Question

I have a page that has a left menu in it. This left menu is an HTML file [LeftFrame.htm] and is included in the aspx page using the following code.

<!-- #include file="LeftFrame.htm"-->

Now I need to change the file name to LeftFrameOthers.htm from C# code.

Eg:

if ( arg == 1 )
{
    divMenu.InnerHTML = "<!-- #include file="LeftFrame.htm"-->";
}
else
{
     divMenu.InnerHTML = "<!-- #include file="LeftFrameOthers.htm"-->";
}

But it creates an error and left menu is not loaded. Is there a way to manage this from C# code.

I don’t want to use two divs for this purpose like..

<div id="divOwnLeftFrame" runat="server" style="DISPLAY: block">
           <!-- #include file="LeftFrame.htm"--></div><div id="divOthersLeftFrame" runat="server" style="DISPLAY: block">
          <!-- #include file="LeftProfileFrame.htm"-->
</div>

and change the display property of the divs from C# code.

I am using VS 2003

Answer 1

The use of include files in ASP.NET has generally been superseded by user controls which are much more powerful. Here’s another alternative to using include files:

ASPX:

<asp:Literal ID="FrameLiteral" runat="server" />

Code behind:

private string GetFrameContent(int arg)
{
    string filename = (arg == 1) ? "LeftFrame.htm" : "LeftFrameOthers.htm";
    string path = Server.MapPath("./" + filename);
    string content = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);

    return content;
}

// Populate Literal
FrameLiteral.Text = GetFrameContent(arg);

Not as elegant as doing it with user controls, but it should do the job and is relatively neat and tidy.