ASP.Net Repeater: Checkboxes checked status not persisting on form submission - asp.net

Question

I have a Repeater of checkboxes bound in code-behind:
<asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="rptOpenJobs" OnItemDataBound="rptOpenJobs_ItemDataBound">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:CheckBoxList ID="lstOpen" runat="server"></asp:CheckBoxList>
</ContentTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
Code-behind (VB.Net):
Protected Sub rptOpenJobs_ItemDataBound(sender As Object, e As RepeaterItemEventArgs)
Dim jobsTable As New DataTable
Dim conn As String = "[hidden]" 'Connection String to retrieve data table values
If e.Item.ItemType.Equals(ListItemType.AlternatingItem) Or e.Item.ItemType.Equals(ListItemType.Item) Then
Dim cboxlist As CheckBoxList = e.Item.FindControl("lstOpen")
If cboxlist.Items.Count = 0 Then
cboxlist.DataSource = jobsTable
cboxlist.DataTextField = "job_title"
cboxlist.DataValueField = "job_title"
cboxlist.DataBind()
End If
End If
End Sub
On form submission, the checked boxes do not stay checked. I've looked for solutions but haven't found any where the list is databound in code-behind.
I've tried adding an UpdatePanel around the repeater and around the CheckBoxList but the checked state still will not persist on form submission.

Answer 1

What does you page load event look like?
You ONLY load things up the first time in the If IsPostBack = False code stub.
99% if not 100% of your pages will ahve that code block. For me, comming from say Access, VB6, vb.net? Well a form loads, and we have the form load event.
but, any old button click on that page ALSO triggers a post back, and the on load event will run EVERY time (and then the button click or whatever event code will run).
So, all web pages look like this:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Not IsPostBack Then
' the REAL first time load event!!!
LoadGrid()
End If
End Sub
Sub LoadGrid()
Using cmdSQL As New SqlCommand("SELECT ID, FirstName, LastName, HotelName, City from tblHotels",
New SqlConnection(My.Settings.TEST3))
cmdSQL.Connection.Open()
GridView1.DataSource = cmdSQL.ExecuteReader
GridView1.DataBind()
End Using
End Sub
So note how we have that first page load event - we load up a grid. But if we do NOT put that code inside of of the IsPostBack = False part, then our setup code and our load code will run every time on a full page post back.
Your check boxes as you have should persist for you, and should survive a page post back.
I don't see where (how) you persisted the jobs table, but ONCE the repeater is loaded, they should survive a post back. I mean, the data bound event only triggers if you are re-binding the repeater. but, if you are say due to adding new rows or some such, and you do trigger (need/want) a databind event again, then that jobsTable does need to exist and be persisted if you do re-bind the repeater.
So, in your code, you have on page load, we load up the Repeater. Above code would be the same, eg this:
And since the table is used OVER and OVER for each item data bound event, then we should NOT re-pull the table each time in the item data bound event. We should setup (load) that table one time in our LoadGrid routine.
So, at the page level class, we will declarer a table variable scoped to the form/page level. This will persist long enough during each item bind event for the repeater to fill out the check box list.
We assume that you have a data source for hte repeter - it will repeat many times. And for EACH repeater, we have a checkbox list that ALSO has a set of values that we want to fill from the check box list of choices.
It is NOT 100% clear if each new check box list is to be driven from ONE table, and each repeated row of course does have a value from the table for each row of the repeating list that represents the chosen check box value.
Or, is the list of check box values for each repeated item different? This issue has to be cleared up.
Clear this last issue up for me, and I post more code as to how this can work.
Sub LoadGrid()
Using cmdSQL As New SqlCommand("SELECT ID, FirstName, LastName, HotelName, City from tblHotels",
New SqlConnection(My.Settings.TEST3))
cmdSQL.Connection.Open()
rptOpenJobs.DataSource = cmdSQL.ExecuteReader
rptOpenJobs.DataBind()
End Using
End Sub