| Page Item | Value |
| Title | Dynamic Loading of ASP.NET User Controls using the LoadControl Method |
| Description | The LoadControl method can dynamically load ASP.NET user controls at runtime, making them useful in page template and content management systems |
| Keywords | asp.net, user controls, loadcontrol, placeholder, control, page, panel |
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Home ASP.NET Articles Dynamic Loading of ASP.NET User Controls using the LoadControl Method User Controls are semi-autonomous pages of HTML and underlying ASP.NET code that can be inserted into ASP.NET pages. As such they are useful for adding blocks of functionality to pages. Typical uses are to use User Controls for page headers and footers. They can also add functionality such as a property of the week for a real estate company website. Unlike ASP.NET pages that have the .aspx file extension, User Controls typically have the .ascx file extension. Once created, in Visual Studio.NET they can be included in a specific page by simply dragging the user control onto the design view of that page. Alternatively, they can be added to a page at design time by including the following in the page's HTML. For example, the following line includes a header user control from the HeaderUserControl.ascx file: %@ Register TagPrefix= uc1 TagName= HeaderUserControl Src= HeaderUserControl.ascx % The header is then positioned on the page using the following tag: uc1:HeaderUserControl id= Header1 runat= server /UC1:ADMINHEADER Although this procedure is satisfactory for content like headers and footers that will always be required on specific pages, it would be useful if there was a way of dynamically loading specific user controls at run time. For example, an online store may only want a clearance offers section to appear if there is actually stock inventory in the database that has been marked as being for clearance. Fortunately, it is possible to load user controls onto a page by making use of the b LoadControl /b method. This function has a straightforward syntax - it takes a single argument - the virtual path to the user control page. For example, to load the featured product user control the following C# code would be used within the Page_Load method: Control FeaturedProductUserControl = LoadControl( FeaturedProduct.ascx ); Once the user control has been loaded, it can be added to the page by adding it to the Controls collection: Controls.Add(FeaturedProductUserControl); The drawback with this technique is that it offers no control over where on the page the user control will actually appear. A useful tip is, therefore, to add a PlaceHolder control to the page in the position that you want it to display the dynamically loaded user controls. A PlaceHolder does just that - it acts as a container for other controls. You can then specify that the user control appear within the PlaceHolder by adding the user control to the PlaceHolder's controls collection: PlaceHolderLeftMenu.Controls.Add(FeaturedProductUserControl); Alternatively it is possible to position the user control in other ways, such as adding it to a Panel control: PanelRightMenu.Controls.Add(FeaturedProductUserControl); Making Full Use of Dynamically Loaded User Controls Since it is possible to dynamically load user controls onto specific pages, it provides the idea functionality for creating page templating facilities within ASP.NET. For example, by storing the details of available user controls in a database, it would be possible to write a content management system that allowed the website's administrative users to choose which user controls they wanted to display on each page. This page templating system is used in content management systems such as the portal layout functionality in Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server. The ASP.NET IBuySpy sample projects also make use of the LoadControl method to dynamically load content. Useful Development Tools ASP Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (5.2Mb ZIP file). ASP.NET Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP.NET web applications written in C# or VB.NET. Documentation for SQL Server 7/2000 databases and C#/VB.NET components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (2.9Mb ZIP file). SQL Documentation Tool The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers and Table Relationships. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (10.3Mb ZIP file). Index Server Companion The Index Server Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of Microsoft Index Server so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Site Server 3.0 Search. View Product Documentation (119K ZIP file). Try Sample Search Facility . 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