Changing the generated ASP.Net <form> id?

Question

In my ASP.Net page I have

<form id="MasterPageForm" runat="server">

However, whenever the markup is generated, it turns into

<form name="aspnetForm" method="post" action="SomePage.aspx..." id="aspnetForm">

Is it possible to set what the generated HTML id for the form is?

Answer 1

Note: you are seeing "aspnetForm" because you are using a master page.

I found your solution in this thread...

http://forums.asp.net/p/883974/929349.aspx

In short, this is what the answer is from that link:

Here's the responsible code for that error:

public override string UniqueID
{
      get
      {
            if (this.NamingContainer == this.Page)
            {
                  return base.UniqueID;
            }
            return "aspnetForm";
      }
}

As you can see, when the naming container is different from the current page (something that happens when you use a master page) the UniqueID property return "aspnetForm". this property is rendered into the name attribute that is sent to the client in the form tag. so, if you really need to, you can create your own form by inheriting from htmlform and then override the UniqueID property or the Name property (this may be a better option).

An example custom HtmlForm class could be like this:

public class Form : System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm
{
    public Form() : base() { }

    public override string UniqueID
    {
        get {
            if (this.NamingContainer == this.Page)
            { return base.UniqueID; }

            return "f";
        }
    }
}

Note: You can certainly change the name of the form from "f" to something else, or have it read a dynamic value, say from a web.config file or so.

and used like so

<%@Register tagprefix="LA" Namespace="Mynamespace"%>
...
<LA:form runat="server" id="frm">
...
</LA:form>

Answer 2

Set the "clientidmode" attribute to "static" on the form tag to prevent the framework from overriding it with "aspnetForm". This was driving me nuts for hours.