Nested ASP.Net controls not defined

Question

I have a couple of controls that are set to runat="server", but are showing up as "not declared" in the vb code behind. They are not being setup in the designer.vb file at all, even if the design.vb is re-created.

The only thing that I can think might be causing this is that the controls are inside of a custom control. The code looks something like this (it has been modified because of NDA):

<abc:MyCustomControl>
  <additionalItems>
    <asp:CheckBox id="coolCheckboxOfPower" runat="server" Text="Triple Rainbow!">
    </asp:CheckBox>
  </additionalItems>
</abc:MyCustomControl>

So using the example above, if I try to use coolCheckboxOfPower in my vb page, it says it is not declared.

It has been suggested to me that asp controls cannot be nested. Is this true, and if so, how do I get around that?

Answer 1

Asp controls can certainly be nested. Just look at asp:Panel, asp:ListView etc. You have to do some extra work when creating your control to enable this to happen. Namely you have to make have an ITemplate property on your control. Check out the following Building Templated Custom ASP.NET Server Controls to get you started