Is there an ASP.NET WebControl for the <p> tag?

Question

Simple question, difficult to search for (due to the main part of the question being the single letter p)!

In ASP.NET, <asp:Panel/> is rendered as a <div></div> block, <asp:Label/> is rendered as a <span></span> block... is there one that renders as <p></p> block?

It doesn't look like it from MSDN for the WebControl class, but I thought I would ask in case I've missed something obvious.

(I realise the obvious solution is to just use <p runat="server" id="p1"></p> and use the generic html control class)

Lucifer

Answer 1

No, there is no built-in control specifically for <p>. A LiteralControl or the <p runat="server" /> version you gave are the closest you will get.

You could always create your own control, though. You can create a class that implements WebControl, and override the Render method:

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)
{
   output.WriteFullBeginTag("p");
   output.Write(this.Text);
   output.WriteEndTag("p");
}

There are more instructions on how to write your own server controls here:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366537(v=vs.100).aspx

And a list of all of the .NET web and server controls here:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306459

Ovoid

Thanks Cory, that is as I expected... I was hoping for a doh moment as somebody pointed me at the all-too-obvious class that I'd missed. Once I get my 6 months off to do whatever work I want to do myself, I'll get around to creating one </dream> ;-) – Lucifer

The thing is that if you override the Render() method, you will have to take care of all of the rendering yourself. If you do it using the approach I mentioned here, the control will render just as you would expect from a Label, only with the p tag instead. – Surfeit

Answer 2

I've had exactly the same issue. After I started to use a similar technique Cory uses here, I found an even easier one, that basically does the same and solves your issues. However, it has one benefit when compared with the solution above: you don't have to render the whole control yourself.

Basically all you need to do is the following:

• Create you own control, inherit e.g. from the Label control.
• Override the RenderBeginTag() method.
• Write your own tag, e.g. p.
• The end tag will be written automatically.
• Your new tag will now replace the default tag (span in this example).

See code below:

    public class P : Label
    {
        public override void RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            writer.RenderBeginTag("p");
        }
    }

Surfeit

I have added this line at the top of the method, to include the CssClass attribute: writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, this.CssClass); – Lamellirostral

Instead of overriding the RenderBeginTag() method, you can also override the TagKey property: protected override HtmlTextWriterTag TagKey => HtmlTextWriterTag.P; – Propagation

Answer 3

Although there is no special class for <p> element, you can use HtmlGenericControl to generate <p> tag like this:

var p = new HtmlGenericControl("p");

Mousseline