Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

Well thanks for the plug. The reason for mentioning this is that when using asp.net, controls ids tend to look like:

ctl00_ctl00_TabPageContent_MainContent_ApplicationPage_ApplicantDetails_nameTextBox

If using the actual id to reference a control a developer risks breaking the script if he changes any id of any controls in the hierarchy. Using regular expressions to just grab the end name is great solution to this problem.

Just be on the lookout when reusing multiple versions of the same composite control. In that situation you might need to use a two-part name. For example, I have a date control that consists of a dropdown for month and a textbox for year. With multiple of those on a form, the textboxes and dropdowns will have the same internal name and thus their id's will end in the same value.

I might have something like:

ct100_jobStartDatePicker_monthDropDown

and

ct100_jobEndDatePicker_monthDropDown

In this case the script to identify the select the first dropdown control would be:

ie.select_list(:id, /jobStartDatePicker_monthDropDown$/).select("April")