how to remove 'name' attribute from server controls?

Question

The following asp.net side code of control:

<asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="LimitTextBox" Text="20" ClientIDMode="Static" />

Generates such HTML-code:

<input name="ctl11$ctl00$ctl02$TeamPlayerSelector$LimitTextBox" 
    type="text" value="20" id="LimitTextBox">

ID attribute - as is required, but how can I remove 'name' attribute? It is not required for me and is also too long to transfer it to user browser.

How can I prevent 'name' attribute generation? Thanks

P.S. I work under ASP.NET 4.0

Yell

i dont think you can , its names like that when you enter it in a contenct place holder , if you want pure HTML use ASP.net MVC – Parasitize

or 1. don't use server controls 2. create your own filters to clean up the html – Cyndi

Are you sure you don't need the name? The value doesn't get sent back to the server on POST? If that's not the case...why not render a JavaScript variable instead? – Seise

@nick good point, id is only for client side DOM manipulation... name is required for the browser to actually post the content. – Cyndi

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);
    }
}

Brundisium

the 3rd update - is good suggestion. I would add: we would better have a sub-class for NoNameTextBox, and use 'NoNmaesTextBoxAdapter' for 'NoNameTextBox' only. – Yell

IMO thats double work... if you're subclassing the TextBox anyway, why not just override Render to use the NoNamesHtmlTextWriter in there instead? – Cyndi

I tried the NoNamesHtmlTextWriter and doesn't seem to work. For me, the WriteAttribute never gets called because my TextBox has zero attributes (the AttributeCollection is empty). I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I'm using .NET 4.0 – Wenona

I overrode the OnAttributeRender method of the NoNamesHtmlTextWriter and returned "false" for the "name" attribute. That worked. – Wenona

I had the same problem as @Wenona so used OnAttributeRender. In the end it turned out I required the name attribute but it had to be the same value as the id, so I overrode AddAttribute and changed the name value. – Cheater

Answer 2

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!

Knothole

WriteAttribute() override didn't work for me either. AddAttribute() worked a charm. Thanks! – Trihydric

Answer 3

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.

Rasp

Good point for subclassing the TextBox. I updated my answer as well for this approach but it should be more robust to filter the name attribute away from the actual rendering than trying to completely hijack it. – Cyndi

"Setting EnableViewState="False" will slim down the name" - this doesn't work – Yell

Answer 4

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!

Hauteloire

see my updated answer for overriding the rendering of a TextBox control on a application wide basis :) – Cyndi

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"));
  });
});

Kautz

Answer 6

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

Oolite