Editing Writing HTML to a String

If you want to be able to populate a Panel or otherwise generate HTML to a string, it's complex, but straightforward.

Bring in the following references to your class and project:

        Imports System.Web.UI
        Imports System.Text

Get your data from your dataset:

        Dim Content_DT As ClixMKP_DataSet.ContentDataTable = Content_TA.GetDataForSiteAbbrev(SiteAbbrev)

Now declare a StringBuilder, a StringWriter, and an HTMLTextWriter, each one based on the previous item:

        Dim SB As New Text.StringBuilder
        Dim SW As IO.TextWriter = New IO.StringWriter(SB)
        Dim HTML As New System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(SW)

Start the rendering process:

        HTML.BeginRender()

Now loop through the records in your data table, one record at a time.  In this case, I'm generating three paragraphs.  Note that in order to generate attributes and style entries, you have to "add" those '''before''' the actual begin tag.

        For Each Content_Rec As ClixMKP_DataSet.ContentRow In Content_DT.Rows
            HTML.AddStyleAttribute("color", "Blue")
            HTML.AddStyleAttribute("font-weight", "Bolder")
            HTML.AddStyleAttribute("font-size", "Larger")
            HTML.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.P)
            HTML.Write(Content_Rec.ContentHeader)
            HTML.RenderEndTag()
            '
            HTML.AddStyleAttribute("padding", "20px")
            HTML.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.P)
            HTML.Write(Content_Rec.ContentHTML)
            HTML.RenderEndTag()
            '
            HTML.AddStyleAttribute("text-decoration", "italic")
            HTML.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.P)
            HTML.AddAttribute("href", Content_Rec.ContentLinkURL)
            HTML.AddAttribute("target", "_blank")
            HTML.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.A)
            HTML.Write("Click for more...")
            HTML.RenderEndTag()
            HTML.RenderEndTag()
            '
        Next

Now finish the rendering:

        HTML.EndRender()

And finally, generate the text:

        Dim ReturnHTML As String = ""
        ReturnHTML = SB.ToString