How to find a control inside a TemplateField in Gridview - asp.net

Question

I have a gridView with a textBox inside a templateField. I wan to extract the text of the textBox if a checkbox is marked in the row.
I have the gridView defined as follows
<asp:GridView ID="GV_Comments" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="id"
DataSourceID="SQL_Comments">
<Columns>
<asp:TemplateField>
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:CheckBox runat="server" ID="Comment_Select" />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
<asp:BoundField DataField="ID" HeaderText="ID" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="ID" />
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="comment" SortExpression="comment">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("comment") %>'></asp:Label>
</ItemTemplate>
<EditItemTemplate>
<asp:TextBox ID="CommentForPeriod" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("comment") %>'></asp:TextBox>
</EditItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:Button ID="B_Load" runat="server" Text="Transfer Selection" onclick="B_Load_Click" />
<br />
<asp:TextBox ID="CompiledText" runat="server" Width="662px" Rows="10"
TextMode="MultiLine"></asp:TextBox>
And the code as follows
Protected Sub B_Load_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) '(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles B_Load.Click
Dim FullText As String = ""
For Each row As GridViewRow In GV_Comments.Rows
Dim CB_Control As CheckBox = CType(row.FindControl("Comment_Select"), CheckBox)
Dim Txt_Control As TextBox = CType(row.FindControl("CommentForPeriod"), TextBox)
If CB_Control IsNot Nothing AndAlso CB_Control.Checked AndAlso Txt_Control IsNot Nothing Then
FullText = FullText & Txt_Control.Text & "<br/>"
End If
Next row
CompiledText.Text = FullText.ToString
End Sub
When I debug the code I can see that the Checkbox control is found but not the TextBox control. Would anyone see why?

Answer 1

You can't do like this. When you click the button: B_Load, then GridView is NOT in Edit mode. And this is why you can't get the TextBox, which is in EditItemTemplate.
You can only get the controls inside <ItemTemplate> in your button click as gridview is in Normal display Mode. <EditItemTemplate> controls are rendered only when GridView enters Edit mode.
So, you need to get the value of the Label: Label1 here actually, which has the same value and is inside <ItemTemplate> .
Dim Lbl_Control As Label= CType(row.FindControl("Label1"), Label)
// button click as usual, just get and check the value of Label control, rather than TextBox control.
Protected Sub B_Load_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) '(sender As
Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles B_Load.Click
Dim FullText As String = ""
For Each row As GridViewRow In GV_Comments.Rows
Dim CB_Control As CheckBox = CType(row.FindControl("Comment_Select"),
CheckBox)
Dim Lbl_Control As Label= CType(row.FindControl("Label1"), Label)
If CB_Control IsNot Nothing AndAlso CB_Control.Checked AndAlso Lbl_Control
IsNot Nothing Then
FullText = FullText & Lbl_Control.Text & "<br/>"
End If
Next row
CompiledText.Text = FullText.ToString
End Sub