I see that they removed the ZoneIndex property from the WebParts in VS2005. My question is how are we supposed to get this ZoneIndex if we want to use the WebPartManager's MoveWebPart() function? I guess I could just cycle through a Zone's webParts until I find it, but that seems terribly inefficient. Are there any plans to address this? Thanks.

The zoneIndex in the MoveWebPart() method will be used to specify where in the zone the webpart should be placed. For example, if you have 3 webparts in one zone, and you want to change the order of the webparts, you use the ZoneIndex.

For example the following code will move the first webparts in the first zone, and place it after the second webpart in the zone:

Webpartmanager1.MoveWebPart(Webpartmanager1.WebParts[0], Webpartmanager1.Zones.Item[0], 2)

If you want the webpart to be at the top of the zone, you will change the zone index to 0.

So there is no need to iterate through all of the zones to move a webpart to a specific zone.

But I want to move the webpart within its own zone, up or down, so I need to either increment or decrement that webpart's current ZoneIndex. In the scenario you are using I would have to know before hand where in the zone the webpart resides and where I want to move the webpart, but that is not always the case, especially if the user has the ability to drag and move the webparts around. I think they should keep the zoneindex property in the webparts or have some way of reaching it.

Here is an example where you can get the zoneindex, maybe it's not so nice, but it will work:

Int index = Webpartmanager1.Zones.Item[0].WebParts.IndexOf((Webpartmanager1.WebParts.Item[0]));


        


        index = index + 1;


        


        Webpartmanager1.MoveWebPart(Webpartmanager1.WebParts.Item[0], Webpartmanager1.Zones.Item[0], index);

Here is a better example:


WebPartZoneBase myZone = Webpartmanager1.Zones["myZone"];
WebPart myWebPart = myZone.WebParts["myWebpart"];

int zoneIndex = myZone.WebParts.IndexOf(myWebPart);

zoneIndex++;

Webpartmanager1.MoveWebPart(myWebPart, myZone, zoneIndex);

It's not the prettiest solution I've ever used, but it's certainly not the ugliest :)
Thanks!

In the Beta, Microsoft will probably add a public ZoneIndex property to the WebPart class.

Yes, I can confirm that there will be a get-only WebPart.ZoneIndex property in the Beta. You still need to call WebPartManager.MoveWebPart() to change the ZoneIndex.