Finding a child control inside a templated usercontrol

Question

    <cc1:SiteSearchInputView ID="ssInputView" ControllerID="ssController" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
              <tr>
            <td><label>Search <asp:Literal ID="litSite" runat="server" /></label></td>
            <td><asp:TextBox ID="tbSearchText" runat="server" /></td>
            <td><asp:Button ID="btnSearch" CssClass="searchBTN" runat="server" /></td>
          </tr>
            </table>
    </ItemTemplate>
</cc1:SiteSearchInputView>

I need to be able to set the text for the litSite literal at runtime (it changes based on another method). When I try using

Literal l = (Literal) ssInputView.FindControl("litSite");

I get an "Object not set to instance of an object" error.

How do you set the value of a child control inside a templated user control when you don't have access to the source of the templated control?

Do you get the exception when you call .FindControl() or when you try to use 'l'? — n8wrl, Dec 15 '11 at 21:00

McKay · Answer 1 · 2011-12-15T20:56:37.507

0

If you don't have access to the source of the control, you have to access the control via mechanisms that they've designed for you. Check the documentation to see what it is they expose.

edited Dec 15 '11 at 20:56

answered Dec 15 '11 at 20:49

McKay

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It's an Ektron templated user control for site search. – Tim Dec 15 '11 at 20:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 16 '11 at 15:33

0

The controller binds its data in Page_Load so you can only access its controls after. Also, you don't have to use FindControl because the child controls are directly accessible. So this will work for you:

protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Literal1.Text = "Hello, World";
}

answered Dec 16 '11 at 15:33

Bill

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Thanks for the tip, Bill! I was trying to access the control too early in the page lifecycle. – Tim Dec 19 '11 at 14:07

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '11 at 02:09

Instead of writing to the literal, have the label call a function to get its text. Inside your template you can call a function to get the text that you want during the databind.

Search <%# GetLabelText() %>

You would define the GetLabelText() function.

There is some documentation here Ektron 8.5 SearchView

Finding a child control inside a templated usercontrol

3 Answers3