PageCatalogPart Web Server Control Overview

Article
10/22/2014

The PageCatalogPart Web server control provides a catalog that keeps references to all WebPart controls (and other server controls that are contained in WebPartZoneBase zones) that a user has closed on a single Web Parts page. The user interface that is provided by the PageCatalogPart control enables the user to add the closed controls back to the page at run time.

This topic contains:

Background
Code Examples
Class Reference

Background

The PageCatalogPart control acts as a page catalog to maintain any controls that were previously added to the page and that a user has closed. Later, the user can add them back to the page. This control is visible only when a Web page is in catalog-display mode, which is a special view that lets users add and remove controls on the page. Only closed controls are added to the page catalog. Add a PageCatalogPart control to your page if you want to provide users with the flexibility of closing and reopening controls.

Note

If your page does not let users close controls, you do not have to add a PageCatalogPart control to the page.

For more information, see ASP.NET Web Parts Controls.

About Closed Controls

Users can close controls on a Web Parts page. A closed control has the following characteristics:

It is not visible on the page.
It is not rendered on the page.
It does not participate in page life-cycle phases.

Closing a control is different from deleting it, which permanently removes it from the page. A user can reopen a closed control instance from a page catalog, but after a user deletes a control, that control cannot be recovered.