In ASP.NET, a web page helper is a reusable component or utility that provides common functionality or simplifies tasks related to developing web pages. These helpers can assist with tasks like generating HTML markup, handling user input, managing sessions, or interacting with databases. Let's break it down with an example:
Example: Pagination Helper
Let's say you have a web page that displays a list of items, and you want to implement pagination to display a limited number of items per page. You can create a pagination helper to generate the pagination controls and handle page navigation logic.
Example
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
public class PaginationHelper
{
public static string GeneratePaginationLinks(int currentPage, int totalPages)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
// Generate "Previous" link
if (currentPage > 1)
{
sb.Append($"<a href=\"?page={currentPage - 1}\">Previous</a>");
}
// Generate page number links
for (int i = 1; i <= totalPages; i++)
{
if (i == currentPage)
{
sb.Append($"<span>{i}</span>"); // Current page, no link
}
else
{
sb.Append($"<a href=\"?page={i}\">{i}</a>");
}
}
// Generate "Next" link
if (currentPage < totalPages)
{
sb.Append($"<a href=\"?page={currentPage + 1}\">Next</a>");
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
In this example, the PaginationHelper class provides a static method GeneratePaginationLinks that generates HTML markup for pagination links based on the current page number (currentPage) and total number of pages (totalPages). It creates links for navigating to the previous and next pages, as well as links for each page number.
You can then use this helper in your ASP.NET web page to generate pagination controls:
Example
<%@ Page Language="C#" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<!-- Display items here -->
<!-- Display pagination links -->
<div>
<%= PaginationHelper.GeneratePaginationLinks(currentPage, totalPages) %>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This way, you can easily incorporate pagination functionality into your ASP.NET web page by using the pagination helper without having to write the pagination logic repeatedly in multiple pages. This promotes code reuse and simplifies maintenance.