Get and cast Masterpage UserControl from Content Page to access specific UC Property

Question

I have a MasterPage (MyBoxx.Master) referencing 2 usercontrols :

<%@ Master Language=\"C#\" AutoEventWireup=\"true\" CodeFile=\"MyBoxx.master.cs\" Inherits=\"         


        

Answer 1

Depending on how you have your User Control coded you may or may not be able to access all it's properties/methods when exposing it to the master page as a master page property..

Here is a solution that works:

In your master page you need to register your user control (.ascx) and place it on the master within the form tag.

Register the User Control

<%@ Register Src="~/Controls/MyUserControl.ascx" TagPrefix="uc" TagName="MyUserControl" %>

Add the User Control to the Master Page

        
        

            
...

Now for the content page, you must create a reference in each of the content pages that use the master page for which you want to use the control.

Add the Reference in the content Page

<%@ Reference Control="~/Controls/MyUserControl.ascx" %>

Now you can setup a public variable at the page level and access it's properties/methods

Partial Class MyPage

  Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

  Public usrCtrl As MyUserControl


Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

    If Master.FindControl("ucMyUserControl") IsNot Nothing Then
        usrCtrl = CType(Master.FindControl("ucMyUserControl"), MyUserControl)
        usrCtrl.ExecMyMethod()
    End If
    ...