Category Administration Module

Originally the purpose of this module was to demonstrate how to make a category administration module that allowed for unlimited nesting of categories. Then I decided to have a TreeView so I implemented the HierarchicalDataSourceControl and IHierarchicalDataSource interfaces so that the TreeView could automatically bind to the data source.

I then had to implement caching so that the database wasn't hit so many times. Now the TreeView will only hit the database once. As long as the ASP.NET app domain for the application is active it will use cached data. If you make a change to the database using the module the cache will be refreshed.

Next, I decided to implement the Category drop-down control from this tutorial to allow you to easily move a category by selecting the new parent in the drop down and clicking update.

This is when the complications started. I realized that I needed code to move the element and all the child elements. Then I added the ability to delete an element. This also required code to also readjust child elements.

So the module is no longer simple but it works and should save you a lot of time if you need this functionality. It also uses Linq to SQL.

You can read the article and download the module and source code here:

http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/Misc/CategoryAdmin/CategoryAdmin.htm