ASP.NET 4.5 Features - Key HTML Editor Features

With the release of ASP.NET 4.5, we have seen many new enhancements in HTML. Today, we will be going through the key HTML editor features introduced in ASP.NET 4.5.
 
The following are the most important/productive enhancements introduced in HTML with ASP.NET 4.5:
  • Smart Tasks
  • Extract to User Control
  • HTML5 Snippets
  • Automatic Renaming of matching tag
  • Event Handler Generation

Automatic Renaming of the matching tag

 
In ASP.NET 4.5, we have a very productive feature where matching tags are automatically renamed when we change the opening tag.
 
Consider the following code on the HTML side
 
NewFeature_1.png
 
Now in earlier versions of ASP.NET if I had to make a change in the starting tag then I had to manually update the end tag too. However, with ASP.NET 4.5, you will see that if you update the starting tag then the end tag will also update automatically.
 
Please see the following image for more details.
 
NewFeature_2.png
 

Extract to User Control

 
The ASP.NET 4.5 designers have developed a very unique and productive feature where at any point in time, we can change code present in a web form to user control.
 
Consider I have a web form containing TextBoxes for userName and Password for authentication. While working on this page, we found that we need this user name and password authentication in various modules of the project.
 
NewFeature_3.png
 
With this said, ASP.NET 4.5 provides us the great feature where we must simply select the code and we can change that selected code to a User Control; see:
 
NewFeature_4.png
 

Smart Task in HTML Editor

 
One of the productive features added to ASP.NET a few years back was the addition of a smart task. With the click of the smart available on the control, you can accomplish some of the common tasks on that control.
 
NewFeature_5.png
 
Now with ASP.NET 4.5, we have the same feature while working on the HTML side. Hence, we don't need to go to design mode to use this feature.
 
NewFeature_6.png
 
If you click on the line present under "a", this would open up the smart task for that control.
 
NewFeature_7.png
 
You will see that you can perform all the common tasks for that control.
 

Code Snippets in HTML

 
With ASP.NET 4.5, we have code snippets available in HTML.
 
If you want to add audio or video to your page then you simply must type video on HTML and press TAB twice. You will see that full audio/video control is available, mentioning all the common properties.
 
NewFeature_8.png
 

Event Handler generation

 
Before the release of ASP.NET 4.5, if we must create an event handler for any control then we either must double-click on that control, which will generate an event for that control or define the event in the properties of that control. However, with ASP.NET 4.56 we have a new property added in the control, where we can generate an event for the control at the HTML side and we don't need to switch to design mode.
 
NewFeature_9.png
 
Clicking on "Create New Event" will create a default event for that control; however we can provide any name of that event and you would see that Visual Studio will then automatically generate the appropriate server-side event handler within your code-behind file for you.
 
NewFeature_11.png
 
Hope this article of mine has been helpful in giving some knowledge of the new features of ASP.NET 4.5.
 
Please visit my blog http://varunkhanna.blogspot.com/ for more articles.


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