Create a Site Definition file with Visual Web part in Visual Studio

Question

I tried to create a site definition file in Visual Studio 2013 and SharePoint 2013 by following the MSDN tutorial:
Walkthrough: Create a Basic Site Definition Project. Near the end, I added a virtual web part control to the site definition and registered MyWebPartControls in the site definition's default ASPX page as written in the MSDN tutorial:
Unfortunately, IntelliSense doesn't show any MyWebPartControls: tags, and VisualWebPart1 is highlighted with a warning “Element 'SMWebPart3' is not a known element. This can
occur if there is a compilation error in the Web site, or the web.config file is missing.”
Since it’s a warning, I went ahead to build and deploy the solution. However, when I used the site definition template to create a subsite, it returned a parser error:
Unknown server tag 'MyWebPartControls:TestSiteDef1.VisualWebPart1'
I spent half day researching and debugging, and finally solved the problem. The issue is on the registration line:
<%@ Register Tagprefix="MyWebPartControls" Namespace="TestSiteDef.VisualWebPart1" Assembly="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
The $SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$ is a replaceable parameter to provide values for SharePoint solution items whose actual values are not known at design time. Unfortunately, it does not find the right assembly name during the deployment. It should
be replaced by the Assembly’s Strong Name. Here is how I fixed the problem step by step:
In Solution Explorer, open the package node and double click Package.package
Click Manifest tab in the Package.package.
Copy the full assembly name in the package’s manifest. It may be similar like this:
          Assembly="TestSiteDef,
Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a300f1f2da8ae976"
Back to the site definition’s default.aspx page, replace the
                 Assembly="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName"
in the registration line with the copied text:
Assembly="TestSiteDef,
Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a300f1f2da8ae976"
Change the Namespace from
Namespace="TestSiteDef.VisualWebPart1"
to
Namespace="TestSiteDef".
The line to register the web part in a site definition file will look like this:
<%@
Register
Tagprefix="MyWebPartControls"
Namespace="TestSiteDef "
Assembly="TestSiteDef, Version=1.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a300f1f2da8ae976"
%>
Clean, build and deploy the solution. It works like charm. (Note: the warning message on visual web part may still exist, but you can ignore it).

Answer 1

Assuming your .ascx.vb file is inheriting from the web part class, you can add the custom properties in the same manor (language syntax aside).
Be sure to use the attributes to correctly identify and scope the properties. (see:
http://www.sbrickey.com/Tech/Blog/Post/SharePoint_Attributes_for_Web_Part_properties)
Scott Brickey
MCTS, MCPD, MCITP
www.sbrickey.com