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How to: Create Templated ASP.NET User Controls

You can create user controls that implement templates, an ASP.NET feature that allows the separation of control data from its presentation. A templated control does not provide a user interface. Instead, it is written to implement a naming container and to include a class whose properties and methods are accessible to the host page.

The user interface for the user control is supplied by a page developer at design time. The developer creates templates of the type defined by the user control, and can then add controls and markup to the templates.

To create a templated user control

  1. In the .ascx file, add an ASP.NET PlaceHolder control where you want the template to appear.

  2. In the user control's code, implement a property of type ITemplate.

  3. Define a server control class that implements the INamingContainer interface as a container in which to create an instance of the template. This is called the template's naming container.


    This control essentially becomes a nested class of the user control, though this is not required.

  4. Apply the TemplateContainerAttribute to the property that implements ITemplate and pass the type of the template's naming container as the argument to the attribute's constructor.

  5. In the control's Init method, repeat the following steps one or more times:

    • Create an instance of the naming container class.

    • Create an instance of the template in the naming container.

    • Add the naming container instance to the Controls property of the PlaceHolder server control.


      From the point of view of the page using the user control, the syntax for the templated user control is identical to what it would be with a custom templated control.

The following example shows a templated user control and a page that contains it. The user control creates a template that can be declared on a host page as <MessageTemplate>. The template control also exposes two properties, Index and Message, that the host page can access inside the template.


To run this code, you must replace all the designer-generated code in the page with the following code.

The first sample shows the templated user control. The second sample shows a page that contains the user control.

<%@ Control language="C#" ClassName="TemplatedUC" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.ComponentModel"  %>
<script runat="server">
private ITemplate messageTemplate = null;

[ TemplateContainer(typeof(MessageContainer)) ]
[ PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty) ]
public ITemplate MessageTemplate {
        return messageTemplate; 
        messageTemplate = value; 

void Page_Init() {
    if (messageTemplate != null) {
        String[] fruits = {"apple", "orange", "banana", "pineapple" };
            MessageContainer container = new MessageContainer(i, fruits[i]);

public class MessageContainer: Control, INamingContainer {
    private int m_index;
    private String m_message;
    internal MessageContainer(int index, String message)
        m_index = index;
        m_message = message;
    public int Index {
            return m_index; 
    public String Message 
            return m_message; 
<asp:Placeholder runat="server" ID="PlaceHolder1" />

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="uc" tagname="TemplateTest" 
    Src="TemplatedUC.ascx" %>
<script runat="server">
    protected void Page_Load()
<title>Templated User Control Test</title>
<h1>Testing Templated User Control</h1>
<uc:TemplateTest runat="server">
    Index: <asp:Label runat="server" ID="Label1" 
        Text='<%# Container.Index %>' />
    <br />
    Message: <asp:Label runat="server" ID="Label2" 
        Text='<%# Container.Message %>' />
    <hr />

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