I wanted to access the textbox control "TB_firstName", but the Page is
not letting me because "TB_firstName" is embeded in the "DetailsView1"
(local varible scope i suppose).
I tried doing (TextBox)DetailsView1.findControl("TB_firstName") but
that does not let me access it either.

The reason i am using <asp:TemplateField> instead of <asp:BoundField>
because i wanted to use the <asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

Any suggestion would be appriciated.


<asp:DetailsView ID="DetailsView1" Runat="server"
    DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource2" DataKeyNames="ContactID">
 <Fields>
 <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="First Name:" >
   <ItemTemplate>
       <%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "FirstName")%>
   </ItemTemplate>
   <EditItemTemplate>
      <asp:TextBox ID="TB_firstName" Runat="server" MaxLength=15
         Text='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "FirstName")%>'/>
      <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RFV_firstName" Runat="server"
         ControlToValidate="TB_firstName" Text="*"
         ErrorMessage="First name is required."/>
   </EditItemTemplate>
</asp:detailView>

I don't have time to review this fully... but maybe this link will help:
http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=795788

Sadly, that's what i suspected also.  Microsoft is such a pain sometimes.
Thank you very much for your help.