Sitefinity CMS has a built-in WYSIWYG page editor.  WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get.  This term is used to describe a system in which content displayed during editing looks similar (if not identical) to the final output

The alternative to WYSIWYG page editing is a sandboxed composition mode where content looks nothing like the final results.  In this environment, editors must constantly toggle into a preview mode to see the results of content changes.  Sitefinity deliberately choose a WYSIWYG editing experience to minimize the steps (and pain) needed to edit, preview & publish content changes. 

However, to create an accurate representation of the final page Sitefinity needs to execute the controls & code used on the page.  In some circumstances, this can create problems.  Thankfully there is an easy solution to this problem.

Disabling WYSIWYG

A few weekends ago during the WAM2010 charity ...

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS can be extended using traditional ASP.NET Custom Controls.  These controls, once compiled, can be distributed and shared between Sitefinity web sites.

Support for templates can be added to Custom Controls by inheriting from the SimpleControl class.  These templates allow the control to be customized on a per web site basis by replacing the default template.

Replacing Control Templates

The original control relies on specific controls found in the template.  If a custom template is used and these controls are missing, the control will crash.  Consequently, it’s useful to have the original template to get information about the template requirements.

Unfortunately, this might be impossible.  The original template will be contained in a DLL file and the source-code unavailable.  Consequently, retrieving the original template becomes difficult.

As of this writing, the only way to retrieve the original template is to ask the programmer for it.  ...

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS can be extended using traditional ASP.NET Custom Controls.  These controls, once compiled, can be distributed and shared between Sitefinity web sites.

However, when sharing controls between web sites, it often becomes necessary to customize the presentation per web site.  If the control supports templates, it’s possible to customize the control’s presentation template.

There are a variety of ways to to specify a custom template.  This blog post demonstrates how to wrap the original control in an ASP.NET User Control and specify an in-line template.  However, another strategy is to create a mapping between a control and a template.

Tip: For information about adding Template support to Custom Controls, refer to Using Templates with Custom Sitefinity Controls.

Create a Custom User Control to wrap the Original Control

In-line templates can be set using the <LayoutTemplate> section of the custom control.  In the example below, ...

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS can be extended using traditional ASP.NET Custom Controls.  These controls, once compiled, can be distributed and shared between Sitefinity web sites.

However, when sharing controls between web sites, it often becomes necessary to customize the presentation per web site.  If the control supports templates, it’s possible to customize the control’s presentation template.

There are a variety of ways to to specify a custom template.  This blog post demonstrates how to map a control to a custom external template.  However, another strategy is to wrap the control in an ASP.NET User Control and provide an in-line template.

For information and a video describing how to create a Custom Control that supports Templates, refer to Using Templates with Custom Sitefinity Controls.

Create a Customized External Template

Before a control can be mapped to an external template the customized template must first be created.  In the ...

Sitefinity ASP.NET CMS can be easily extended using traditional ASP.NET Controls.  However, ASP.NET controls come in two flavors: User Controls & Custom Controls.  User Controls are easier to create, but Custom Controls are easier to distribute.

In the case of Custom Controls, the compiled control can be distributed to multiple Sitefinity projects via a single DLL file.  However, a problem arises when Sitefinity web sites need to share controls but also need to customize the control’s design on a per web site basis.  Because all code is embedded in a DLL file it's impossible to make these customizations.

The solution to this problem is templates.  Custom Controls can use embedded templates that can be overridden, if desired, to customize the presentation.  Templates make it possible for the presentation to be modified without needing to alter the core assembly.

This article (and video) examines how templates ...