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Kentico Controls


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Related pages

  • Developing web parts
  • Creating ASPX page templates
  • Using Kentico API and Controls externally
  • Community Questions & Answers (opens in a new tab)
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Kentico Controls are standard ASP.NET server controls⁠ (opens in a new tab) that you can use in Visual Studio. Most of the controls focus on loading and displaying data from the Kentico content repository. You can place the controls into:

  • Custom web forms or user controls
  • The user controls (ASCX files) that define custom web parts
  • ASPX page templates and pages that do not use the portal engine
  • Virtual ASCX objects in Kentico such as Page layouts or Transformations

Kentico controls work on the .NET 4.0 and 4.5 Frameworks.

Tip: Before you start working with controls, you can add them to your Visual Studio Toolbox.

Sample Corporate Site required

The examples in this reference assume that your Kentico database contains data from the sample Corporate Site.

Control hierarchy

Kentico Controls make use of the object-oriented nature of the .NET Framework and many of them are derived either from standard ASP.NET controls or from each other. This means that controls with similar functionality have many common properties and configuration options.

The following categories and controls are available:

Generic controls

These controls either serve as base controls that others are derived from, or provide additional functionality such as paging.

  • Adding Kentico controls to the Visual Studio toolbox
  • Generic controls
    • UniView
    • Paging controls
      • UniPager
        • Implementing the IUniPageable interface
      • DataPager
      • TemplateDataPager
  • Basic controls
    • BasicTabControl
    • BasicCalendar
    • BasicDataGrid
    • BasicDataList
    • BasicRepeater
    • BasicUniView
  • CMS controls
    • CMS controls - Navigation
      • CMSBreadCrumbs
      • CMSListMenu
      • CMSMenu
      • CMSSiteMap
      • CMSTabControl
      • CMSTreeMenu
      • CMSTreeView
    • CMS controls - Listings and viewers
      • CMSDocumentValue
      • CMSCalendar
      • CMSDataGrid
      • CMSDataList
      • CMSRepeater
      • CMSUniView
      • CMSViewer
      • Using nested controls
    • CMS controls - Listings and viewers with custom queries
      • QueryDataGrid
      • QueryDataList
      • QueryRepeater
      • QueryUniView
    • CMS controls - Edit mode buttons
      • CMSEditModeButtonAdd
      • CMSEditModeButtonEditDelete
    • CMS controls - Editable regions for ASPX templates
      • CMSEditableRegion
      • CMSEditableImage
    • SQL search controls
      • CMSSearchDialog
      • CMSSearchResults
  • UI controls
    • UniGrid
      • Reference - UniGrid definition
      • Adding custom UniGrid transformations
    • UniSelector

Basic controls

These controls are not strictly bound to the Kentico database or API, and can be used with any type of bindable data. Most basic controls are derived from either intrinsic ASP.NET controls or Generic controls.

CMS controls

Controls designed to work exclusively with Kentico documents and data. Many CMS controls are derived from Basic Controls.

UI controls

These are user controls⁠ (opens in a new tab) that are utilized in the Kentico administration interface. You can also use the UI controls for custom purposes.