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Convert ASPX pagename to Page Control

With previous assistance from Experts Exchange members I've written a recursive routine to loop through all the controls on an ASP.NET 1.1 page to assign images and tooltips from a database.

'-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ' Recursively set the ImageUrl and ToolTip for Images and Image Buttons
    ' together with the ToolTip for Mandatory fields. This is a modified version 
    ' that gets the tooltip from the ToolTips table and the ImageURL from the
    ' ControlNames table
    '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Public Sub SetIconImages(ByVal Page As Control, ByVal WebPageName As String)

        For Each ctrl As Control In Page.Controls

            If TypeOf ctrl Is ImageButton Then
                CType(ctrl, ImageButton).ImageUrl = GetSpecificImageURL(ctrl.ID.ToString)
                CType(ctrl, ImageButton).ToolTip = GetSpecificToolTip(WebPageName, ctrl.ID.ToString)
            ElseIf TypeOf ctrl Is Image Then
                If Left(ctrl.ID.ToString, 4) = "tti_" Then
                    CType(ctrl, Image).ImageUrl = GetSpecificImageURL(ctrl.ID.ToString)
                    CType(ctrl, Image).ToolTip = GetSpecificToolTip(WebPageName, ctrl.ID.ToString)
                End If
                If System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings(ctrl.ID.ToString) Is Nothing Then
                    CType(ctrl, Image).AlternateText = "Assign an Image in the Web.config file to this key: " + ctrl.ID.ToString
                Else
                    CType(ctrl, Image).ImageUrl = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings(ctrl.ID.ToString)
                End If
            ElseIf TypeOf ctrl Is Label Then
                If CType(ctrl, Label).Text = "M" Then
                    CType(ctrl, Label).ForeColor = Drawing.Color.Silver
                    CType(ctrl, Label).ToolTip = "Mandatory Field: This will turn red if invalid or incomplete data is detected"
                ElseIf CType(ctrl, Label).Text = "9" Or CType(ctrl, Label).Text = "D" Or CType(ctrl, Label).TemplateSourceDirectory = "V" Then
                    CType(ctrl, Label).ForeColor = Drawing.Color.Silver
                    CType(ctrl, Label).ToolTip = "Optional Field: This will turn red if invalid or incomplete data is detected"
                End If
            Else
                If ctrl.Controls.Count > 0 Then
                    SetIconImages(ctrl, WebPageName)
                End If
            End If
        Next
    End Sub

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. This is called from each page when it is first loaded and works fine.

With clsGenericFunctions.GetInstance
                .SetIconImages(Me, .GetCurrentPageName)
            End With

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I want to be able to do the same thing from a generic page, i.e. to let an administrative user see all the controls on a selected page and add image urls and/or tooltips. The problem I can't resolve is how to convert the page name I have in a listbox, e.g. MCR.aspx, back into a Page Control to pass to this routine instead of passing the varialble 'Me'. I know how to get the ID and ClientID to get the actual page name (MCR.aspx) but not how to do this in reverse.

I display a list of all the Page names, then when I select one I want call a routine that looks something like this:

Public Sub GetControlNames(ByVal Page As Control, ByVal WebPageName As String, ByVal ArrayCtrl As ArrayList)

        For Each ctrl As Control In Page.Controls

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. The Page variable needs to be the equivalent of {asp.MCR_aspx} as a Control but I can't get this conversion to work.

I'm sure it's not too difficult for someone with more experience but any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

SOLUTION

_kiwi_

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pstanford

ASKER

Thanks for the very detailed response but this is way more complex than I need it to be. I'm simply trying to automate the management of images and tooltips. I have two existing tables and a link table. The first table (ControlNames) contains names of controls but by controls I mean standard controls like buttons, image buttons and images, no user controls.

The second table (WebPageNames) contains names of the .aspx pages within the application.

The third table (ToolTips) contains references to the WebPageNames and ControlNames tables, i.e. the same control can be used on multiple pages with the same image (for Image Buttons and Images) but a different ToolTip, depending on the context.

I can, using a routine similar to the one contained in the first post, iterate through the controls on any given page and get the names of those controls, look up both the image and the tooltip and apply them dynamically at runtime. If I build that functionality into each of the pages I can also push any control names back into the database and also into the link table.

I was just hoping to be able to do this in one generic function rather than having to repeat the code, so while I'm sure your solution is architecturally way more elegant than mine, this is an internal application with a known number of users and I just want the administrator to control the tooltips that are applied rather than hardcode them into the application.

I've manually created the entries in the ControlNames and WebPageNames tables but it seems like there must be a simpler way to do this through a generic routine that I call from each page rather than coding on each page. The following images show samples of the data in the ControlNames and ToolTips tables.

This application will ultimately be replaced by a new Silverlight application so I don't want to waste too much time on it and only an Administrator would load a page and request a list of Controls from a different page so there wouldn't be a performance issue. I'd just like to now how to do this using a generic routine.

I do appreciate your response but don't think it addresses the issue as simply as I'd like it to do.

SOLUTION

_kiwi_

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

pstanford

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_kiwi_

Thanks about that.

In the end, whatever the choice you are making, it is yours and it has to answer your specific contraints, after all you are the one coding.

Hava a Nice day.
Julien

pstanford

ASKER

The techniques were useful but none of them were implemented in order to address the problem