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I am looking at a problem which is preventing my code to get a reference to
any asp control inside a div section which has a runat=server attribute.

This can be reproduced in a simple test:
Create a blank webform and add this html inside the <form> section:
<div id="myDiv" runat=server>
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
</div>

In the code behind, add this code in the page_load event handler:

foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
{

}

Put a breakpoint on the first curly brace. When the code breaks, look at
the Controls collection in the debugger. One of the controls shows:
{InnerText =
'((System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlContainerControl )(this.Controls._controls
[1])).InnerText' threw an exception of type 'System.Web.HttpException'}

Inside my loop, I have code to get a reference to the textbox which never
excutes. When I remove the runat=server from the div tag, the exception is
gone.

What am I missing?

TIA.

John Dalberg

try putting your controls inside an aspanel control instead. I believe it
renders a div anyway.
Peter
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"John Dalberg" wrote:

> I am looking at a problem which is preventing my code to get a reference to
> any asp control inside a div section which has a runat=server attribute.
>
> This can be reproduced in a simple test:
> Create a blank webform and add this html inside the <form> section:
> <div id="myDiv" runat=server>
> <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
> </div>
>
> In the code behind, add this code in the page_load event handler:
>
> foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
> {
>
> }
>
> Put a breakpoint on the first curly brace. When the code breaks, look at
> the Controls collection in the debugger. One of the controls shows:
> {InnerText =
> '((System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlContainerControl )(this.Controls._controls
> [1])).InnerText' threw an exception of type 'System.Web.HttpException'}
>
> Inside my loop, I have code to get a reference to the textbox which never
> excutes. When I remove the runat=server from the div tag, the exception is
> gone.
>
> What am I missing?
>
> TIA.
>
> John Dalberg
>

"John Dalberg" <> wrote in message
news:20070509135949.045$...
>I am looking at a problem which is preventing my code to get a reference to
> any asp control inside a div section which has a runat=server attribute.
>
> This can be reproduced in a simple test:
> Create a blank webform and add this html inside the <form> section:
> <div id="myDiv" runat=server>
> <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
> </div>
>
> In the code behind, add this code in the page_load event handler:
>
> foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
> {
>
> }

First, please put quotes around "server" in your div. Second, make sure it
gets into the .designer.cs file: while viewing the markup, click the Design
tab, wait until it's finished loading, then you can click back to Source.
The .designer.cs should then have a field named "myDiv".

Then, loop "foreach (Control c in myDiv.Controls)" and see if one of them is
the text box.

The text box control is not directly within the page's Controls collection.
It should be in the Controls collection of the div.
--
John Saunders [MVP]

"John Saunders [MVP]" <john.saunders at trizetto.com> wrote:
> "John Dalberg" <> wrote in message
> news:20070509135949.045$...
> >I am looking at a problem which is preventing my code to get a reference
> >to
> > any asp control inside a div section which has a runat=server
> > attribute.
> >
> > This can be reproduced in a simple test:
> > Create a blank webform and add this html inside the <form> section:
> > <div id="myDiv" runat=server>
> > <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
> > </div>
> >
> > In the code behind, add this code in the page_load event handler:
> >
> > foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
> > {
> >
> > }
>
> First, please put quotes around "server" in your div. Second, make sure
> it gets into the .designer.cs file: while viewing the markup, click the
> Design tab, wait until it's finished loading, then you can click back to
> Source. The .designer.cs should then have a field named "myDiv".
>
> Then, loop "foreach (Control c in myDiv.Controls)" and see if one of them
> is the text box.
>
> The text box control is not directly within the page's Controls
> collection. It should be in the Controls collection of the div.\

Thanks for your reply.

While runat=server is not wrong, quotes is for standards sake. Plus VS2005
is doing it. I have to manually add the quotes. You can also tell the VS
team to add quotes on all the attributes. This piece doesn't cause any
errors.

myDiv is added correctly in the .designer.cs. Otherwise I would get object
has no reference error in the code behind.

The textbox is in the div collection but the div collection itself is
getting an exception. This exception is only visible inside the debugger
and because of this exception, the foreach ignores the div and moves along
with the rest of the Page's collection. I can't look in the div collection
if the Page can't see the div control.

John Dalberg

On May 10, 12:44 am, nos...@nospam.sss (John Dalberg) wrote:
> The textbox is in the div collection but the div collection itself is
> getting an exception. This exception is only visible inside the debugger
> and because of this exception, the foreach ignores the div and moves along
> with the rest of the Page's collection. I can't look in the div collection
> if the Page can't see the div control.

John,

to look in the div collection I think you can do the following

foreach (Control c in this.Controls)
{
IterateThroughChildren(c);
....your code here...
}

void IterateThroughChildren(Control parent)
{
foreach (Control c in parent.Controls)
{
Response.Write(c.ClientID);
if (c.Controls.Count > 0)
{
IterateThroughChildren(c);
}
}
}

you can also try to FindControl("myDiv"), and cast it to
HtmlGenericControl.

I'm not sure about the origin of exception, I think, it's something
related to the control's life cycle - need to look in MSDN

Hope it helps