Question

I am trying to apply css styles to textboxes within a formview. What is the correct way to do this as the form is not applying the styles below is part of the code where i was trying to apply the code

<asp:FormView ID="FormView1" runat="server" BackColor="White" 
            BorderColor="#3366CC" BorderStyle="None" BorderWidth="1px" CellPadding="4" 
            DataKeyNames="pappid" DataSourceID="applicantsbypappid" GridLines="Both"> 
<ItemTemplate>
               <%-- pappid:--%>
            <asp:Label ID="pappidLabel" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("pappid") %>' />
            <br />

             <asp:Label ID="lblapplicantname" runat="server" CssClass="labels" Text="Applicant's Name:">
    </asp:Label>
    <asp:TextBox ID="txtapplicantfname"  runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("pappfname") %>'></asp:TextBox>
    <asp:TextBox ID="txtapplicantmname"  runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("pappmname") %>'></asp:TextBox>
    <asp:TextBox ID="txtapplicantlname"  runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("papplname") %>'></asp:TextBox>

css code

#txtapplicantfname
{
    width: 70px;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #0954A5;
    border-left-style: none;
    border-left-color: inherit;
    border-left-width: 0;
    border-right-style: none;
    border-right-color: inherit;
    border-right-width: 0;
    border-top-style: none;
    border-top-color: inherit;
    border-top-width: 0;
    font-size: 10px;
 }

Answer 1

I would suggest you to assign the css directly, as the server side control ID renders in complete hierarchy with concatenation. Like in your case, there will be a Content Place Holder and a Textbox (ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_txtapplicantfname). If there will be any more panels; Tab Panel(ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_TabPanelID_txtapplicantfname), etc involve hierarchy will be disturbed.

You can do it like…

<asp:TextBox ID="txtapplicantfname" CssClass="txtapplicantfname"  runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("pappfname") %>'></asp:TextBox>


.txtapplicantfname
{
width: 70px;
border-bottom: 1px solid #0954A5;
border-left-style: none;
border-left-color: inherit;
border-left-width: 0;
border-right-style: none;
border-right-color: inherit;
border-right-width: 0;
border-top-style: none;
border-top-color: inherit;
border-top-width: 0;
font-size: 10px;
}