Introduction to custom server controls

The first thing you need to do in order to be able to use the controls you've developed on a page is to add a Register directive:

<%@ Register TagPrefix=”MySite” Namespace=”Guestbook” Assembly=”Guestbook” %>

And now if you want to add the control GuestbookForm to the page you'd only need to add the following:

<MySite:GuestbookForm runat=”server” />

And if you wanted to change the text of i.e. the submit button you'd type this:

<MySite:GuestbookForm ButtonLabel=”Sign my guestbook” runat=”server” />

The GuestbookRepeater control is a little more complex to add, because you need to define templates for it. Here is one example of adding it to a page:

<MySite:GuestbookRepeater runat="server">
    <HeaderTemplate>
        <table cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#666666" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="400">
    </HeaderTemplate>
    <ItemTemplate>
        <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee">
            <td>
                <b><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "name") %></b><br/>
                <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "email") %><br/><br/>
                <%# ((string) DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "message")).Replace("\n", "<br/>") %><br/><br/>
                <i>Rating: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "rating") %></i>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </ItemTemplate>
    <AlternatingItemTemplate>
        <tr bgcolor="#dddddd">
            <td>
                <b><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "name") %></b><br/>
                <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "email") %><br/><br/>
                <%# ((string) DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "message")).Replace("\n", "<br/>") %><br/><br/>
                <i>Rating: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "rating") %></i>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </AlternatingItemTemplate>
    <FooterTemplate>
        </table>
    </FooterTemplate>
</MySite:GuestbookRepeater>

That's it, hope you've enjoyed reading this!