is it possible to create a control that contains child controls without rendering it.  So, when I add it to the page it should look like....

<test:parentcontrol id="parent1" runat="server" property1="value1" ... propertyn="valuen">

     <test:childcontrol id="child1" runat="server" property1="value1" ... propertyn="valuen"/>

     <test:childcontrol id="child3" runat="server" property1="value1" ... propertyn="valuen"/>

     <test:childcontrol id="child3" runat="server" property1="value1" ... propertyn="valuen"/>

</test:parentcontrol>

and have the render empty, because it does not equate to anything on the html side.  Further, can I cycle through the child control of the parent using the following methodology within the code_behind file:

foreach (Control control in parent1.Controls){

   .......

}

would this be possible if I am not technically rendering anything?  Also, would I have to do anything special with creating the parent and child controls?

You cannot create a control have it available in the page without rendering it. However you can hide the control in such a way that it is not viewable. To do so put a DIV on your page and set display:none or visibility:hidden

<Div style="display:none;">

<test:parentControl .............................>

</test:parentControl>

</Div

It is not available if it does not render?  When happens if a control has render=true?  Is it still available to the Page object?  The problem is that I dont want anything to render in this scenario, this will be information I want hidden completely from users.  I just want to drop the controls on the page, set a few properties and access the children from the code_behind.  I dont have anything to render.

Hi,

One simple option is to set Visible property of your control to false. If you want to persist data a sophisticated way is to derive from Control and store data at server side by using Session, Cache, Application, etc.