Adding a reference to a css file in an ascx file in vs2008 only to get intellisense

Question

Normally visual studio brings up intellisense for available css classes, which it draws from css files linked to the current aspx/master document.

Is there a way to get this to work in an ascx file in a similar way to referencing external JavaScript files in js files for the purpose of intellisense

/// <reference path="jquery-1.4.1.js" />

I only want this for the purpose of intellisense and not getting squiggly lines under un-recognised classes. My css files will be actually linked from the aspx/master page.

Answer 1

Why don't you just add the css file to your ascx file, which will give you the Intellisense, and then add a line of server side code to the ascx file as well, which will only include the css file if a certain variable is set in web.config for instance ?

<%if(Convert.ToBool(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DevelopMode"])%>
 <link href="MyCssFile.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

That would give you the IntelliSense, but would include the css file from the master page when the application is running.