How do I get a web control's HTML? - asp.net

Question

i am working with String Builder and a Tree view control which i am generating Dynamically in my page.
This is what i have tried with :
Public sbMenu As New StringBuilder
In Page Load Event
Dim TreeView1 As New TreeView()
TreeView1.ID = "tree1"
TreeView1.ShowCheckBoxes = TreeNodeTypes.All
TreeView1.ShowLines = True
TreeView1.Nodes.Clear()
I am loading the TreeView1 using Database data and atlast appending to my string builser object as
sbMenu.Append("<div>")
sbMenu.Append(TreeView1)
sbMenu.Append("</div>")
But the sbMenu doesn't contain the TreeView1 instead it is storing
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TreeView
Can you please help me , By how my stringBuilder can hold the TreeView control and can make use of it..
I will use this in my .aspx page as
<%= sbMenu.Tostring() %>
here i need the TreeView control..

Answer 1

You can get a control's HTML by calling RenderControl. E.g.
var sb = new StringBuilder();
using (var sw = new StringWriter(sb))
using (var writer = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
myControl.RenderControl(writer);
}
string html = sb.ToString();
Or in VB:
Dim sb = New StringBuilder()
Using sw As New StringWriter(sb)
Using writer As New HtmlTextWriter(sw)
myControl.RenderControl(writer)
End Using
End Using
Dim html As String = sb.ToString()