Can I put a tag in the Text property of an ASP:Button?

Question

I am trying to do something like this:

<asp:Button ID="btnSearch" 
            runat="server" 
            CssClass="greybtn" 
            Text='<span>Search</span>'
            OnClick="btnSearch_Click" />

It displays <span>Search</span> instead of just Search.

I know it is stupid, I am tyring something out for the heck of it and was just curious. — Xaisoft, Mar 04 '09 at 17:03

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 04 '15 at 07:52

14

You can put a span on an ASP.NET LinkButton like this:-

<asp:LinkButton ID="TestLinkButton" CssClass="btn btn-success" runat="server"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-refresh"/>Press Me</asp:LinkButton>

answered Aug 04 '15 at 07:52

Philip Johnson

1,091
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Best answer in my opinion. Is there any reason to use a Button over a LinkButton? Or essentially, any unwanted side effects from doing it this way? – h0r53 Oct 07 '16 at 16:44
Sorry only just spotted this comment for some reason. A link button and a button are two different things. link button generates an "a" tag, a button is an "input" tag which is usually used for submitting forms (although ASP.NET webforms hides this a bit, you can click them and call click events in webforms). This is really another question so I'm not going to go on. – Philip Johnson May 16 '17 at 20:55

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

You can't put markup inside a button. An asp:Button control just renders as an input button HTML tag: <input type="button" value="<span>Search</span>" /> (technically value="<span>Search</span>" />). The browser treats the contents of the value attribute as a literal string.

However, you can put markup inside a <button><span>Search</span></button> (you can put quite a bit of HTML in there, including images). This question talks about building a control which emits the button tag.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 06:16

2

You can have a asp linkButton for this:

answered Feb 13 '13 at 06:16

Rasith

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 04 '09 at 16:52

0

No. It renders a tag, so whatever you put in the Text property gets rendered as that button's value.

answered Mar 04 '09 at 16:52

Pawel Krakowiak

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 04 '09 at 17:00

0

The text property will automatically turn < and > into the entities < and >. More than that, button renders to html as an input element, with the text set in it's value property.

Do you maybe want a HyperLink or Label control instead?

answered Mar 04 '09 at 17:00

Joel Coehoorn

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Can I put a tag in the Text property of an ASP:Button?

5 Answers5