news:1156489419.542076.12630@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
> What is the exact name to use to get a control reference on an asp.net
> page using FindControl?
> My experience is the following:
> 1. Page.FindControl does not work; it always returns null, even if I
> give the exact control name I'm using, eg. txtFirstName.
> However, this.FindControl works.
>
> 2. There is a page that includes 2 user controls. I'm using
> AddressControl.ascx and have included it twice on the page as
> AddressControl1.ascx and AddressControl2.ascx.
> Now, there will be 2 instances of txtFirstName, but they will be unique
> somehow. If we look into the code of the page, this is what we see:
> <td>
> <input name="AddressControl1$txtFirstName" type="text"
> maxlength="20" id="AddressControl1_txtFirstName" />
> <span id="AddressControl1_lblFirstName" style="color:Red;"></span>
> </td>
>
> and
>
> <td>
> <input name="AddressControl2$txtFirstName" type="text"
> maxlength="20" id="AddressControl2_txtFirstName" />
> <span id="AddressControl2_lblFirstName" style="color:Red;"></span>
> </td>
>
> So we see that the UserControl name is prefixed to the 2 controls to
> make them unique. The interesting thing is that there are 2 things, a
> name, which is AddressControl2$txtFirstName and and ID, which is
> AddressControl2_txtFirstName
>
> Which do we search for, the name or the ID?
> I've given the name to search for, i.e., AddressControl2$txtFirstName,
> and it found my control, but it couldn't find it by the ID.
>
> The final question here is the syntax, i.e., (UserControlVarName $
> UserControlFieldName). How can we ensure that this is not going to
> change in the future with a newer version of ASP.NET? Or is there any
> other way to do this?
>
> Environment: I'm using .NET 2.0 on Windows XP.
>
> Thanks in Advance,
> --Jaffar
>

> hi jaffar,
> i believe the Id is the correct one to use, rather than the name, are you
> sure you didn't forget the underscore character?
>
> if you are calling FindControl from within the user control, you can just
> use this.FindControl("txtName") and you don't need to worry about the
> renamed client ID of the text box.
>
> did you try using an approach like this from your page code-behind:
>
>     this.UserControl1.FindControl("txtName");
>
> this is probably safer than relying on the naming convention you have
> correctly identified of UserControlId_ControlId
>
> tim
>
>
>
> --------------------------
> blog: http://tim.mackey.ie
> <jaffar.k***@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1156489419.542076.12630@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> > Hi,
> > What is the exact name to use to get a control reference on an asp.net
> > page using FindControl?
> > My experience is the following:
> > 1. Page.FindControl does not work; it always returns null, even if I
> > give the exact control name I'm using, eg. txtFirstName.
> > However, this.FindControl works.
> >
> > 2. There is a page that includes 2 user controls. I'm using
> > AddressControl.ascx and have included it twice on the page as
> > AddressControl1.ascx and AddressControl2.ascx.
> > Now, there will be 2 instances of txtFirstName, but they will be unique
> > somehow. If we look into the code of the page, this is what we see:
> > <td>
> > <input name="AddressControl1$txtFirstName" type="text"
> > maxlength="20" id="AddressControl1_txtFirstName" />
> > <span id="AddressControl1_lblFirstName" style="color:Red;"></span>
> > </td>
> >
> > and
> >
> > <td>
> > <input name="AddressControl2$txtFirstName" type="text"
> > maxlength="20" id="AddressControl2_txtFirstName" />
> > <span id="AddressControl2_lblFirstName" style="color:Red;"></span>
> > </td>
> >
> > So we see that the UserControl name is prefixed to the 2 controls to
> > make them unique. The interesting thing is that there are 2 things, a
> > name, which is AddressControl2$txtFirstName and and ID, which is
> > AddressControl2_txtFirstName
> >
> > Which do we search for, the name or the ID?
> > I've given the name to search for, i.e., AddressControl2$txtFirstName,
> > and it found my control, but it couldn't find it by the ID.
> >
> > The final question here is the syntax, i.e., (UserControlVarName $
> > UserControlFieldName). How can we ensure that this is not going to
> > change in the future with a newer version of ASP.NET? Or is there any
> > other way to do this?
> >
> > Environment: I'm using .NET 2.0 on Windows XP.
> >
> > Thanks in Advance,
> > --Jaffar
> >