i ran into this at work

<uc1:WUC_ShoppingCart id=wucForm runat="server"></uc1:WUC_ShoppingCart>

i don't know what it means, can anyone out there dissect it? thanks guys!

Look at the top of the page you found this on. There should be something that resembles this:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="uc1" ... %>

This indicates your application is using some custom controls that are either found in an ASCX file in the application itself, or in an assembly that is referenced by your application.

-Peter

thanks planoie... i ended up asking the boss. it's pretty cool. another question... if you can... so does that mean it is an object or a class or how does one define a control... like <uc1:##>

Any control in ASP.NET is a class and therefore an object (because all classes derive from the .NET System.Object class). ASP.NET controls are all derived from System.Web.UI.Control, even the Page itself.

When you want to use a control (custom or otherwise) you use control tags:

   <asp:button ...>

It happens that the ASP.NET runtime automatically knows about the XML namespace "ASP" which is an alias for System.Web.UI.WebControls. Regular HTML tags (<input type="button"...>) live in the System.Web.UI.HtmlControls namespace and ASP.NET knows they are declared as regular HTML (no tag prefix).

When you want to use a custom control (user control from an ASCX or a custom server control found in a third party assembly) you need to tell ASP.NET how you are going to refer to it. That is what the @ Register directive is for. In the case of your situation:

   <%@ Register TagPrefix="uc1" ... %>

You are telling ASP.NET: I am going to use the tag prefix "uc1" and here is where you can find the source for the control(s) under that prefix.

You can register both a single ASCX:

   <%@ Register TagPrefix="uc1" TagName="aControl" Src="aControl.ascx" %>

where the Src attribute tells you where the ASCX can be found, or you can register a tag namespace when you have 1 or more server controls in an referenced assembly:

   <%@ Register TagPrefix="ms" NameSpace="Microsoft.Web.UI.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.Web.UI.WebControls" %>

Here's the MSDN article on the register directive:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...onregister.asp

-Peter

Thanks again, Peter. You're going to be my new best friend! Seriously thanks so much! Hopefully one day I'll be knowledgeable enough to help out like you're helping out.