Iterating through EditItemTemplate textboxes in asp:Gridview - asp.net

Question

I have a gridview displaying data within a template field which requires more information about the record to be displayed by clicking on a linkbutton. Right now, I have the "details" linkbutton display the information by calling the edit command on the gridview so that it switches to the EditItemTemplate. Within the EditItemTemplate I have a linkbutton for cancel and then an edit button that, when clicked, displays the update button with the update command, but I need it to iterate through that row and set all the textboxes within the EditItemTemplate to ReadOnly=false so as to allow them to be edited before the update command is selected. Here is a summary of the code:
<ItemTemplate>
*basic information displayed*
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" CommandName="Edit" Text="Details"></asp:LinkButton>
</ItemTemplate>
<EditItemTemplate>
*A bunch of readonly textboxes that display the extra information*
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" CommandName="Update" Text="Update" Visible="false"></asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" Text="Edit" OnClick="editButton_Click"></asp:LinkButton>
</EditItemTemplate>
And the code for the event which makes the buttons appear the way I want, but I'm not sure how to iterate through the EditItemTemplate, or even if this is what I should do:
Protected Sub editButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
sender.FindControl("updateButton").Visible = True
sender.FindControl("editbutton").Visible = False
For Each t In ?EditItemTemplate?
Dim textbox = TryCast(t, System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox)
If textbox IsNot Nothing Then
textbox.ReadOnly = False
End If
Next
End Sub
So my question is either how to get this to work, or how I should set up the GridViewCommands otherwise

Answer 1

You should use a PlaceHolder in your EditItemTemplate. Place all of your Controls/LinkButtons inside this placeholder.
<EditItemTemplate>
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="TestPlaceHolder" runat="server">
// Sample Link Buttons
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" CommandName="Update" Text="Update"
Visible="false"></asp:LinkButton>
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" Text="Edit" OnClick="editButton_Click"></asp:LinkButton>
// Sample Text Box
<asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="FirstName" ...>...</TextBox>
</asp:PlaceHolder>
</EditItemTemplate>
Handle the RowEditing event of GridView. Inside the edit event handler, first find the Placeholder, then use the PlaceHolder's Controls property to iterate over the Controls...
protected void GridView1_RowEditing(object sender, GridViewEditEventArgs e)
{
// Get the Placeholder for the row being edited.
PlaceHolder testPlacehldr =
GridView.Rows[e.NewEditIndex].FindControl("TestPlaceholder") as PlaceHolder;
// Iterate over the controls
if(testPlacehldr.Controls.Count > 0)
{
foreach (Control ctrl in testPlacehldr.Controls)
{
if (ctrl is LinkButton)
{
LinkButton lnkBtn = ctrl as LinkButton
if(lnkBtn.Text== "Update")
{
lnkBtn.Visible = false;
}
// More IF conditions follow....
}
if (ctrl is TextBox)
{
TextBox txtBox = ctrl as TextBox;
if(txtBox.ID == "FirstName")// use any property of TexBox you prefer
{
txtBox.ReadOnly= true;
}
// More IF conditions follow....
}
}
}
//At the End, set the EditIndex and Bind the data
GridView1.EditIndex = e.NewEditIndex;
BindGridViewData();
}
I hope you can workout the logic yourself now for hiding/showing the controls.

Answer 2

So I figured out how to do it (needed it in vb) by using the placeholder within the EditItemTemplate, here's the code behind it:
Protected Sub editButton_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
sender.FindControl("editbutton").Visible = False
sender.FindControl("updateButton").Visible = True
Dim testPlacehldr As PlaceHolder = sender.FindControl("TestPlaceholder")
If testPlacehldr.Controls.Count > 0 Then
Dim btn As LinkButton = sender.FindControl("editButton")
If btn.Visible = False Then
For Each ctrl As Control In testPlacehldr.Controls
If ctrl.GetType Is GetType(TextBox) Then
Dim box As TextBox = TryCast(ctrl, TextBox)
box.ReadOnly = False
End If
Next
End If
End If
End Sub
This works fine for what I need it to do. Credit to the user R.C. for the idea about placeholders