I am sorry for possible misleading about the title, but I have no idea for a proper title.

Feel free to edit.

Anyway, I am using ASP.NET Web Forms, and maybe this isn't how web forms is intended to be used, but I like to construct and populate HTML elements manually. It gives me more control.

I don't use DataBinding and that kind of stuff. I use SqlConnection, SqlCommand and SqlDataReader, set SQL string etc. and read the data from the DataReader. Old school if you like. :)

I do create WebControls so that I don't have to copy-paste every time I need some control, but mostly, I need WebControls to render as HTML so I can append that HTML into some other function that renders the final output with the control inside.

I know I can render a control with control.RenderControl(writer), but this can only be done in (pre)Render or RenderContents overrides.

For example.

I have a dal.cs file where is stored all static functions and voids that communicate with the database. Functions mostly return string so that it can be appended into some other function to render the final result.

The reason I am doing like this is that I want to separate the coding from the HTML as much as I can so that I don't do <% while (dataReader.Read()) %> in HTML and display the data. I moved this into a CodeBehind. I also use this functions to render in the HttpHandler for AJAX response.

That works perfectly, but when I want to add a control (ASP.NET Server control (.cs extension, not .ascx)) I don't know how to do that, so I see my self writing the same control as function that returns string or another function inside that control that returns string and replaces a job that would RenderContents do, so that I can call that function when I need control to be appended into a another string. I know this may not be a very good practice.

As I see all the tutorials/videos about the ASP.NET MVC, I think it suite my needs as with the MVC you have to construct everything (or most of it) by your self, which I am already doing right now with web forms.

After this long intro, I want to ask how can I build my controls so I can use them as I mentioned (return string) or I have to forget about server controls and build the controls as functions and used them that way? Is that even possible with ASP.NET Server Controls (.cs extension) or am I right when I said that I am not using it right.

To be clear, I am talking about how to properly use a web forms, but to avoid data binders because I want to construct everything by my self (render HTML in Code Behind).
Someone might think that I am appending strings like "some " + "string", which I am not. I am using StringBuilder for that so there's no slowness.

Every opinion is welcome.