How to create custom SharePoint 2010 Application Page using Visual Studio 2010

Creating Empty SharePoint Project:

• Open Visual Studio 2010.
• Go to File => New => Project.
• Select 2010 from the installed templates SharePoint and choose Empty SharePoint Project.
• Name it as CustomApplicationPage.
• Click Add.
• Enter the SharePoint server farm URL.
• Select ‘Deploy it as a Farm Solution”.
• Click Finish.

Adding Application Page:

• Right click the Solution Explorer and select Add a new item.
• Select Application Page from the installed templates SharePoint and name it as CustomApplicationPage.
• Once you add the application page it will automatically create the Layouts Folder.
• In the solution explorer you could see Layouts -> CustomApplicationPage ->CustomApplicationPage.aspx.
• Once you deploy the solution the pages will be automatically placed in the 14 hive layouts folder.
• Open CustomApplicationPage.aspx from the solution explorer.
• In the “PlaceHolderMain” add one asp label control.
• And change the “PlaceHolderPageTitle” content to ‘My Application Page” as shown in the following code.ASPX Code
  <%@ Assembly Name=”$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$” %>
  <%@ Import Namespace=”Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages” %>
  <%@ Register TagPrefix=”SharePoint” Namespace=”Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls”
  Assembly=”Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c” %>
  <%@ Register TagPrefix=”Utilities” Namespace=”Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities” Assembly=”Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c” %>
  <%@ Register TagPrefix=”asp” Namespace=”System.Web.UI” Assembly=”System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35″ %>
  <%@ Import Namespace=”Microsoft.SharePoint” %>
  <%@ Assembly Name=”Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c” %>
  <%@ Page Language=”C#” AutoEventWireup=”true” CodeBehind=”MyApplicationPage.aspx.cs”
  Inherits=”spFarmCS.Layouts.spFarmCS.CustomApplicationPage” DynamicMasterPageFile=”~masterurl/default.master” %>
  <asp:Content ID=”PageHead” ContentPlaceHolderID=”PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead” runat=”server”>
  My Page Head
  </asp:Content>
  <asp:Content ID=”Main” ContentPlaceHolderID=”PlaceHolderMain” runat=”server”>
  <table>
  <tr><td><asp:UpdatePanel ID=”upMyUpdatePanel” runat=”server” UpdateMode=”Always”>
  <ContentTemplate><table><tr><td colspan=”2″>
  <h1>Select the state</h1></td></tr>
  <tr><td>State</td><td>
  <asp:DropDownList ID=”ddlState” runat=”server” OnSelectedIndexChanged=”ddlState_SelectedIndexChanged”
  AutoPostBack=”true”>
  <asp:ListItem Text=”–select–” Value=”-1″ /><asp:ListItem Text=”Maharashtra” Value=”1″ />
  <asp:ListItem Text=”Gujarat” Value=”2″ /><asp:ListItem Text=”Karnataka” Value=”3″ />
  </asp:DropDownList>
  </td></tr>
  <tr><td>City</td>
  <td><asp:DropDownList ID=”ddlCity” runat=”server”></asp:DropDownList></td>
  </tr>
  </table>
  </ContentTemplate></asp:UpdatePanel>
  </td>
  </tr>
  </table>
  </asp:Content>
  <asp:Content ID=”PageTitle” ContentPlaceHolderID=”PlaceHolderPageTitle” runat=”server”>
  Sharepoint Application Page
  </asp:Content>
  <asp:Content ID=”PageTitleInTitleArea” ContentPlaceHolderID=”PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea”
  runat=”server”>
  Using Application Page in Share Point
  </asp:Content>
  CS Code
  using System;
  using Microsoft.SharePoint;
  using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
  namespace spFarmCS.Layouts.spFarmCS
  {
  public partial class MyApplicationPage : LayoutsPageBase
  {
  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
  }
  protected void ddlState_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
  ddlCity.Items.Clear();
  if (ddlState.SelectedItem.Text == “Maharashtra”)
  {
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“–select–“, “-1″));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Mumbai”, “1”));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Pune”, “2”));
  }
  else if (ddlState.SelectedItem.Text == “Gujarat”)
  {
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“–select–“, “-1″));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Rajkot”, “1”));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Ahmdabad”, “2”));
  }
  else if (ddlState.SelectedItem.Text == “Karnataka”)
  {
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“–select–“, “-1″));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Banglore”, “1”));
  ddlCity.Items.Add(new System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem(“Mysore”, “2”));
  }
  }
  }
  }
• Build the solution.
• Deploy the solution.

Testing:

• Go to the http://servername:2010/_layouts/CustomApplicationPage/ CustomApplicationPage.aspx.
• A new custom application page has been created in SharePoint 2010 as shown below.
  

Summary:

This article is mainly written to explain that a new template “Application Page” is available in the installed templates “SharePoint ” -> “2010” and how to use that in visual studio 2010