how to remove 'name' attribute from server controls?

Question

The following asp.net side code of control:

Answer 1

create a Filter (class that inherits from Stream), assign it to your HttpContext.Response.Filter attribute, and in it you would overwrite the Write method, to remove all the name-tags from the generated html :)

See this page for more information http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httpresponse.filter.aspx

Update

Looking at the sourcecode for TextBox it reveals that Name is actually added to the Attributes-list during render, so it should be possible to interfere with the rendering of the TextBox class and prevent this attribute from being added. This should do

public class NoNamesTextBox : TextBox
{
    private class NoNamesHtmlTextWriter : HtmlTextWriter
    {
        public NoNamesHtmlTextWriter(TextWriter writer) : base(writer) {}

        public override void WriteAttribute(string name, string value, bool fEncode)
        {
            if (name.Equals("name", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) return;

            base.WriteAttribute(name, value, fEncode);
        }
    }

    protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
    {
        var noNamesWriter = new NoNamesHtmlTextWriter(writer);

        base.Render(noNamesWriter);
    }
}

Update once more

How could i forget! You don't even need to subclass your textbox. In asp.net you can define which HtmlTextWriter type you want to use per control, so you can just configure that every TextBox control should use an instance of your own NoNamesHtmlTextWriter like this

<browsers>
  <browser refID="Default">
    <controlAdapters>
      <adapter 
        controlType="System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox"
        adapterType="NoNamesTextBoxAdapter" 
      />
    </controlAdapters>
  </browser>
</browsers>

public class NoNamesTextBoxAdapter : ControlAdapter
{
    private class NoNamesHtmlTextWriter : HtmlTextWriter
    {
        public NoNamesHtmlTextWriter(TextWriter writer) : base(writer) { }

        public override void WriteAttribute(string name, string value, bool fEncode)
        {
            if (name.Equals("name", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) return;

            base.WriteAttribute(name, value, fEncode);
        }
    }

    protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
    {
        var noNamesRender = new HtmlTextWriter(writer);
        base.Render(noNamesRender);
    }
}

Answer 2

Setting EnableViewState="False" will slim down the name. You can also make a class that inherits the Textbox Control and override the Render procedure to not include the name.

Public Class CustomTextBox
    Inherits TextBox
    Protected Overrides Sub Render(ByVal writer As System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter)
        MyBase.Render(writer)
        'Simplified rendering of control...
        writer.WriteLine("<input type='text' id='" & MyBase.ClientID & "'>")        
    End Sub
End Class

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
     Dim MyCustomTextBox As New CustomTextBox
     form1.Controls.Add(MyCustomTextBox)
End Sub

Alternatively, if you don't want to have to add the control at run-time, you can make your CustomTextBox as a ServerControl so that you can add it at design time.

Answer 3

For some unknown reason the WriteAttribute override didn't work. I replaced it with:

public override void AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute key, string value)
{
   if (key == HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Name) return;
   base.AddAttribute(key, value);
}         

And it worked like a charm. Also if you just need a custom Name you can just override the UniqueID property:

public class MyCustomControl : TextBox
    {

        public override string UniqueID
        {
            get
            {
                //return base.UniqueID;
                return "test123";
            }
        }


    }

Thanks for your help!

Answer 4

You can override the name property and return whatever you want (http://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System.Web/xsp/system/Web/UI/HtmlControls/HtmlInputControl.cs).

Answer 5

I think better is to change name property to same like ID is..

Just try bellow by using Jquery on document.ready(function(){})

document.ready(function(){
  $.each($('div').children(), function() {
        $(this).attr("name",$(this).attr("id"));
  });
});

Answer 6

what ASP.Net controls render in name attributes, comes from UniqueID property. It's not necessarily good idea to override it, since ASP.NET uses that to locate control on postback to route postback data & events. However, if you are sure it is ok in your scenario, you certainly can override UniqueID property following @Pauli Østerø's answer. Have fun!