Designer file no longer automatically updating when adding new controls

Question

The closest answer I could find to my question here was this (which has an edit that says it no longer works, and I have confirmed it does not): Visual Studio 2005 Designer not adding controls to the aspx.Designer.cs

Let me start by saying this only happens in one particular web app for me, it's in c# 3.5 and it used to work for about the first 1-1.5 years.

The problem is that when I add a new control to the aspx file via source view the control is not added to the designer file automatically. I've gotten around the problem in the past by adding it manually, but I have a new project to add a large number (50+) fields to the aspx page.

I don't know what other information would be helpful, I've checked my event machine error logs but didn't find anything. If there are error logs specific to VS I could check those if someone pointed out how.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you, Jeff

Answer 1

The .aspx file would not "compile" as the was a bad assembly registered on the page. I didn't notice it because it was under "Warnings" not "Errors" in the Error List. Once I removed the bad <%@ Register... it started working again.

Answer 2

Check if all tags are closed on the aspx file.

eg : if you have opened a tag and forgot to close it it doesnt update any code preceding that tag

Answer 3

In this related article, I just posted some information about my new tool, Redesigner. It's open-source, BSD license, available on SourceForge, and it generates designer files reliably without Visual Studio! (And without Visual Studio's bugs!)

You can download a copy here, or read more about it in the related article.

Answer 4

Resolve "Warnings" on the page and save then Designer file will be updated