How to access the html content generated by a UserControl?

[Jason Kester]

I have a UserControl living on MyPage.aspx. How would MyPage.aspx go
about retrieving the HTML content generated by that UserControl as a
string? I've looked into two options, neither of which seems like any
fun.

Option 1 is to use WebRequest to call MyPage.aspx from elsewhere, then
parse out the HTML chunk that I'm looking for by hand. This is pretty
cumbersome, and requires a separate application/webpage to work (i.e.,
using WebRequest in an MyPage.aspx page to load MyPage.aspx would have
disastrous results).

Option 2 is to mess with the the Render method of the UserControl.
This seems like overkill, since I don't need to grap the HTML content
every time that I run this control. Only on MyPage.aspx.

Anyone care to suggest an option 3 that I may have missed? Prehaps a
refinement to one of the above?

Jason

---
Expat Software Consulting Services
http://www.expatsoftware.com/

[Matt Berther]

Hello Jason,

How about doing this from a method MyPage.aspx?

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

using (HtmlTextWriter writer = new HtmlTextWriter(
new StringWriter(builder)))
{
myControl.RenderControl(writer);
}

string s = builder.ToString();

--
Matt Berther
http://www.mattberther.com

I have a UserControl living on MyPage.aspx. How would MyPage.aspx go
about retrieving the HTML content generated by that UserControl as a
string? I've looked into two options, neither of which seems like any
fun.

Option 1 is to use WebRequest to call MyPage.aspx from elsewhere, then
parse out the HTML chunk that I'm looking for by hand. This is pretty
cumbersome, and requires a separate application/webpage to work (i.e.,
using WebRequest in an MyPage.aspx page to load MyPage.aspx would have
disastrous results).

Option 2 is to mess with the the Render method of the UserControl.
This seems like overkill, since I don't need to grap the HTML content
every time that I run this control. Only on MyPage.aspx.

Anyone care to suggest an option 3 that I may have missed? Prehaps a
refinement to one of the above?

Jason

---
Expat Software Consulting Services
http://www.expatsoftware.com/

[Jason Kester]

Nice. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Jason
Matt Berther <mb******@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<#y**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl>...

Hello Jason,

How about doing this from a method MyPage.aspx?

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

using (HtmlTextWriter writer = new HtmlTextWriter(
new StringWriter(builder)))
{
myControl.RenderControl(writer);
}

string s = builder.ToString();

--
Matt Berther
http://www.mattberther.com

I have a UserControl living on MyPage.aspx. How would MyPage.aspx go
about retrieving the HTML content generated by that UserControl as a
string? I've looked into two options, neither of which seems like any
fun.

Option 1 is to use WebRequest to call MyPage.aspx from elsewhere, then
parse out the HTML chunk that I'm looking for by hand. This is pretty
cumbersome, and requires a separate application/webpage to work (i.e.,
using WebRequest in an MyPage.aspx page to load MyPage.aspx would have
disastrous results).

Option 2 is to mess with the the Render method of the UserControl.
This seems like overkill, since I don't need to grap the HTML content
every time that I run this control. Only on MyPage.aspx.

Anyone care to suggest an option 3 that I may have missed? Prehaps a
refinement to one of the above?

Jason

---
Expat Software Consulting Services
http://www.expatsoftware.com/