I am using a CMS datalist to display cms.product objects. I have the following tree structure...

/
- Account
- Product (Folder)
- - Products (MenuItem that uses my products page template)
- - Product A
- - Product B
- - Product C
- Store

I have manipulated the folder object to allow products and menu items as children so that I can have a better organization within my tree. I have also done some customization of the product object.

The issue I have is this. If I set the attributes of the CMSDataList in the ASPX markup of my template, the attributes do not have any affect on the control.

<cms:CMSDataList ID="CMSProductList" runat="server"
SelectNodesPath="/Product/%"
SelectNodesPathType="AliasPath"
SelectNodesClassName="CMS.Product"
TransformationName="cms.product.default"
/>

When I Response.Write the SelectNodesPath of this control in the Page_Load method, it always comes back as the path of the current page. If I navigate to the Products page, the SelectNodesPath is set to Product/Products/% which finds no products and the control is empty. If I navigate to the template itself, the SelectNodesPath is /% which finds all products, not just those in the /Product/% path.

If I set the attributes within the code behind they do seem to take affect.

CMSProductList.SelectNodesPath = "/Product/%";
CMSProductList.SelectNodesPathType = TreePathTypeEnum.AliasPath;

With this, the products are rendered correctly.

Why do the attributes not work in the ASPX page? I would rather have it there in uncompiled code than in the compiled .cs code behind page.