Hi to all,

I've to implement a custom module in order to search, index and manage a collection of companies,

since moast funcitions are always the same i'd like to make a module with some (view) controls... I've started a new fresh dnn module with this manifest:

 <modules>
        <module>
          <friendlyname>Companies.Matrix</friendlyname>
          <cachetime>0</cachetime>
          <controls>
            <control>              
              <title>Dashboard</title>
              <src>DesktopModules/Companies/View.ascx</src>
              <type>View</type>
              <helpurl></helpurl>
            </control>
          </controls>
        </module>
        <module>
          <friendlyname>Companies.Search</friendlyname>
          <cachetime>0</cachetime>
          <controls>
            <control>
              <title>Search</title>
              <src>DesktopModules/Companies/Search.ascx</src>
              <type>View</type>
              <helpurl></helpurl>
            </control>
          </controls>
        </module>
        <module>
          <friendlyname>Results</friendlyname>
          <cachetime>0</cachetime>
          <controls>
            <control>
              <title>Results</title>
              <src>DesktopModules/Companies/Results.ascx</src>
              <type>View</type>
              <helpurl></helpurl>
            </control>
          </controls>
        </module>
      </modules>

than...

the first sub-module displays a clustered view  of companies,

the second is a search modul with its form,

and the third sub module will show the result of both the above described sub modules.

so i will like to to perform searches by the use of the 1st and 2nd module, than I'd like to use the third module to display and than manage results.

Then, how to link the 3rd module to the 1st and to the 2nd?

NOTE: each module must be show alone (ie. without the others)

thanks in advice.

I've seen this done in a number of ways

1) DNN has a component called InterModule Communication (IMC) which works like Sharepoint in which two distinct modules on a page can share an interface contract and communicate data back and forth.  I haven't seen *much* on this in the past few years, I do'nt know how many people actually used it. 

2) Event Messaging - DNN offers an event messaging system.  You could use that depending what you  need to do to communicate. I've never used the eventing system so I don't know if this is quite the right mix for it. 

3) The most common thing I've seen is using the ctl parameter in the query string to define which control you want to show up (you have to register these controls in the module definitions) in which case you can just pass the mid (module id) and the ctl (which you define the name in definitions) and it will load that screen.  The catch to this method is that it will *only* show the one control, so if other modules are on the page, they will not be visible when you lcick something to show this one ctl.

4) Bubbling events - I'm not a *big* fan of this, but I know it can certainly be an easy approach.  You could look at the Page object of the ModuleBase (which you inherit into your control).  Use Page.FindControl, or recursivly go through the page controls (your approach is up to you) and find an instance of the control you want.  Then cast and link up to some events so on postback it can respond in some way.  This can have a number of drawbacks too (multiple instances on a page, prefecting when you hook your events in, etc).  that will allow you to have separate modules that can communicate in a more "round-a-bout" fashion (whereas IMC is a bit more elegant as well as the DNN event sink). 

HTH,

Chris

I've done... just by nesting controls:

i've made a 2 "control container"s and some others nested controls dynamically loaded by the internal state of the module... then i've used the Attribute() method to build a communication mechanism between controls, so the control container works as a management component that delegates at each nested control a specific task and makes all nested sub components work together.

Well, it not a perfect projecting pattern, but it works in a simple way :) so i've used it...

Thanks

/D