Adding a hyperlink to a sentence of text in a bulleted list

Wheels012

Good afternoon. We created a control (somecontrol.cs) which displays a dynamic bullet list. In some scenerios, one of the bullets will have a hyperlink. The problem is, the a href code renders as text. We are adding to a string List and using it as the DataSource for the bulleted list:

private BulletedList _blConfirmText = new BulletedList();
List<string> displayText = new List<string>();
_confirmText.Text = CONFIRMTEXTLB;
displayText.Add(BULLETONELB);
displayText.Add(BULLETTWOLB);

                if (hasUpdateAccess)                    
                    displayText.Add(BULLETTHREELBHL);                          
                else
                    displayText.Add(BULLETTHREELB);

//set the bullet style and load the bulletd list
_blConfirmText.CssClass = "bulletItems";
_blConfirmText.DataSource = displayText;
_blConfirmText.DataBind();

Any idea how to get this to render correctly? Any suggestions? Thank you, WHEELS

Lost User

What type of control is it? Is it a WinForm User control? There's no magic wand that will parse your href string and display it as a link automatically, you'll have to write your own logic to achieve this behavior. EDIT: I see that you're trying to create some sort of a Web User Control. Can you show some code where the actual rendering happens?

BobJanova

If it's a custom control you need to make sure that you actually render an <a href=...> tag.

Wheels012

private const string BULLETTHREELBHL = "This is an example of the hyperlink <a href=\"/../Test/FW_DEFAULT.ASPX?Serviceid=Test&title=Test+Page>Test Page\"</a> where people click to navigate to another page.";

BobJanova

Your HTML is invalid (the quotes around the attribute value aren't done right).

Wheels012

Hi Bob. What should they be? WHEELS

Lost User

private const string BULLETTHREELBHL = "This is an example of the hyperlink Test Page where people click to navigate to another page.";

EDIT: If it still doesn't work, make sure that it is not Html encoded before being rendered. For example. The Text property of some controls automatically Html encode their content. So if you put html tags inside the Text property, they'll be renedered as html tags.

BobJanova

private const string BULLETTHREELBHL = "This is an example of the hyperlink <a href=\"/../Test/FW_DEFAULT.ASPX?Serviceid=Test&title=Test+Page\">Test Page</a> where people click to navigate to another page.";

If you can't fix mistakes like that in HTML then why are you writing websites ...

Wheels012

Thanks Bob and Shameel. We had done some modifications to this code and when we put it back, we must have put the syntax back incorrectly. Unfortunately after fixing the code, it still renders as text. WHEELS

BobJanova

You still haven't shown the code that actually renders this text. Do other HTML tags work correctly? If your user control simply renders the text literally into the HTML stream then it should work so I'm guessing something is wrong in that area.

Lost User

It is being Html encoded before being rendered. As I said in my previous post, certain controls automatically html encode their content before rendering. Just to test if that is the actual problem, try using a div tag (HtmlGenericControl) and set its innerText property to the desired html output.

Wheels012

Hi Shameel. The text renders correctly when set up as a label directly on the page. I believe you are correct about the encoding issue. Is there a way to decode? WHEELS

Lost User

It depends on how you render the output. You have still not shown the code that actually renders your html output.

Wheels012

I had to abandon the Common control approach. I added a simple BulletedList to the .aspx file, but I am still having a very challenging time setting a hyperlink on a given word in a bullet sentence. I am starting to believe this can't be done. There are three DisplayMode options for a BulletedList: Text, HyperLink, and ImageButton, but no Text/Hyperlink combo. If you have time can you try to create one that does what I am looking for? Thanks, WHEELS

Lost User

Bulleted list and hyperlink will definitely work. Try this:

Google
Bing

Wheels012

Sorry Shameel. I was not entirely clear. I have done that sucessfully, but what I am looking for is the following: * This is an example of programming. Then when you click the underlined word good it takes you to http://www.codeproject.com. * is a bullet. WHEELS

Lost User

I dont see any problem with that too:

To Access Google, click here
This takes you to Bing

Wheels012

It seems to work well in the .aspx, but now I have to put it in as a dynamic variable. Is there any issue with including the a href in the string? WHEELS

Lost User

Depends on how you put the 'href' within that string. As long as the correct html is rendered, you shouldn't have any problem. Can you care to show me your entire code that renders the output?

Wheels012

<ul>
<li id="liBullet" />
<li><a href="http://bing.com">This</a> takes you to Bing</li>
</ul>

C#

protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem liBullet;
this.liBullet.Attributes.Add(BULLETTHREELBHL);
private const string BULLETTHREELBHL = "Employee earnings can be submitted through the <a href=\"/EECHG/FW_DEFAULT.ASPX?Serviceid=EECHG&title=Employee+Changes\">Employee Changes</a> service by a plan administrator with access to update employee changes.";

WHEELS