Question

I want to do something like (Updated example):

<uc:Tabs>   <Tab Name='A handy tab'>     <Node Url='~/Default.aspx' />     <Node Url='~/Node2.aspx' />   </Tab>         <Tab Name='Another handy tab'>     <Node Url='~/Neato.aspx' />     <Node Url='~/Node3.aspx' />     <Node Url='~/Node4.aspx' />   </Tab> <uc:Tabs> 

Possible? Any tutorials or how-to’s? I’m not sure what to even search on or what this is called so haven’t found anything so far. Inner controls? Inner collection something something…?

Answer 1

Use the ParseChildrenAttribute and PersistChildrenAttribute attributes:

[ParseChildren(false)] [PersistChildren(true)] public class MyControl : UserControl { } 

This will cause any controls you put inside the reference:

<uc:MyControl runat='server'>   <asp:TextBox runat='server' /> <uc:MyControl> 

To be appended to the end of the Controls collection of your UserControl contents.

However, if you want to have a collection of controls, you should probably use a server control and not a user control. For a control that works like this:

<foo:TabControl runat='server'>     <Tabs>         <foo:Tab CssClass='myclass' Title='Hello World' />     </Tabs> </foo:TabControl> 

You need a Control class that has a Tabs property; the Tabs property should be a Collection; and it should contain objects of type Tab. I’ve created the three classes here:

[ParseChildren(true, 'Tabs')] public class TabControl: WebControl, INamingContainer {     private TabCollection _tabs;      [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]     [PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerDefaultProperty)]     public TabCollection Tabs     {         get         {             if (_tabs == null)             {                 _tabs = new TabCollection();             }             return _tabs;         }     }      protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)     {         foreach (Tab tab in Tabs)         {             writer.WriteBeginTag('div');             writer.WriteAttribute('class', tab.CssClass);             writer.Write(HtmlTextWriter.TagRightChar);             writer.Write('this is a tab called ' + tab.Title);             writer.WriteEndTag('div');         }     } } 

And the tab class:

public class Tab {     public string CssClass { get; set; }     public string Title { get; set; } } 

And the tab collection:

public class TabCollection : Collection<Tab> { }