Introduction
Since I am working in ASP.NET, I felt that the use of the validation controls with text box is so easy and good but lots of mark up is involved for this part. So I made a user control in which Required Field Validation and Regular Expression Validation controls both attached with the text box and any developer can use this in his project comfortably.
Background
The idea behind this control is to make a clean mark up of aspx page and handle the things related to text box and validation control with custom properties. Such things make this user control more effective.
Using the Code
The integration is quite simple. Just add a user control (*.ascx) file in to your solution. In my case, I added a user-control file and named it ValidTextBox. The mark up and code behind file are as given below:
ValidTextBox.ascx
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ValidTextBox.ascx.cs"
Inherits="Controls_ValidTextBox" %>
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RFV" runat="server" ErrorMessage=""
ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Enabled="false"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="REV" runat="server" ErrorMessage=""
ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Enabled="false"></asp:RegularExpressionValidator>
ValidTextBox.ascx.cs
using System;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
public partial class Controls_ValidTextBox : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
#region "TextBox Custom Properties"
public string Text
{
get { return TextBox1.Text; }
set { TextBox1.Text = value; }
}
public bool ReadOnly
{
set { TextBox1.ReadOnly = value; }
}
public string CssClass
{
set { TextBox1.CssClass = value; }
}
public TextBoxMode TextMode
{
set { TextBox1.TextMode = value; }
}
public Unit Width
{
set { TextBox1.Width = value; }
}
public Int32 MaxLength
{
set { TextBox1.MaxLength = value; }
}
public int Rows
{
set
{
if (TextBox1.TextMode == TextBoxMode.MultiLine)
TextBox1.Rows = value;
}
}
public int Columns
{
set
{
if (TextBox1.TextMode == TextBoxMode.MultiLine)
TextBox1.Columns = value;
}
}
#endregion
#region "Validation Controls Custom Properties"
public string RequiredFieldText
{
set { RFV.Text = value; }
}
public string RegularExpressionText
{
set { REV.Text = value; }
}
public ValidatorDisplay RequiredFieldDisplay
{
set { RFV.Display = value; }
}
public ValidatorDisplay RegularExpressionDisplay
{
set { REV.Display = value; }
}
public bool EnabledRequiredField
{
set { RFV.Enabled = value; }
}
public bool EnabledRegularExpression
{
set { REV.Enabled = value; }
}
public string ErrorMsgForRequiredField
{
set { RFV.ErrorMessage = value; }
}
public string ErrorMsgForRegularExpression
{
set { REV.ErrorMessage = value; }
}
public string ValidationExpression
{
set { REV.ValidationExpression = value; }
}
public string ValidationGroup
{
set
{
REV.ValidationGroup = value;
RFV.ValidationGroup = value;
}
}
#endregion
}
In the above control, I have defined some custom properties which will be used to operate the control on page. The details are below:
Text Box Related Properties
Text: Get or Set the text value of control ReadOnly: Make the textbox readonly CssClass: Define the class for control TextMode: Define the mode, i.e., SingleLine(default), Multiline and Password Width: Set the width of control MaxLength: Set max length of text Rows: Define rows in textbox (applicable only in MultiLine Mode) Columns: Define columns in textbox (applicable only in MultiLine Mode)
Validation Controls Related Properties
RequiredFieldText: Set text for Required field control RegularExpressionText: Set text for Regular expression control RequiredFieldDisplay: Set Display mode for Required field control i.e. (None, Static, Dynamic) RegularExpressionDisplay: Set Display mode for Regular expression control i.e. (None, Static, Dynamic) EnabledRequiredField: Enable/Disable Required Control EnabledRegularExpression: Enable/Disable RegularExpression Control ErrorMsgForRequiredField: Set error message for Required Control ErrorMsgForRegularExpression: Set error message for RegularExpression Control ValidationExpression: Set the validation expression for RegularExpression Control ValidationGroup: Set the validation group of both validation controls
Now you can use this control in your page and use its properties to modify its behavior on page. The new custom properties according to the developer requirement can also be defined.
How to Use the Above Control
To use this control is so simple as developers use usercontrols in many ways like Registered it on page or in web.config globally or dynamically as well. So, I am using the first approach because it's good for beginner developers to understand. I added this control on my Default.aspx page via dragging it on page and prepared a form with the help of it. The mark up would be:
Default.aspx
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"
CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<%@ Register Src="Controls/ValidTextBox.ascx"
TagName="ValidTextBox" TagPrefix="uc" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title></title>
<style type="text/css">
.style1 { width: 100%; }
.style2 { width: 180px; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<table class="style1">
<tr>
<td class="style2">Name</td>
<td>
<uc:ValidTextBox ID="ValidTextBox1"
runat="server" EnabledRequiredField="True"
ErrorMsgForRequiredField="*required"
RequiredFieldDisplay="Dynamic"
ValidationGroup="submit" Width="300" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style2">Address</td>
<td>
<uc:ValidTextBox ID="ValidTextBox2"
runat="server" EnabledRequiredField="True"
ErrorMsgForRequiredField="*required"
RegularExpressionDisplay="Dynamic"
Rows="5" TextMode="MultiLine"
ValidationGroup="submit" Width="300" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style2">Email</td>
<td>
<uc:ValidTextBox ID="ValidTextBox3" runat="server"
EnabledRegularExpression="True"
EnabledRequiredField="True"
ErrorMsgForRegularExpression="*Invalid"
ErrorMsgForRequiredField="*required"
RegularExpressionDisplay="Dynamic"
ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"
ValidationGroup="submit" Width="300" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style2">Password</td>
<td>
<uc:ValidTextBox ID="ValidTextBox4"
runat="server" EnabledRequiredField="True"
ErrorMsgForRequiredField="*required"
RegularExpressionDisplay="Dynamic"
TextMode="Password"
ValidationGroup="submit" Width="300" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="style2"> </td>
<td>
<asp:Button ID="btnSubmit"
runat="server" OnClick="btnSubmit_Click"
Text="Submit" ValidationGroup="submit" />
<asp:Button ID="btnReset"
runat="server" Text="Reset"
onclick="btnReset_Click" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<asp:Literal ID="ltMessage" runat="server"></asp:Literal>
<br />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Default.aspx.cs
using System;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ltMessage.Text = "Form has been validated";
}
protected void btnReset_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ValidTextBox1.Text = "";
ValidTextBox2.Text = "";
ValidTextBox3.Text = "";
ValidTextBox4.Text = "";
ltMessage.Text = "";
}
}
Conclusion
This is all about the Generic TextBox Validation Control. I hope this will help you in your applications and make your efforts less while using TextBox with validations. Other developers can add more properties in user control according to their requirement. It's just a way to make things easier during development.
Thanks for reading. 
