I have a masterpage in my asp.net 3.5 application and I have some controls and jquery stuff. I try to access the controls in codebehind and it says :
The name 'DrpStates' does not exist in the current context
Why it is not accessible in codebehind ?
When you create a code behind file, ASP.NET also automatically generates a designer file (which is right next to it). In that designer file all the controls are initialized and loaded. Sometimes (for reasons unknown) when you create a new control, it fails to re-initialize the designer file and you can't get access to the control in the code behind file.
Try doing this >
Delete the designer file (right click > delete)
Right click on the aspx file > Convert to Web Application
Should work now
It's probably part of the master page or parent page, try using FindControl method:
this.Page.FindControl("DrpStates");
There could be a problem with your .designer.cs file. Check if you have a designer file with the same name as your aspx (or ascx) file.
If you open the aspx file and switch between design view and html view and back it will prompt VS to check the controls and add any that are missing to the designer file.
Try right clicking on the aspx and select "Convert to Web Application".
You can also try deleting the .designer.cs file and then recreate an empty file with the same name.
reason : - When we create a code behind file, ASP.NET also automatically generates a designer file. In that designer file all the controls are initialized and loaded. Sometimes when we create a new control, it fails to re-initialize the designer file and you can't get access to the control in the code behind file.
There is a simple Solution to this situation.
Step1 : open the the yourfile.aspx.designer.cs file
you will find things like " protected global::System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label Label2; "
these are the initialized components in the sequence in which they were generated by you.
Step2: just copy and paste the following line repeatedly for every missing component that were not
recognized by the code behind : "global::System.Web.UI.WebControls."+Class of the component that you are missing + single space + id of the missing component.
Step3: save the file and voila all the components error disappear magically.
In my WAP project, every .aspx's code-behind and designer share the same namespace. For example my Main.Master.cs and Main.designer.cs are both in the OurCompany.Web namespace by default.
When I go to another .aspx page and use the following, I get an "Ambiguous reference" error because it can't decide if I'm talking about my code-behind or designer file of that master page
<%# MasterType TypeName="OurCompany.Web.Main" %>
but by default this is the way VS creates .aspx pages so should I really care?
The designer files are all marked as "partial" classes so they don't get compiled into their own types.
My guess is that you really do have 2 classes called "OurCompany.Web.Main". A tool like Reflector would let you browser your DLLs so you could tell for sure.
This just happened to me, your problem is the JIT compilation creating temporary "copies" of your assemblies in a temp directory.
Make sure every namespace/partial class declaration is "tight", check for incorrect class names, wrong namespaces.
The problem "just went away" for me as well. Recreating or cleaning the solution will probably do it. Wish I could be more helpful but going cleaning up the source, both manually and with the right click menu probably helped.
I'm guessing you have a master page and a web form page with the same name on the code behind class. And this will prevent your site from working correctly (if it works at all).
I'd go through my aspx.cs files and looking for the class name main (find should work here). I bet you will find two files with the name. You will have to change one of them to something else. Just make sure you also change the Inherits in the .aspx page and the .designer.cs class name.
Sometimes when I'm editing page or control the .designer files stop being updated with the new controls I'm putting on the page. I'm not sure what's causing this to happen, but I'm wondering if there's any way of forcing Visual Studio to regenerate the .designer file. I'm using Visual Studio 2008
EDIT: Sorry I should have noted I've already tried:
Closing & re-opening all the files & Visual Studio
Making a change to a runat="server" control on the page
Deleting & re-adding the page directive
If you open the .aspx file and switch between design view and html view and
back it will prompt VS to check the controls and add any that are missing to
the designer file.
In VS2013-15 there is a Convert to Web Application command under the Project menu. Prior to VS2013 this option was available in the right-click context menu for as(c/p)x files. When this is done you should see that you now have a *.Designer.cs file available and your controls within the Design HTML will be available for your control.
PS: This should not be done in debug mode, as not everything is "recompiled" when debugging.
Some people have also reported success by (making a backup copy of your .designer.cs file and then) deleting the .designer.cs file. Re-create an empty file with the same name.
There are many comments to this answer that add tips on how best to re-create the designer.cs file.
Well I found a solution that works, though I don't really like it. I had to delete the .designer.cs file then recreate an empty file with the same name. When I went back in and saved the aspx file again, the designer file was re-generated.
Dodgy!
I use the following method which works everytime:
Select all of the code-in-front (html markup etc) in the editor of the aspx/ascx file.
Cut.
Save.
Paste.
Save.
Recompile.
I recently saw that I was having the same problem. Visual Studio 2010 was refusing to update the designer file.
As it turns out, VS doesn't modify the designer file for a page that uses CodeFile (run off of pages) instead of CodeBehind (DLL). This is true no matter how many times you close VS, reload the project, re-create the control(s), or modify a file. Nothing would prompt VS to regenerate the designer. It's as if it doesn't create the designer file for CodeFile pages but does require it to be there.
I changed it to CodeBehind and saved the page. The designer file updated immediately. Then I just changed it back and everything was still golden. This behavior seems to be new with VS 2010 / .NET 4.0 as VS 2008 by default didn't suffer from this.
It's this part:
<%# Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="YourPage.aspx.vb" Inherits="YourPageClass" %>
Change CodeFile to CodeBehind, save, and then revert.
There is another possibility: You may have an error in your .aspx file that does not allow Visual Studio to regenerate the designer.
If you switch to Design View, it will show the control as unable to be rendered. Fixing the control (in my case it was an extra quote in the properties) and recompiling should regenerate the designer.
Most of the solutions here don't work if you're running Visual Studio 2013 and possibly 2012. Microsoft probably introduced some optimizations to make the IDE snappier, consequently they've reduced the number of cases that trigger the code generator. The following scenarios that used to work no longer do:
Delete the aspx or ascx file -- No longer checks for this case
Cut all the content and repaste into the aspx or ascx file -- No longer works, no change in the references
Convert to Web Application -- Option no longer available
Arbitrarily changing content on the aspx/ascx file -- No longer works (see 2).
The solution is surprisingly simple, but it's slightly cumbersome. In order to trigger the code generator, change something that would require the designer.aspx.cs to be generated. Changing content that doesn't affect code, such as a CSS style or adding text, won't trigger the code generator. You must change a referenced control. Here's how to do it:
In the ascx or aspx change the ID of the control
<asp:HyperLink ID="MyLink" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/Default.aspx" Text="Home" />
to
<asp:HyperLink ID="theLINK" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/Default.aspx" CssClass="tab" Text="Home" />
Go to the ascx.cs or aspx.cs and make sure you rename all references to "MyLink" to "theLINK" as well. Save and do build and the you should be good to go.
the only way I know is to delete the designer file, and do a convert to web app. However when you do this, it usually pops up with the error, as to why it didn't auto-regen in the first place, its usually a control ref that isn't declared in the head of the page.
Convert to Web Application did not work for me.
Deleting designer.cs and pasting a blank designer.cs did not work either.
But yes this worked:
Select all(Default.aspx)
Cut
Save Default.aspx
Paste
Save Default.aspx
Done. New designer.cs generated. :)
I often found that copy/pasting caused this behaviour for me. Most cases can be solved by editing the ID of a server control (just add a character, then delete it).
Also remember that control inside things like Repeaters aren't visible in the designer file.
And yes, there are cases where you need to do the delete-the-file magic listed above - but the name-change solution will work most of the time.
My experience is that if you want to do like in this article, like stated above.
Your markup file (aspx/ascx) has to include the CodeBehind="MyPage.aspx.cs" attribute or else it won´t work. I blogged about it here.
I've found a way to solve this problem without changing any code or running commands like "Convert to Web Application" - and it's simple too!
What I found was that restarting Visual Studio often solves the problem, but sometimes it doesn't. In those cases, if you close Visual Studio and then delete all content in the "obj" directory for the web project before you open it again, it has always worked for me.
(when started again you just add a space and remove it again and then hit save to have the designer file properly regenerated)
(The following comes from experience with VS2005.)
If you edit an ASPX page while debugging, then the codebehind doesn't get updated with the new classes. So, you have to stop debugging, trivially edit the ASPX page (like add a button or something), then click Design View, then delete the button. Then, your designer files should be updated.
If you are having a different issue with VS2008, then I can't help.
When you are in design view, right click on the screen and hit refresh.
Another thing which worked was -
Manually delete & then Create a designer file in filesystem.
Edit Project file.
Add code to include designer
Eg: <Compile Include="<Path>\FileName.ascx.designer.cs">
<DependentUpon>FileName.ascx</DependentUpon>
</Compile>
Reload Project
Open as(c/p)x file in design/view mode & save it.
Check designer file. Code will be there.
If you are using VS2013 or later , make sure that the code referenced with attribute "CodeBehind" not "CodeFile", then do below steps
<%# Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="yourControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="yourControl.yourControl" %>
create empty designer page (or clear it if it's already exists "yourControl.ascx.designer.cs")
in the ascx (or aspx) copy all code , the delete it, then save. re-past it again , then save.
the designer file should be populated now.
Select-all in the designer file and delete everything in the file, leaving it blank and then save
Select-all in the ASPX/ASCX file and cut everything and then re-paste it back
The designer file should have regenerated the code
Here is wat i experienced ,
Select the website folder right click in the Solution Explorer, select Convert to Web application for all the aspx file a designer file will get generated.
Sameer
Just to add to the long list of answers here - I've just run into this issue in VS2010 (SP1) with an .aspx file. I tried adding and removing standard ASP controls (which has worked in the past) but in the end, I had to remove one of the runat=server lines from an existing control (and save) to force the designer file to regenerate.
The solution the worked for me is:
I just copied the page and and pasted it in the same portion, then renamed the first page(what ever name) and renamed the copied page as the original page. Now the controls are accessible.
I've encountered the same problem for years now, working in Visual Studio 2008. And I've tried every "solution" on StackOverflow and dozens of blogs, just like I'm sure all of you have. And sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't, just like I'm sure all of you have encountered. And apparently it's still an issue in VS2010 and VS2012.
So finally, a couple of months ago, I decided enough was enough, and over a few weeks I built a tool called "Redesigner" that generates .designer files. It's open-source under the BSD license, with the source code available on SourceForge — free to use, free to steal, free to do anything you please with. And it does what Visual Studio fails to do so often, which is generate .designer files quickly and reliably.
It's a stand-alone command-line tool that parses .aspx and .ascx files, performs all the necessary reflection magic, and spits out correct .designer files. It does all the parsing and reflection itself to avoid relying on existing code, which we all know too well is broken. It's written in C# against .NET 3.5, but it makes pains to avoid using even System.Web for anything other than type declarations, and it doesn't use or rely on Visual Studio at all.
Redesigner can generate new .designer files; and it offers a --verbose option so that when things go wrong, you get far better error messages than "Exception of type System.Exception was thrown." And there's a --verify option that can be used to tell you when your existing .designer files are broken — missing controls, bad property declarations, unreadable by Visual Studio, or otherwise just plain borked.
We've been using it at my workplace to get us out of jams for the better part of the last month now, and while Redesigner is still a beta, it's getting far enough along that it's worth sharing its existence with the public. I soon intend to create a Visual Studio plugin for it so you can simply right-click to verify or regenerate designer files the way you always wished you could. But in the interim, the command-line usage is pretty easy and will save you a lot of headaches.
Anyway, go download a copy of Redesigner now and stop pulling out your hair. You won't always need it, but when you do, you'll be glad you have it!
https://sourceforge.net/projects/redesigner/
TL;DR;
Edit the Inherits attribute of the ASPX page's #Page directive and hit Save. Your designer file should be regenerated.
Ensure that Inherits = <namespace>.<class_name> and CodeBehind = <class_name>.aspx.cs
I was trying to do this on a Sharepoint 2010 project, using VS 2010 and TFS, and none of the solutions above worked for me. Primarily, the option, "Convert to Web Application" is missing from the right-click menu of the .ASPX file when using TFS in VS 2010.
This answer helped finally. My class looked like this:
namespace MyProjects.Finance.Pages
{
public partial class FinanceSubmission : WebPartPage
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
// more code
}
}
And my #Page directive was (line-breaks here for clarity):
<%# Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"
CodeBehind="FinanceSubmission.aspx.cs"
Inherits="MyProjects.Finance.Pages.FinanceSubmission"
MasterPageFile="~masterurl/default.master" %>
I first changed the Inherits to MyProjects.Finance.Pages, hit Save, then changed it back to MyProjects.Finance.Pages.FinanceSubmission and hit Save again. And wallah! The designer page was regenerated!
Hope this helps someone using TFS!
Within the Visual Studio:
1) Remove your aspx.designer.cs file
2) Right click on your aspx file and select "Convert to Web Application"
This should add the aspx.designer.cs back and up to date.
If you get an error saying:
"Generation of designer file failed: The method or operation is not implemented."
Try close Visual Studio and then reopen your project and do step number two again
How to generate aspx.designer.cs in visual studio?
in solution explorer just right click and select convert to web application. It will generate all the designer files again.
Step 1: Select all your aspx code, Cut [ CTRL+X ] that code and Save.
Step 2: Again paste the same code in the same page and save again
Now your .desinger page will refresh with all controls in .aspx page.
Delete the designer.cs file and then right click on the .aspx file and choose "Convert To Web Application". If there is a problem with your control declarations, such as a tag not being well-formed, you will get an error message and you will need to correct the malformed tag before visual studio can successfully re-generate your designer file.
In my case, at this point, I discovered that the problem was that I had declared a button control that that was not inside of a form tag with a runat="server" attribute.
This is a bug in the IDE; I've seen it since VS 2003. THe solution is simple though.
Save your files. Completely exit the IDE (make sure the process stops, task mgr.)
Reopen the solution, dirty the markup, save. Fixed.
I had two problems... outdated AJAXControlkit - deleted the old dll, removed old controls from toolbox, downloaded new version, loaded toolbox, and dragged and dropped new controls on the page (see http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/.NET/Visual_Studio_.NET_2005/Q_24591597.html)
Also had misspelling in my label control (had used 'class' instead of 'cssclass').
Ta
I had the problem that my new controls would not generate in the designer file when declared in the .ascx file. The problem was that i declared them in the code behind also. So deleting the declaration in the code behind solved my problem.
If you are like me and you add old .ASPX files to a more recent project.
You are probably going to forget some of the controls used on the page.
If so, first thing, if there are multiple files you are installing;
Fix one at a time first.
When you compile, fix errors generated. They will probably be the same
errors in all the files.
Next, if you have Designer files, delete all of the inserted - designer files.
Next, make sure there are not any other errors when you compile, other than
the designer files.
Finally right click your web project and click on Convert to Web Application.
This will insert the designer files you need.
These are the absolute best steps to fix the issues.
One thing that nobody's mentioned is to visit the page. I had my designer file stop regenerating because I was including a user control that didn't exist (for various reasons), and none of the things suggested here worked. For whatever reason, I didn't get any errors in Visual Studio - besides the one complaining about the fact that my client-side controls didn't exist because they weren't being regenerated, of course.
It took actually visiting the page to get ASP.Net to tell me the error.