Dock with Cross Application Controls

[Shane]

My company has 5 separate applications all having some type of dashboard.  We are looking to build an overall workbench application that would allow the applications to be loosely coupled.  Our goal is to remove core items like navigation from each sub-application and have the overall workbench application manage navigation loading each screen from sub-applications via iframes.  This allows us to keep each system loosely coupled and in the end easier to maintain diverse code bases. 

Here-in is the issue.  If each application has a set of dockable controls, how can they be docked on the overall workbench application?  Obviously we can convert each sub-application control to an ASPX and for the overall workbench dashboard, basically have one control type that loads an IFrame within its control.  From what I have seen in the support forum, this is perhaps a less than desirable solution.  If I don't go this route, is there a way I can share controls across applications without having to package every single application up as a solution.  This would be somewhat problematic since some of our customers have 2 of the apps, others 5 and so on. Worse yet is each of the 5 applications are on different release schedules which could be an extreme coordination problem.

It is for this reason alone, that we have not committed to the Telerik solutions and would greatly appreciate any design suggestions for this situation.

Thanks,
Shane

[Pero]

Hello Shane,

The issue with using <iframe/> elements is you can't move controls from one <iframe/> to another. Take a look at our Right-To-Left demo of the RadDock control, RadDock RTL demo; note that you can't move a dock outside of the <iframe/>.
The only approach I can think of at the moment is using different UserControl for each application. Depending on which applications the customers have, you load the respective controls. However this might increase the coupling among the applications, so I am not sure if this is the right approach for you?
I will ask some our senior developers for further information, and will let you know their opinion.

All the best,
Pero
the Telerik team

[Pero]

Hello Shane,

As promised I asked some of our senior developers today, and he shared the same opinion when it comes to <iframe/>s. You cannot move controls from the different applications to the workbench app, or to other applications, if you use <iframe/>s.
Similarly, he suggested using custom controls (or user controls) for each logical application, and then make a single application from the different controls for each customer.

All the best,
Pero
the Telerik team

[Shane]

Sorry for the late response.

I think you somewhat misunderstand my question.  We have 5 applications each having around 10 customized graph and gauge controls mixed through-out their application.  Our desire is to create a 6th application that can consolidate navigation, security and in this case a dashboard.  We want to be able to add controls to this 6th application dashboard similar to the My Portal example but with the controls coming from the 5 other applications.  In general it is like one application with sub-systems.  Using the My Portal example, what are our options if we want to allow the user to choose from the 50 controls since the LoadModule must be a virtual path?  In some cases we may even want to show controls from other sites, however for performance reasons we may have to build proxy controls anyhow.

Thanks,
Shane

[Shane]

I did experiment to see if I could configure the apps as follows:

• Workbench App loaded as http://localhost/Workbench
• Each sub-app with multiple ASCX controls as http://localhost/Workbench/App/Application1

The last reference could represent multiple applications, each having their own controls and using different library sets (versions and brands).  I am still unable to perform a LoadModule with a parameter like ~/App/Application1/Controls/MyCustomControl.ascx, so are there other options for cross application controls beside wrapping them on a dock control in a splitter and embed them in an ASPX page?

Shane

[Pero]

Hi Shane,

The RadDock control is built on top of the ASP.NET framework, and loading a user control from outside of the application depends on the framework itself and not on the control. I found a useful article on the internet that might help you achieve the desired scenario. Here is a link to it - ASP.NET: Reusing Web User Controls and Forms.

Kind regards,
Pero
the Telerik team

[Felix]

Hello, i am new user .

[Rumen]

Hi Felix,

Welcome to the Telerik forums! We hope that you'll find them interesting and useful.

Best Regards,
Rumen
Progress Telerik