menu item user control

[wsyeager]

I'm trying to create a user control which will act as a menu list for users to click on. All the user control consists of is a panel, a table within the panel, 1 tablerow and multiple table cells for a horizontal look. However, the tablecells inside the usercontrol cannot be found ("Object not set to an instance of an object"). If I implement the same code within the page itself, without the usercontrol, it works fine.

 

Here is my html:

<code>

<asp:Panel Runat="server" id="Panel1" style="Z-INDEX: 108; LEFT: 8px; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 48px">

<asp:table id="Table2" runat="server" Font-Bold="True" Font-Size="X-Small">

<asp:TableRow Visible="False" ID="trMain">

<asp:TableCell Visible="False" ID="tcAdmin">

<asp:HyperLink runat="server" NavigateUrl="../Admin/Admin.aspx">Administration</asp:HyperLink>

</asp:TableCell>

.

.

.

</code>

 

Here is my code behind in the user control:

<code>

Public Sub LoadMenu()

 

Try

Dim blnFound As Boolean

Dim tcAdmin As TableCell = DirectCast(FindControl("tcAdmin"), TableCell)

</code>

 

Here is my code in the code behind for the parent aspx page:

<code>

Protected MenuItems As New RMS2.MenuItems

.

.

.

MenuItems.LoadMenu()

</code>

 

When debugging inside the usercontrol, the tcAdmin variable has a value of Nothing.

 

How can I get this variable inside the user control to be recognized?