divert asp.net child controls

Question

Hi Folks, I am trying to create an asp.net custom control that acts as a hosting container for any other controls, similar to the existing ‘Panel’ control. Basically, I need to build a web control that groups a bunch of other controls. It will consist of a header and a body pane, similar to a normal window in desktop application. The header will contain some simple text and some JavaScript driven code that shows/hides the body pane. The body pane simply hosts any number of other controls.

+------------------------------------------------------+
| User Details                               Show/Hide |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Name:           [Eric     ]                       |
| Address:        [Some where]                         |
| Date of Birth:  [01/01/1980]                         |
|                                                      |
| (any other fields goes on)                           |
|                                                      |
|                                                      |
+------------------------------------------------------+

Ideally I want to create a control that packs the whole thing together, so at design time I could use the following markup.

<myCtl:SuperContainer runat=”server” Title=”User Details”>
    <asp:label id=”lblName” runat=”server” text=”Name:”/>
    <asp:textbox id=”txtName” runat=”server”/>
    <asp:label id=”lblDOB” runat=”server” text=”Date of Birth:”/>
    <asp:textbox id=”txtDOB” runat=”server”/>
    (…other controls definition…)
</myCtl:SuperContainer>

I plan to include two panels in my control, one for the header and another one for the body, but as you can see, the key issue is to find a way to ‘divert’ the child controls that are defined in the markup to the body panel, instead of the default parent container. I feel it can be some how simply override (manipulate) the control property, but don’t know how to properly do so.

Can any one give some idea about how to implement this ‘SuperContainer’ control?

Many thank,

Eric

Answer 1

Building Templated Custom ASP.NET Server Controls

Answer 2

Check this post here. There is a complete example of what you want.