ASP.Net MessageBox
C# Function

ASP.Net MessageBox

For veteran C# windows developers ASP.Net can be a strange new world. I personally found myself stuck on what seemed to be a simple task, displaying a message box to the user with simple C# code in ASP.Net.

In this article I'll briefly explain the most effect method to write a MessageBox function for ASP.Net.

Server Side MessageBox

A simple solution would be to import the System.Windows.Form reference so you can use the familiar MessageBox.Show("") C# function.

However you have to keep in mind this would be run from the ASP.Net server and not all browsers like that...

Client Side MessageBox

A much more elegant solution is to use ASP.Net to call a client side programming language like JavaScript.

The java code for a message box is as follows:

window.alert("[message here]")

Integrating JavaScript with ASP.Net

The first step to integrating JavaScript in ASP.Net is to set up the script for web format:

<script language='javascript'>
window.alert("[message here]")
</script>

This next step has some flexibility, which is getting C# in ASP.Net to run the script. The way I like to do it is by adding LiteralControl to the Page's Controls with the script. Simple and it works, here is the full C# function:

private void MessageBox(string msg)
{ 
  Page.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(
                 "<script language='javascript'> window.alert('"+ msg + "')</script>"));
}

Drawbacks

The drawbacks of such simplicity is simplicity itself. The above C#.Net function will display a message box to a user from an ASP.Net website. However it cannot do much more like display a meaningful Yes-No message box or ask for user input.

Yet this is a great tool for debugging your ASP.Net websites and displaying helpful messages to users...

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ASP.Net MessageBox C# Function