I just tried to convert an application from VS 2003 to a Web Application Project.  When I tried to build the converted solution I noticed that several of my .aspx pages did not have their associated designer files causing errors to be generated everytime I referenced a server control in the codebehind file.  I tried to go back in and convert the inidividual .aspx files to web application format.

It is giving me the following error :

Generation of designer file failed.  Unknown server tag 'SiteControls4:PeriodCustomerTotalList'

I am referencing the custom server control in my .aspx by :

and using the control on the page by :

In your Web Application Project do you have an assembly reference to vergance2?

There could be a compatibilty break in WAP with respct to casing.  Verify the casing in your register directive and tags match the actual type names in the assembly.  If this is the problem please respond with the language you are using and the details.  I will try to fix it.

I am seeing the same error message, but with slightly different circumstances.

I've successfully converted my existing code from ASP.NET 1.1 to a 2.0 Web Application Project, and am using 5 controls that were ported from 1.1.  Rather than using @Register on the page, I've got the following in my web.config:

        <pages>
            <controls>
                <add assembly="Boron.StrongArm.Web" namespace="Boron.StrongArm.Web.Controls" tagPrefix="bcn"/>
            </controls>
        </pages>

Here's an example of a control that works:

      <bcn:GenericInput id="emailAddress" runat="server" RightText="(Optional)" Prompt="Email Address:"
       ControlVirtualPath="Controls/EmailInput.ascx" StartPage="default.aspx" StepTitle="Step 1"
       StepNumText="Step 1 of 6:" SimpleFormat="&lt;strong&gt;Mail results to:&lt;/strong&gt; {0}" HelpLabel="Start" DataFormat="" GenericValue=""></bcn:GenericInput>

This next one, created after the port does not:

                <bcn:ItemPicker id="itemPicker" runat="server" ControlVirtualPath="Controls/ItemPicker.ascx" DataFormat="" HelpLabel="" SimpleFormat="" StepNumText="" StepTitle=""  ></bcn:ItemPicker>

The error message I get is:

Warning 1 Generation of designer file failed: Unknown server tag 'bcn:ItemPicker'. F:\LocalProjWeb\Boron\Test01\WizardTest01.aspx 39 0 Test01

Any assistance you could provide would be gratefully appreciated.

I've heard similar reports for web.config registration.  There is a known bug that the generator will not generate the correct control types for user controls registered in config.  It will be fixed in Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (which should come out later this year.)  However, in your case you are using a custom control and should not be hitting this bug.  Custom control registration in config should work in the latest release of Web Application Projects.  The only time I have reproduced the error you mention with config registration is when the web application project does not have a reference to the custom control assembly.

In your web application project do you have a reference to the assembly containing the ItemPicker control? (note: copying a file to bin is not equivalent to a reference in web application projects)

If so, is it a project reference or binary reference?

If it is a project reference, is the corresponding control project built successfully?

The Web Application has a project reference to 5 other projects, including the project whose assembly is "Boron.StrongArm.Web", which contains 6 custom controls.  The project containing the controls builds successfully, and I can use 5 of the 6 controls without problems.

I've created a couple of small test Web Applications - one that uses a master page, and one that does not.  Same results for both.

And in one of the test projects, I commented out the registration in the web.config and added it on the page.  Same results.

Should I open an incident on this?

First make sure you have the latest version of Web Application Projects.  Help About should show in product details:

   Microsoft Web Application Projects 2005
   Version 8.0.60501.00

If you don't have the latest version uninstall and re-install the latest.

If you do have the latest version it would be great if you could send me (timmcb) at microsoft.com a zip of the test application.  I'll take a look to see what is going wrong.  I'd like to fix this if it is a bug.

We're seeing this same issue, an assembly is declared in web.config but the designer file is not generating. The strange thing is, here is the version number, part of SP1, and another computer with the same version isn't having the problem:

Microsoft Web Application Projects 2005
Version 8.0.50727.762