Register Custom Controls In Web.config

This one is probably old news to many of you, but I just recently ran across it. Every time I want to add a new control to a new page, I get annoyed because I have to remember that annoying syntax for registering a control.

Let’s see…how does it go again? Do I have to add a TagName attribute? No, that’s for user controls. Hmmm, forget it, I’ll just dynamically add it! Well in the interest of reducing future angst, here are two examples of the syntax, one for a custom control and one for a user control.

<%@ Register TagPrefix="st" Namespace="Subtext.Web.Controls" 
  Assembly="Subtext.Web.Controls" %>
<%@ Register TagName="SomeControl" TagPrefix="st" 
  Src="~/Controls/SomeControl.ascx" %>

The first one registers the tag prefix st with the Subtext.Web.Controls namespace in the Subtext.Web.Controls assembly. The second one registers the tag name SomeControl with the user control SomeControl.ascx

Add this to the top of your page or user control and you can reference a control from this assembly like so:

<st:HelpToolTip id="blah" runat="server" HelpText="Blah!" />
<st:SomeControl id="foo" runat="server" />

A most helpful tooltip!

Fortunately, starting with ASP.NET 2.0, we can register a tag prefix within the Web.config file. This basically makes all the controls within that namespace and assembly available to all pages without having to add that ugly Register declaration.

<system.web>
    <pages>
      <controls>
        <add assembly="Subtext.Web.Controls"
                namespace="Subtext.Web.Controls"
                tagPrefix="st" />
        <add src="~/Controls/SomeControl.ascx"
                tagName="SomeControl"
                tagPrefix="st" />
      </controls>
    </pages>
</system.web>

Thanks to the ASP.NET 2.0 MVP Hacks book for this one.

Register Custom Controls In Web.config

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