Hi all,

I have used place holder controls fairly often for adding user controls dynamically at runtime. Typically, I can access a placeholder directly and just add a control like this.

ctrlSpecialSpecs specialSpecControl = (ctrlSpecialSpecs)Page.LoadControl("~/ORCSelection/UserControls/ctrlSpecialSpecs.ascx");
           
// Add the Control to the Placeholder
this.holdSpecialSpecs.Controls.Add(specialSpecControl);

Currently I have a place holder that is inside another complex control and accessing it this way just doesn't work as the control is not visible. I tried to do a find control like this, but get a null reference exception on the control.

mmPlaceHolder defendantHolder = (mmPlaceHolder)this.Page.FindControl("holdDefendant");
defendantHolder.Controls.Add(defendantDisplay);

It is defined on the page like this; very straight forward.

 <mm:mmPlaceHolder ID="holdDefendant" runat="server" >
 </mm:mmPlaceHolder>

Anybody have any ideas on how to get access to this control?
Thanks
Tim