HTML Tag ClientID in a .NET Project

Question

If I want to manipulate an HTML tag's properties on the server within an aspx page based on a master page i.e.

<a href="#" runat="server" ID="myLink">My Link</a>

For example to give the link a different class depending on the current page i.e.

if (Path.GetFileName(Request.PhysicalPath) == "MyPage")
{
myLink.Attributes.Add("class","active");
}

.NET changes the ID property of the link to something like

<a href="#" ID="ct100-foo-myLink">My Link</a>

Is there any way of stopping this from happening and keeping the original ID?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

It's not possible directly. You could make a new control that inherits the link and override its ClientID to return directly the ID. But this seems to be overkill. You can simply use HTML markup and use <%# GetClass() %> to add the class when you need it.

Regarding the usage of ClientID for Javascript:

<a ID="myLink" runat="server">....


var ctrl = document.getElementById('<%# myLink.ClientID %>');

Of course you need a DataBind somewhere in the code.

Answer 2

AFAIK there is no way.

It shows the actual control tree, which is in this case masterpage-content-control.

However if you add an ID to the masterpage (this.ID = "whatever") then you will see "whatever" instead of ctl00 (which means control index 0).

Answer 3

I just discovered an easy way to do it if you are using jQuery.

var mangled_name = $("[id$=original_name]").attr("id");

So if you have a server control like this:

<asp:TextBox ID="txtStartDate" runat="server" />

You can get the mangled name in your jQuery/Javascript with:

var start_date_id = $("[id$=txtStartDate]").attr("id");

Since it is a string, you can also use it "inline" instead of assigning it, e.g. concatenating it with other elements for selectors.