N2 for MVC - how to get Zones working?

Question

I'm looking at the N2 CMS Minimal Example for MVC (from here)

I've figured out most of it, but I see that N2 supports 'Parts' that you can drop into 'Zones'.

How do I get Zones and Parts working in the minimal example?

The Html.Zone() command doesn't seem to work out-of-the-box.

Answer 1

With a bit of help from libardo at the N2 forum

Here's the 'minimal' way of adding Zones and Parts to the N2 Minimal Example for MVC:

1) Add this namespace in the web.config pages.namespaces node:

<pages>
  <namespaces>
    ...
    <add namespace="N2.Web.Mvc.Html"/>
    ...

2) Add a Container page model, using the AvailableZones attribute:

using N2.Integrity;
...

[Definition("ContainerPage")]
[AvailableZone("Right", "MyRightZone")]
public class ContainerPage : N2.ContentItem
{
   ...

3) Add Container controller in the usual N2 manner, nothing special needed here to make it a container:

[Controls(typeof(ContainerPage))]
public class ContainerController : ContentController<ContainerPage>
{
    ...

4) In the view for the container, use the Html.DroppableZone function:

<div class="n2zone">
  <% Html.DroppableZone("MyRightZone").Render(); %>
</div>

5) Add a part model, e.g. this one just shows Title as a string. Note that PartDefinition is what makes it a Part that can be dropped into a Zone:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using N2;
using N2.Details;

namespace MyProject.Models
{
    [PartDefinition("SimplePart")]
    [WithEditableTitle("Title", 10)]
    public class SimplePart : ContentItem
    {
        [DisplayableLiteral()]
        public override string Title
        {
            get { return base.Title; }
            set { base.Title = value; }
        } 
    }
}

6) Add a Controller for the Part. This is the usual N2 controller except that we override Index to return a PartialView:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using N2.Web;
using N2.Web.Mvc;
using MyProject.Models;

namespace MyProject.Controllers
{
    [Controls(typeof(SimplePart))]
    public class SimplePartController : ContentController<SimplePart>
    {

        public override ActionResult Index()
        {
            return PartialView(CurrentItem);
        }

    }
}

7) Finally, add a partial view for the Part controller. Nothing special is needed here:

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<MyProject.Models.SimplePart>" %>
<div class="simplePart">
  <%= Html.DisplayContent(m => m.Title) %>
</div>

In the N2 editor you can then drop as many SimpleParts as you like into the ContainerPage pages.