Programming ASP.NET 3.5, 4th Edition

Panel Controls

The Panel control is used as a container for other controls much as a <div> (or a <span> to a lesser extent) acts in plain HTML. It serves several functions:

• To control the visibility of the controls it contains

• To control the appearance of the controls it contains

• To make it easier to generate controls programmatically

The Panel control is derived from WebControl and has the read/write properties shown in Table 5-1. The Panel control has no methods or events not inherited from the Control or WebControl class. Specifically, there are no events raised by user interaction.

Table 5-1. Properties of the Panel control not inherited from Control or WebControl

Name	Type	Values	Description
BackImageUrl	String		The URL of an image to display as the background of the panel. If the image is smaller than the panel, it will be tiled.
Direction	ContentDirection	LeftToRight, RightToLeft, NotSet	The direction to display text in a container control. Default is NotSet.
GroupingText	String		Causes the Panel to render to the browser as a <fieldset> element rather than a <div> element. The value of this property is used for the <legend> element.
HorizontalAlign	HorizontalAlign	Center, Justify, Left, NotSet, Right	Specifies the horizontal alignment of the contents, overriding any CSS styles that are already set on it. Default is NotSet. Note there is no VerticalAlign property.
ScrollBars	ScrollBars	Auto, Both, Horizontal, None, Vertical	Specifies the visibility and location of scroll bars. Default value is None ...