Fluent interface for rendering HTML

Question

Rendering HTML with the HtmlTextWriter isn\'t incredibly intuitive in my opinion, but if you\'re implementing web controls in web forms it\'s what you have to work with. I t

Answer 1

If you need to do lots of this kind of stuff have you considered some sort of template engine like NHaml?

In Ruby/Markaby this would look so much prettier.

    div :class=>"someClass someOtherClass" do 
        h1 "Lorem"
        select :id => "fooSelect", :name => "fooSelect", :class => "selectClass" do 
           option :title=>"selects the number 1", :value => 1 { "1" } 
           option :title=>"selects the number 2", :value => 2 { "2" } 
           option :title=>"selects the number 3", :value => 3 { "3" } 
        end
    end

You can port a similar approach to .Net

    using(var d = HtmlTextWriter.Div.Class("hello"))
    {
        d.H1.InnerText("Lorem"); 
        using(var s = d.Select.Id("fooSelect").Name("fooSelect").Class("fooClass"))
        {
           s.Option.Title("select the number 1").Value("1").InnerText("1"); 
        }
    } 

I think it reads quite will and supports nesting.

EDIT I stole the using from Konrad cause it reads much better.

I have the following issues with the original proposal

1. You must remember to call EndTag otherwise your HTML goes Foobar.
2. Your namspace is too polluted HtmlTextWriterTag is repeated a ton of times and its hard to decipher the content from the overhead.

My suggested approach is potentially slightly less efficient, but I think it addresses these concerns and would be very easy to use.