Problem with custom web part adding contextual ribbon tab

Question

Follow the example illustrated in http://blog.dennus.net/2010/07/20/ribbon-buttons-with-postback-in-sp2010/, rather than using declarative approach in this example, I created custom web part class and registered ribbon data extension, pageComponent script and etc. during OnPreRender event.

Everything appears to be working just fine, I got my contextual group/tab/control rendered when web part page is displayed. However, if I add two of my custom web parts on the same page, I ran into error: ArgumentException: Item has already been added. Key in dictionary: 'Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup' Key being added: 'Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup'].

How can I avoid this problem? What is the best approach? Ideally I would like the ribbon contextual group/tab/control render differently when different custom web part on the page is selected but I missed how that part works in SharePoint 2010 Ribbon framework.

In an attempt to detect that the first web part on the page may have registered the contextual group, I tried SPRibbon.IsTabAvailable(tabID) but this always returns me true - even before I actually added the tab XML data extension. I am quite confused. Note I did not use the Custom Action/feature deployment approach but dynamically register ribbon data extension and page component.

Below are code snippet showing how I added the ribbon:



Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.Ribbon ribbon = SPRibbon.GetCurrent(theWebPart.Page);
if (ribbon != null)
{
   // register data extension
   XmlDocument ribbonExtensions = new XmlDocument();
   ribbonExtensions.LoadXml(ContextualGroupInfo.ToXml());
   ribbon.RegisterDataExtension(ribbonExtensions.FirstChild, 
     "Ribbon.ContextualTabs._children");

   // Register initialize function
   var manager = new SPRibbonScriptManager();
   var methodInfo = typeof(SPRibbonScriptManager).GetMethod(
      "RegisterInitializeFunction", 
      System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);

   methodInfo.Invoke(manager, new object[]
      {
         webPart.Page,
         "InitPageComponent",
         "/_layouts/PageComponent.js",
         false,
         "RibbonCustomization.PageComponent.initialize()"
      });

   var commands = new List();
   commands.Add(new SPRibbonCommand(ContextualGroup.EnableContextualGroupCommand));
   commands.Add(new SPRibbonCommand(ContextualTab.EnableContextualTabCommand));
   ...
   // add ribbon button commands
   ...

   // initialize tab
   ribbon.Minimized = false;
   ribbon.CommandUIVisible = true;  
   if (!ribbon.IsTabAvailable(ContextualTab.ID))
   {
       ribbon.MakeTabAvailable(ContextualTab.ID);
       ribbon.EnableVisibilityContext(ContextualTab.VisibilityContext);
       ribbon.MakeContextualGroupInitiallyVisible(ContextualTabGroupID, string.Empty);
       ribbon.NormalizeContextualGroup(ContextualTabGroupID, string.Empty);
   }

   // Make the tab active by default when the page is opened.
   ribbon.InitialTabId = ContextualTab.ID;
   ...
}

can you add the full stack trace of the error, where is it getting thrown from — djeeg
Here is the short stack trace: [ArgumentException: Item has already been added. Key in dictionary: 'Ribbon.QuestContextualTabGroup' Key being added: 'Ribbon.QuestContextualTabGroup'] System.Collections.Hashtable.Insert(Object key, Object nvalue, Boolean add) Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.RibbonRenderer.RenderRibbon(...) Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.Ribbon.AppendRibbon(...) Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.Ribbon.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) +1394 Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPRibbon.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) ... System.Web.UI.Page.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) It crashes the SharePoint page. — sean

djeeg djeeg · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-24T03:21:44

It sounds like you are adding a TabGroup twice to the ribbon collection somewhere. Always have your add code surrounded by a check to see if the tab group has already been added.

if (!ribbon.IsTabAvailable(yourid)) {
    ribbon.MakeTabAvailable(yourid);
}

Is that what your add code looks like?

Problem with custom web part adding contextual ribbon tab

2 Answers