How to set html link <a href> dynamically using C#

Question

I have a menu in my web application like this

<div>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://localhost:52451/Voronezh/Settings.aspx">Settings</a</li>
    <li><a href="http://localhost:52451/LoginPages/Welcome.aspx">Log out</a</li>
  </ul>
</div>

I would like to set these href links dynamically if some special condition is true.

I've tried the following:

HTML code

<li><a runat="server" id="toSettings" onserverclick="toSettings_ServerClick">Settings</a></li>

C# code

protected void toSettings_ServerClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
       if (condition)
         toSettings.HRef = "http://localhost:52451/Voronezh/Settings.aspx"; 
       else
         {...}      
    }

but it doesn't work: I stay on the same page instead of moving to the Settings page.

Where is a mistake? What should be changed?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Changing the HRef won't do much here - it changes the link, it doesn't have any direct effect on the page. Try Response.Redirect , I think this is what you're looking for. Ie:

// inside the if statement
Response.Redirect("Settings.aspx"); // note - this is the local path

Answer 2

Assuming this is ASP.NET C#

Redirect method from the HttpResponse should be what you are looking for.

Reference:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a8wa7sdt(v=vs.110).aspx

Answer 3

If you want to build your menu dynamically in code behind you should probably use a <asp:Literal ID="menu" runat="server"/> tag in ASPX and fill it in the Page_Load event like

if (!Page.IsPostBack) {
    menu.Text = GenerateMenu();
}

private string GenerateMenu() {
    if (yourcondition) {
        return "<div><ul><li><a href="...."></a></li></ul></div>"; 
    } else {

    }
}

Answer 4

Another alternative to doing a postback, executing the logic, and then doing a redirect would be to change the link tag to the hyperlink control, execute the logic on page load, and set the properties dynamically.

HTML:

<asp:HyperLink id="toSettings" Text="Settings" runat="server"/> 

Code Behind

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  toSettings.NavigateUrl = "http://localhost:52451/Voronezh/Settings.aspx";
}

This way you could even change the text (use toSettings.Text = "Text to display"; ) or the visibility (use toSettings.Visible = false; ) if needed.