Question

I need the the .ASPX file to behave differently based on a conditional compilation symbol.

Let’s say as an easy example:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" (...) %>
<% #ifdef DEBUG %>
     <asp:SomeDebugControlHere runat="server"/>
     .. well .. a LOT of code here
<% #else %>
    <asp:SomeReleaseControlHere runat="server"/>
    .. and a LOT of other code here
<% #endif %>

Later Edit: a few more clarifications. The problem is that the class SomeDebugControlHere is not even defined in the release build (it’s way more complicated in real-life, but bear with this example). So in the page.aspx.designer.cs I need to get this in the debug build:

/// Auto-generated field.
/// To modify move field declaration from designer file to code-behind file.
/// </remarks>
protected global::System.Web.UI.SomeDebugControlHere myControl

and this in the release build: (and never both)

/// Auto-generated field.
/// To modify move field declaration from designer file to code-behind file.
/// </remarks>
protected global::System.Web.UI.SomeReleaseControlHere myControl

Obviously I need the mark-up in the ASPX file to be different, but I need the designer.cs file to be modified as well to incorporate the new objects/classes.

I’m just hoping somebody knows of a clever way of doing this either by some control inheritance, anything that would allow me to specify different control classes depending on compilation build settings.

Answer 1

It seems there is a difference when compiling with the compilation symbols depending on where you declare them: As a project property, using a @Page directive or in web.config.

Only the symbols defined in web.config seem to be working in the .aspx files.

<compiler
      language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs"
      compilerOptions="/d:MY_CONSTANT"
      type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, 
        System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, 
        PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
    </compilers>

Found some info on this here and here