ASP.NET Conditional Markup Rendering According to Web.config Key

Question

I have a key in web.config as -

<add key="IsDemo" value ="true"/>

I want to show/hide markup based on above web.config entry for a non-server html tag without using code behind file (as there is no .cs file and there are no runat=server controls). Something similar to following pseudo code:

IF ( IsDemo == "true" )
THEN
<tr>
    <td id="tdDemoSection" colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
        <.....>
    </td>
</tr>
ENDIF

Does anyone know that we can write such conditional logic in .aspx markup? Please help!!!

EDIT:

Section I'm hiding or showing have some data like username and password. So, I do not want user to use Firebug or Web Developer Tools to see hidden markup. markup should not go to client side.

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 09 '14 at 13:56

24

The syntax for something like that would be

<% if(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["IsDemo"] == "true") %>
<% { %>
<!-- Protected HTML goes here -->
<% } %>

This assumes that the page is in C#.

You can firm this code up by being more defensive around the AppSettings retrieval e.g. what happens in the case where the value is null etc.

edited Sep 09 '14 at 13:56

UweB

4,080
2
16
28

answered Jan 19 '11 at 11:59

Tomas McGuinness

7,651
3
28
40

Thanks. Made few changes to your code and added snippet below which worked for me. – Parag Meshram Jan 20 '11 at 05:45

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '11 at 05:43

6

Solution:-

<% If (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("IsDemo").ToLower().Equals("true")) Then%>
    <tr>
       <.....>
    </tr>
<% Else%>
    <tr>
        <.....>
    </tr>
<% End If%>

answered Jan 20 '11 at 05:43

Parag Meshram

8,281
10
52
88

Question is tagged with C#, this looks like VB.NET. – Victor Zakharov Apr 10 '17 at 20:47

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 19 '11 at 11:49

2

If I understand it right, you don't want to use server-side (aspx components, with runat="server" attribute) and just want to control display of html on aspx page then try this solution.

Create a property in codebehind file (or better still in some other config helper class):

//IN C# (OR VB) file
protected string Demo{
    get{ 
            return ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["IsDemo"]=="true"?
                   "none":"block";
      }
}

In aspx page:

<tr style="display:<%= Demo%>;">
    <td>blah blah</td>
</tr>

answered Jan 19 '11 at 11:49

TheVillageIdiot

40,053
20
133
188

Section I'm hiding or showing have some data like username and password. So, I do not want user to use Firebug or Web Developer Tools to see hidden markup. markup should not go to client side. – Parag Meshram Jan 19 '11 at 11:54
1

Why the hell you are putting user-names and password on page? – TheVillageIdiot Jan 19 '11 at 11:56
Yeah. Your question is valid. :) I had asked same question to my client. But actually, it is not a password, but it is an Access code which is shared among several users. – Parag Meshram Jan 19 '11 at 11:58
then there is no simple way other than using server side control so that the stuff is never rendered in the first place. – TheVillageIdiot Jan 19 '11 at 12:01

ASP.NET Conditional Markup Rendering According to Web.config Key

3 Answers3

Linked