ASP.NET - UserControl - Design Time Rendering

I am designing a UserControl and I'd like to customize the design time appereance of the UserControl, ie, how it renders when dropped onto a page in Visual Studio.

How can the design time appeareance of a class inheirting from System.Web.UI.UserControl be modified?

I've tried overriding the Render and RenderControl methods, but this has not impacted how the control renders during design time, only how it renders when viewed within the browser.  Additionally, I've tried decorating the class using the System.ComponentModel.Designer attribute, but this did not work either.  

In the code attachments I've mocked up what I would expect the code to look like to further emphasize what I'm trying to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

PJ
public partial class MyUserControl : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
    protected override void RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer)
    {
         if (this.DesignMode)
            {
                writer.Write("Hello World!!! - Design Time");
            }
            else
            {
                writer.Write("Hello World!!! - Run Time");
            }
    }
}

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ppittleAsked:
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Bob LearnedConnect With a Mentor Commented:
A UserControl is a special case, and its usage dictates that design time HTML is not possible, but I don't know the specific reason for that choice.

What are you doing with declarative HTML markup that you can't do with a custom web control?
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Bob LearnedCommented:
I believe that what you need to look at is the GetDesignTimeHtml method, and how it is implemented.

ControlDesigner.GetDesignTimeHtml Method
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ew7620aw.aspx

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ppittleAuthor Commented:
TheLearnedOne,

I have tried creating my own class that extends both ControlDesigner and UserControlDesigner and overrides the GetDesignTimeHtml method.  However, when I decarate by UserControl class with the Designer attribute that specifies the type of my custom designer class, there's no change to the Visual Studio designer surface:

public class MyDesigner : UserControlDesigner
{
   override string GetDesignTimeHtml()
{
//return custom string with Design time markup
}
}

[Designer(typeof(MyDesigner))]
public partial class MyUserControl : UserControl
{}

I've tried the above example using a WebControl instead of a UserControl and it works fine, the HTML specified in my MyDesigner class is shown on the VS Design Surface.  However, WebControls don't allow for declarative markup.  

Any additional thoughts?
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Bob LearnedCommented:
Hmmm...missed the UserControl as a base class (d'oh).  I don't think that you can get design-time HTML with a UserControl.  That would only be for a WebControl, as you found out.

"However, WebControls don't allow for declarative markup."
That is true, but you should be able to work around that limitation.
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ppittleAuthor Commented:
So you're saying I can't have my cake and eat it too?

Any idea why there would be such a limitation with User Controls?
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ppittleAuthor Commented:
I have a UserControl that contains a FormView and an ObjectDataSource, which is easier to set up declaratively.  I could convert it to a WebControl and add the FormView and ObjectDataSource programatically, but then its harder to maintain.

In my situation, the Control has a Property, FieldName, which is set by the Parent Control.  The FieldName Property is mapped to a Parameter in the ObjectDataSource.  Addtionally, the Control is used about 20 times on the Parent Control.   Ideally, I'd like the UserControl to display the value of the FieldName property when viewed in the Parent Control.  Instead, it displays a default FormView and ObjectDataSource.

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Bob LearnedCommented:
All you would need to do in a custom web control is to generate the same HTML that you would declaratively in the user control, in order for it to work programmatically, so I fail to see why it would be harder to maintain, other than it would be in a separate project.
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