Remove ctl00$ContentBody$ from rendered control ID

Question

I made some changes to an existing application that was previously just straight HTML and Javascript. To add server-side functionality, I chose ASP.NET, and took advantage of the Master Page concept. Unfortunately, on one huge web form, the control IDs are all mangled with the "ctl00$ContentBody$" prefix. I tacked a runat="server" on all the INPUT controls which is what altered the IDs. Now that the IDs have been changed, the Javascript (which is so poorly written I can't even read it, and I'm quite experienced with JS) is completely broken.

So, how can I prevent this nonsense from being rendered into the HTML? I was hoping to somehow be able to create a class that inherits HtmlGenericControl (I am not using Web controls, I just tacked on a runat="server" to every input tag) and somehow override the logic that sticks this "container id" at the beginning of the ID and NAME attributes. Then I could use tagMapping in web.config to make the global change. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Small consolation for right now, but this "feature" will be fixed in Asp.Net 4.0. You will get settable ClientID property.

Other than that, the other responses are good.
Use <%= control.ClientID %>

or throw in JQuery and use $("[id$='myId'])

Or, on your input tags, don't put runtime='server'. You should be able to retrieve the values via the Form member (just like in traditional asp)

Or, skip Asp.Net WebForms and skip to Asp.Net MVC, which gives you complete control of the HTML markup that is generated. You have to change how you are doing things a bit more, but that might be less frustrating for you.

Answer 2

I tried this piece of code and for some reason it reorganises the entire page:

Protected Overrides Sub Render(ByVal writer As System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter)
    Dim Html As New StringWriter()
    Dim Render As New HtmlTextWriter(Html)
    MyBase.Render(Render)
    writer.Write(Html.ToString().Replace("name=""ctl00$ContentBody$", "name=""").Replace("id=""ctl00_ContentBody_", "id="""))
End Sub

If you wish to see the example ill submit the URL