	Parameters	Description
public	Template		()	The default constructor
public	Template		( string _TemplateFile)	Overloaded constructor allowing you to specify the template filename
public virtual	void	PreRender	()	This is the final function to be called before Page Rendering, after Page.PreRender
protected	void	Set	( string Key , string Value )	Allows you to set the contents of a Region wether or not it already exists in the Regions HashTable, if it does not the Region is created
protected	string	Get	( string Key )	Allows you to get the contents of a Region wether or not it already exists in the Regions HashTable, if it does not it returns ""
protected virtual	string	Tag	( string Key )	By default this returns String.Concat( "<!--" , Key , "-->" ). By overloading this function you can use any escaping scheme you desire.
public virtual	string	FallBackRender	()	By default this returns a HTML string containing a Strict DocType with only the Head, Title and Content regions set, it is used if no TemplateFile is defined or the file can not be found.

Regions are defined in the HTML as if they were comment blocks - this allows unfilled regions to remain inconspicuous. A basic HTML template might look like the following:

<html>
    <head>
        <!--Head-->
        <title><!--Title--></title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <!--Contents-->
    </body>
</html>

To bind the Template to the page the above could be saved as "MyTemplate.htm" under a folder named "templates" in the web site's root and then referenced thus:

using System;
using Chan;

public class MyPage : Chan.Page
{
    protected override void Template_Init()
    {
        Template = new Template( "/templates/MyTemplate.htm" );
    }
}

To define custom regions in your template simply write them into your HTML...

<html>
    <head>
        <!--Head-->
        <title><!--Title--></title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="header">
            <h2><!--MyTitle--></h2>
        </div>

        <!--Contents-->

        <div id="footer"><!--Footer--></div>
    </body>
</html>

The you can reference them directly from code...

using System;
using Chan;

public class MyPage : Chan.Page
{
    protected override void Template_Init()
    {
        Template = new Template( "/templates/MyTemplate.htm" );
        Template[ "MyTitle" ] = "Welcome to My Site!";        
    }
}

Or fill them using Chan Panels:

<%@ Page
    Inherits="MySite.MyPage"
%>

<Chan:Panel runat="server" Region="Footer">
    Site contents &copy; 2009 Me
</Chan:Panel>

<p>
    This is my first Template based Chan site.
</p>

The final output of the above will look similar to the following:

Welcome to My Site!