Image references in your CSS not showing?

If you have a background image in your CSS called like this,

background-image: url(/images/background.gif);

...and when you run your Web application the background isn't showing up it could be a problem with your 'Virtual Path' setting. To fix this, click on the main project path in your Solution Explorer, at the very top, change the 'Virtual Path' property to read "/"

Editing Meta Tags From Code Behind

Dynamically change the content of meta tags from the code behind. This allows you to feed the meta tags with content from a database or other dynamic content.

In your aspx source code do:

<meta id="metaDescription" name="description" content="" runat="server" />

In your aspx code behind do:

metaDescription.Content = "Description goes here"

The key is the runat="server" and the unique id within the meta tag. This allows you to "see" it in your code behind and manipulate it before sending it to the browser.

Adding a value to a dropdownlist after *.DataBind()

If you have a DropDownList component that is getting fed via a query or an ObjectDataSource, you can insert items into the list in such a way:

DropDownList.DataBind()
DropDownList.Items.Insert(<listLocation>, New ListItem("<name>", <value>))

Where <listLocation> is an integer that tells where to put the item within the DropDownList, <name> being the name that's displayed within the DropDownList, and <value> being the value associated with that item. Example:

DropDownList.DataBind()
DropDownList.Items.Insert(0, New ListItem("Select All", 0))

ObjectDataSource SelectParameters

If you have a component being bound from an ObjectDataSource (like a drop-down menu, or a grid view) and you wish to change the value's parameters SelectParameters:

ObjectDataSource.SelectParameters(#).DefaultValue = value
GridView.DataBind()

Where # is which SelectParameter you'd like to change. If there's just one SelectParamter, default is 0. Then reference your object that uses that datasource, in this case a GridView, to rebind.