Messaging Server Control

The Messaging server control allows site users to send and receive messages. Sent messages appear in their recipients' Inbox and the Sent Items list of users who sent them.

Message recipients can be limited to a user’s colleagues or expanded to all Ektron CMS400.NET users.

To learn how a site user interacts with this control on the site, see Messaging.

Messaging

The Messages control can appear on a site. It also appears in the Ektron CMS400.NET Workarea.

Example of Messaging Server Control on Sample Site

Messaging Server Control in Ektron CMS400.NET Workarea

This initial messages screen displays the following information about each message sent to the logged-in user: the user who sent the message, its subject, and when it was sent.

See Also

Sent Messages

Sent Messages provides a list of messages you sent to others. The screen displays the message recipients, subject, and when it was sent.

From the Sent Messages list, you can:

view a message's details. See Messaging Server Control.

compose a new message. See Messaging Server Control.

delete a sent message. See Messaging Server Control.

Viewing a Message

To view a message’s details, click its subject. The details include: user who sent message, recipients, subject, date sent, and message body.

Actions you can take from the message details screen include:

Reply - see Messaging Server Control.

Forward - see Messaging Server Control.

Move to Next or Previous message - see Messaging Server Control

Print - see Messaging Server Control.

Delete - see Messaging Server Control.

Compose new message - See Messaging Server Control.

Reply to a Message

When replying to a message, your reply goes only to the person who sent the message.

By default, a reply contains the original message's subject and body text. But, they can be edited or removed from the new message.

To reply to a message, follow these steps.

1. Find the message to which you want to reply

2. Click the subject.

3. Click Reply ( in the Workarea).

4. The editor appears with the original message’s subject and body text.

5. Compose your reply.

6. Click Send.

Forward a Message

When forwarding a message, you select any number of recipients. A forwarded message initially contains the original message's subject and body text, but they can be edited or removed from the new message.

To forward a message, follow these steps.

1. Select the message you want to print.

2. Click Forward ( in the Workarea).

3. The editor appears with the original message’s subject and body text.

4. Select recipients.

5. Edit the message as desired.

6. Click Send.

7. The message is sent.

Moving to the Next or Previous Message

Web site users can navigate through their messages by clicking Next or Previous, located in the message header. Next ( in the Workarea) opens the next newest message in the list, while Previous ( in the Workarea) opens the next oldest message.

Print a Message

To print a message, follow these steps.

1. Select the message you want to print.

2. Click Print ( in the Workarea).

3. The Print dialog box appears.

4. Select a printer.

5. Click Print.

Delete a Message

Deleting a message permanently deletes it from Ektron CMS400.NET. To delete a message, follow these steps.

1. From the Messages area, select a message then click Delete ( in a sample site, in the Workarea).

2. A dialog asks you to confirm the deletion.

3. Click OK.

4. The message is deleted.

Compose a New Message

Clicking Compose launches the Compose a Message screen. To compose a message, follow these steps.

1. From a Web site's Messages area, click Compose. From the Ektron CMS400.NET Workarea Messages area, click the circled toolbar button.

2. The Compose Message screen appears (Workarea version appears below).

3. Click Browse Users.

4. Select recipients.

5. Add a subject in the Subject field.

6. Add the message body in the editor.

7. Click Send ( in the Workarea).

Pre-Populating the Message's To: Field

You can populate a message's To: field with user names by setting the RecipientParamName property to a QueryString parameter. This feature lets you create a link on a page, such as Send a Message to this user or Send a message to all users in this group.

For example, you create a Web page link to a template containing the Messaging server control, pass a user’s ID in the QueryString as UID, and populate the RecipientParamName property with UID. As a result, the server control reads the user’s ID and completes the To: field with the user’s name.

Here is how the link might look: messaging.aspx?g=pmessage&uid=1

You can pass multiple user IDs. For example: messaging.aspx?g=pmessage&uid=1&uid=20&uid=12&uid=18

Warning! You must include the g=pmessage parameter in the QueryString to open the Messaging server control to its editor. Otherwise, the server control opens to the Inbox.

The VB example below creates a dynamic hyperlink that populates a message's To: field with a logged in user’s colleagues. For this example to work, add a Literal control to a Web form and name it Lit1.

Notes are included as comment text.

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

        Dim frnds As New Ektron.Cms.API.Community.Friends()
        Dim apicontent As New Ektron.Cms.ContentAPI
        Dim dirUsrData() As Ektron.Cms.DirectoryUserData

        If (apicontent.UserId > 0) Then
            dirUsrData = frnds.GetFriends(apicontent.UserId)
            If ((Not IsNothing(dirUsrData)) AndAlso (dirUsrData.Length > 0)) Then
                Dim idx As Integer
                Dim friendsList As String = String.Empty
                For idx = 0 To dirUsrData.Length - 1
                    'friendsList += "&uid=" + dirUsrData(idx).Id.ToString()
                    friendsList = friendsList + "&uid=" + dirUsrData(idx).Id.ToString()
                Next
                Lit1.Text = "<a href=""MsgSample.aspx?g=pmessage" + friendsList + """>Send a message to my friends</a>"
'
'Replace MsgSample.aspx with the Web form that contains the messaging server control.
'Set the RecipientParamName property to "uid" for this example.
'
            Else
                Lit1.Text = "The logged in user currently has no friends"
				

            End If
        Else
            Lit1.Text = "You must be logged in to run this demo"
        End If
        apicontent = Nothing
        frnds = Nothing
    End Sub

Messaging Server Control Properties

The Messaging server control properties are described in this table.

Note: The following table only lists Ektron-specific properties. It does not describe native .NET properties such as font, height, width and border style. For documentation of these properties, see Visual Studio help.

Property

Description

Data Type

Authenticated

Indicates if you are logged in to the CMS Explorer and can use it to browse to Content, Collections, etc. See Also: Working with Ektron CMS400.NET Server Controls

String

DisplayXslt

Determines how information is displayed on the page. Enter the path to the XSL file. It can be relative or absolute.

Warning! If you specify an external file, it is strongly recommended that you do not store this file in your site's Workarea folder. If you store this file in the Workarea folder, the file will be lost when you upgrade.

String

 

DoInitFill

By default, Fill occurs during the Page_Init event. Set to false if you want to postpone the fill-action until later. In this case, FIll is automatically called during the Page Render event.

You might do this if you need to set or change a property on the control in codebehind and have it render with your changes shown.

Boolean

EnablePreSearch

When set to True, all users are pre-loaded and displayed in the search results when browsing for users (an empty string search). If the FriendsOnly property is set to True, only colleagues are pre-loaded and displayed.

Boolean

FriendsOnly

When set to True, users can only send messages to their colleagues. Default is True.

True = send messages to colleagues only

False = send messages to all Ektron CMS400.NET users

Boolean

GroupParamName

Enter the QueryString parameter used to pass the ID of a community group. The default is gid.

Use this property to email all members of a group.

String

Hide

Used to hide output of the control in design time and run time.

True = Hide control

False = Display control

Boolean

JavascriptEditorHeight

Set the height in pixels for the editor. The default is 400.

Note: As of version 7.6, the JavaScript editor has been removed from Ektron CMS400.NET. This property has been deprecated.

Integer

JavascriptEditorHTMLMode

Note: As of version 7.6, the JavaScript editor has been removed from Ektron CMS400.NET. This property has been deprecated.

Set to True to allow users to edit their posts and replies in HTML. The default is False.

String

JavascriptEditorToolbar

Note: As of version 7.6, the JavaScript editor has been removed from Ektron CMS400.NET. This property has been deprecated.

Decide which buttons are available in the Javascript Editor.

String

JavascriptEditorWidth

Set the width in pixels for the editor. The default is 625.

Note: As of version 7.6, the JavaScript editor has been removed from Ektron CMS400.NET. This property has been deprecated.

Integer

Language

Set a language for viewing the server control. This property shows results in design-time (in Visual Studio) and at run-time (in a browser).

Integer

ProfileParamName

The QueryString parameter used to pass the ID of a user to a profile page or location template when a user name is clicked in the Browse User screen. The default is ID.

The parameter defined in this property is appended to the QueryString of the path defined in the ProfileUrl property. The default is ID.

Warning! This parameter must match the parameter set in the UserProfile server control’s DynamicParameter property on the page defined in the ProfileUrl property.

String

ProfileUrl

The URL of the profile page template. This page opens in a new window when a user clicks a display name on the Browse Users screen.

This provides additional profile information about the potential message recipient.

String

RecipientParamName

Enter the QueryString parameter used to pass a user ID. For example, if the QueryString is ?uid=1, enter uid in this property.

To pass several users, enter a comma -separated list of user IDs. For example:?uid=1,20,12,18

This property is typically used when you want to populate a message's To: field. See Also: Pre-Populating the Message's To: Field

String

Stylesheet

Specify the path to a style sheet for use with the server control. The location can be relative or absolute. Leave blank to use the default style sheet.

Warning! If you enter a valid EkML file at the MarkupLanguage property, the Stylesheet property is ignored.

String

SuppressWrapperTags

Suppresses the output of the span/div tags around the control. The default is False.

True - Suppress wrap tags.

False - Allow wrap tags.

Boolean

UserSearchDisplayXslt

The XSLT used to display the user search control inside the Messaging server control. The default is MsgUserSelect.xsl.

Warning! : If you want to edit this file, it is strongly recommended that you make a copy, change its name and move it outside of your site's Workarea folder. If you make changes to this file and do not move it out of the Workarea, this file and the changes will be lost when you upgrade.

String

WrapTag

Allows a developer to specify a server control’s tag. The default is Span.

Span - The <span> tag is used to designate an inline portion of an HTML document as a span element.

Div - The <div> tag is used when you want to apply attributes to a block of code.

Custom - Allows you to use a custom tag.

String
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