ASP.NET @Register vs. @Reference

asp.net page-directives
contactmatt picture contactmatt · Jan 30, 2011 · Viewed 22k times · Source

I'm working with referencing user controls on my ASPX page and I'm wondering what the difference is between these two page directives.

@Reference @Register

Answer

Mark Cidade picture Mark Cidade · Jan 30, 2011

@Register is primarily used for registering tag prefixes to declaratively use controls within a page.

<%@ Register tagprefix="my" namespace="MyNamespace" %>

<my:CustomControl runat=server />

@Reference is primarily used to refer to a page or user control (by file name or virtual path) to programatically refer to members of the page or control.

<%@ Reference Control="MyControl.ascx" %>

<%  MyControl ctrl = (MyControl) Page.LoadControl("MyControl.ascx");
    ctrl.CustomProperty = "..."; //REFERENCE directive is needed to access property
%>

Related questions

Change the selected value of a drop-down list with jQuery

I have a drop-down list with known values. What I'm trying to do is set the drop down list to a particular value that I know exists using jQuery. Using regular JavaScript, I would do something like: ddl = document.getElementById("…

Read More
How to get the URL of the current page in C#

Can anyone help out me in getting the URL of the current working page of ASP.NET in C#?

Read More
A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client

Every time a user posts something containing < or > in a page in my web application, I get this exception thrown. I don't want to go into the discussion about the smartness of throwing an exception or crashing an …

Read More