Question

I am trying to achieve something like this in a server control.

<MyNewControl runat="server">
    <FirstTemplate>
        <asp:Label runat="server" ForeColor="Red">Hello</asp:Label>
    </FirstTemplate>
    <SecondTemplate>
        <asp:Label runat="server" ForeColor="Blue">Hello</asp:Label>
    </SecondTemplate>
</MyNewControl>

I’m hoping to know how to implement that MyNewControl server control to accept those template containers.
I’d like them to allow more complex content than just containing a label.
The goal is to be able to choose which template I want the control to render out.

I’ve looked around and I couldn’t find something that tells me what part of ASP.NET that supports what I’m looking for.

Answer 1

If the goal is to choose which piece of content to render, you could use the built-in ASP.NET MultiView control instead of writing your own.

e.g. ASPX Markup:

<asp:MultiView ID="multiExample" runat="server">
  <asp:View ID="viewOne" runat="server">
    <h1>This is my first view</h1>
  </asp:View>
  <asp:View ID="viewTwo" runat="server">
    <h1>This is my second view</h1>
  </asp:View>
</asp:MultiView>

C# Code-behind code for switching between “templates”:

  if (condition1)
  {
    multiExample.SetActiveView(viewOne);
  }
  else
  {
    multiExample.SetActiveView(viewTwo);
  }

If you’d like to learn how to create a templated user control from scratch, there’s an MSDN tutorial here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/36574bf6(v=vs.100).aspx