I thought that asp.net control IDs would be available in JavaScript (JS) in VS 2008, though they don’t seem to be (either that or I haven’t clued in to how this is achieved in VS08 without 3rd party help).

Then I found this tool. Works great! I caution its use, perhaps to internal web apps, as it exposes too much of the code-behind in the ClientIDs array; e.g. actual asp.net control ID names.

Also, ClientIDs array has *every* control in it, whether I use it in JS or not; I prefer only those controls which I want exposed in JS. I could hardcode something, use generally global IDs, or put an identifier in the .NET ID, such as “JAG” at the end of the controlID [a form of recognition for James' solution, per se].

I first opted for putting JAG at the end of the .NET ID. I then modified ServerControlIDs.GetMappedIDs to only process those controls wherein the .NET ID ends with “_JAG”.

This may work for the most part for most programmers; however, I was adding/removing this tag more than I wanted, so I implemented a more generic tag in the .NET ID that I already use.

For years I’ve append a prefix to my .NET IDs, such as ‘txt’ for Textbox, ‘btn’ for Button, ‘chbx’ for checkbox, ‘ddl’ for DropDownList. You may see where I’m going with this. Rather than suffixing “_JAG” (sorry, James!!), I merely changed ServerControlIDs.GetMappedIDs to look for my already used prefixes at the beginning of the .NET ID. That way, I don’t have to add/remove “_JAG” (again, sorry James!) to the .NET ID.

So, James, your code has made my life easier, yet more complex! I’m now doing double validation coding! client-side now (via leveraging your solution) and server-side (which, in reading other blogs, it seems to be a ‘best practice’ to be doing double-validation anyway . . . )

Thanks, James.

Cheers!

GaryN

Naz: Glad you found it of some use!