Multiple webparts and ribbon in SharePoint

Question

I am associating ribbon to my webpart. I have a need to add more than two webparts in a page.

I do not want to have a separate contextual group/tab for each webpart. Is there a way to check if a specific group/tab exists in the current ribbon on the page?

At this point, when I add more than one webpart to the page, I an getting the following error:

Item has already been added. Key in dictionary: 'Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup' Key being added: 'Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup'

Here is my code for your reference:

/// <summary>
/// Gets the web part contextual info.
/// </summary>
public WebPartContextualInfo WebPartContextualInfo
{
    get
    {
        var webPartContextualInfo = new WebPartContextualInfo();
        var webPartRibbonContextualGroup = new WebPartRibbonContextualGroup();
        var webPartRibbonTab = new WebPartRibbonTab();

        webPartRibbonContextualGroup.Id = "Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup";
        webPartRibbonContextualGroup.Command = "MyContextualTab.EnableContextualGroup";
        webPartRibbonContextualGroup.VisibilityContext = "MyContextualTab.CustomVisibilityContext";

        webPartRibbonTab.Id = "Ribbon.MyTab";
        webPartRibbonTab.VisibilityContext = "MyContextualTab.CustomVisibilityContext";

        webPartContextualInfo.ContextualGroups.Add(webPartRibbonContextualGroup);
        webPartContextualInfo.Tabs.Add(webPartRibbonTab);
        webPartContextualInfo.PageComponentId = SPRibbon.GetWebPartPageComponentId(this);

        return webPartContextualInfo;
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Adds the contextual tab.
/// </summary>
private void AddContextualTab()
{
    SPRibbon spRibbon = SPRibbon.GetCurrent(Page);

    if (spRibbon == null) return;

    var ribbonExtensions = new XmlDocument();

    ribbonExtensions.LoadXml(_contextualTab);
    spRibbon.RegisterDataExtension(ribbonExtensions.FirstChild, "Ribbon.ContextualTabs._children");

    ribbonExtensions.LoadXml(_contextualTabTemplate);
    spRibbon.RegisterDataExtension(ribbonExtensions.FirstChild, "Ribbon.Templates._children");
}

/// <summary>
/// The event handler for the System.Web.UI.Control.PreRender event that occurs immediately before the Web Part is rendered to the Web Part Page it is contained on.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="e">A System.EventArgs that contains the event data.</param>
protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{
    base.OnPreRender(e);

    AddContextualTab();

    ClientScriptManager clientScriptManager = Page.ClientScript;
    clientScriptManager.RegisterClientScriptBlock(GetType(), "MyWebPart", DelayScript);
}

Answer 1

Contextual ribbons cannot be shared between different instances of a web part. Since the ribbon will only be displayed if your web part instance has the "focus" on the page. Therefore several instances of the web part have to create their own contextual group.

To avoid ribbon ID duplication append a web part instance specific part to the ribbon IDs. You could use the web part's ID:

webPartRibbonContextualGroup.Id = "Ribbon.MyContextualTabGroup." + ID;
// ...
webPartRibbonTab.Id = "Ribbon.MyTab." + ID;
// etc.