I'm trying to convert a Web Site to the Web Application project model and I'm running into compile errors that do not seem to be covered by the guidance I found at Converting a Web Site Project to a Web Application Project.
The issue is that standard ASP.NET controls that are embedded as child controls within the ContentTemplate of the Ajax Control Toolkit's TabContainer/TabPanel are no longer visible to the page (and result in compile errors). It appears that they can only be referenced with a call to FindControl whereas, when the project was a Web Site, they were directly accessible in the page's code behind file as properties.
Unfortunately, we have a lot of webforms that utilize the TabContainer, and converting all the references to child controls from simple property refences to FindControl calls will be quite burdensome.
While researching the problem I found a reference to a property called TemplateInstance in Single Instance Templates that seemed promising, but I understand that this is applicable to control designers, not control users. Any help would be much appreciated.
Best Answer
I thought I'd add one other point. The problem is not specific to the Ajax Control Toolkit's TabContainer. Indeed, I have a FormView control, and all the child controls in the ItemTemplate are no longer recognized by the compiler as being properies of the Page and result in compile errors. I can't believe that I have to change all of these propery references to findcontrol calls throughout my forms just because I moved from a Web Site to a Web Application Project. :-(