Trying to register user controls on page layout

Question

I have a page layout that I created on my Sharepoint 2010 site. I have created some user controls in Visual Studio that I'd like to use on my page layout. The user controls were created in a Visual Studio Sharepoint project and deployed via powershell. I have confirmed that they all have been copied to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES\HRPortal.UI (the name of my project). I'm not sure if I need anything else other than the ascx files in that folder, but that's all that's in there.

Now, I'm using Sharepoint Designer to edit the page layout. I've registered the user controls with the following code:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="HRPortal" TagName="TopSection" Src="~/controltemplates/HRPortal.UI/TopSection.ascx" %>

I try to use the control with the following code:

    <HRPortal.TopSection runat="server" id="topSection" />

However, the tag doesn't get recognized and the control doesn't render any content. I've been to numerous sites on the web that detail doing it the same way, but can't get it to work. Am I doing anything wrong?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Are you sure you're using a period and not a colon?

<HRPortal.TopSection runat="server" id="topSection" />

should be

<HRPortal:TopSection runat="server" id="topSection" />

Also, I have an example of a working control template that has an underscore before "controltemplates":

<%@ Register TagPrefix="myPrefix" TagName="ToolBar" Src="~/_controltemplates/myControl.ascx" %>