Find a control in a webform

Question

I have a Web content form and need to access a control inside the content panel. I know of two ways to access the control:

1. TextBox txt = (TextBox)Page.Controls[0].Controls[3].Controls[48].Controls[6]
2. By writing a recursive function that searches through all controls.

Is there any other easier way, since Page.FindControl doesn’t work in this instance. The reason I am asking is it feels to me like the Page object or the Content Panel object should have a method to find a child control, but can’t find anything like it.

Answer 1

I would like to change your GetControls function to a generic one as follows:

public static T GetControl<T>(this Control control, string id) where T:Control
{
    var result = control.Controls.Flatten(c => (c.GetType().IsSubclassOf(typeof(T))) && (c.ID == id)).SingleOrDefault();
    if (result == null)
        return null;
    return result as T;
}

And Then,

public static Control GetControl(this Control control, string id)
{
    return control.GetControl<Control>(id);
}

This way, the caller would call something like:

var button = Page.GetControl<Button>("MyButton");