ASP.net dropdownlist unexpected event firing behavior - asp.net

Question

I'm experiencing some odd behavior with drop down boxes and I'm hoping someone could explain what's going on. I have a datarepeater that builds out a table of rows. Each row has a dropdownlist (hidden) and a linkbutton (not hidden) in a cell. The expected behavior is that when a user clicks the linkbutton for a specific cell, it fires a server command. This command does a few things but also sets the selected value of the DDL and then sets it visible and sets itself (the linkbutton) hidden. The problem is that the dropdownlist's event should fire every time the selected index changes. But, what ends up happening is that it only fires the first time the user changes the DDL value. After that, the event will stop firing. Also, all of this is in a usercontrol and all the code is inside an updatepanel. As I mention in the code example, if I do not change the ddl value, in the linkbutton event, this behaviors stops but then the DDL wont have the correct value set. Here is my code:
Linkbutton event:
Protected Sub edit_click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim btn As LinkButton = CType(sender, LinkButton)
Dim userId As String = btn.CommandArgument
Dim ds As New List(Of myObject)
Dim currentChoice As New myObject
Dim parent As RepeaterItem = CType(btn.Parent, RepeaterItem)
Dim lbl As Label = CType(parent.FindControl("userId"), Label)
Dim ma As DropDownList = CType(parent.FindControl("ddlMustApprove"), DropDownList)
Dim maLbl As Label = CType(parent.FindControl("mustApprove"), Label)
'just get a list of values to chose from
ds = Session("userNotificationDS")
currentChoice = ds.Find(Function(p As myObject) p.User.NetworkID = userId)
With maLbl
.Width = 100
.BorderColor = Drawing.Color.DarkBlue
End With
'if I disable this next line, everything works fine (but then the correct selection wont be chosen)
ma.Text = currentChoice.MustApprove
ma.CssClass = ""
maLbl.Visible = False
End Sub
DDL change event:
Protected Sub selection_Change(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim cnt As DropDownList = CType(sender, DropDownList)
Dim parent As RepeaterItem = CType(cnt.Parent, RepeaterItem)
Dim maLbl As Label = CType(parent.FindControl("mustApprove"), Label)
Dim userId As Label = CType(parent.FindControl("userId"), Label)
Dim ds As New List(Of myObject)
'just gets the value to set the DDL to
ds = Session("userNotificationDS")
For Each i As myObjectIn ds
If (i.User.NetworkID = userId.Text) Then
i.MustApprove = cnt.SelectedValue
End If
Next
maLbl.Visible = True
cnt.CssClass = "hidden"
Session("userNotificationDS") = ds
bindData(ds)
End Sub
Here is the Datarepeater in the front end code:
<asp:Repeater ID="dataRepeateUsers" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" OnItemCreated="RepeaterItemCreated" >
<HeaderTemplate>
.... column headers
</HeaderTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<tr class="listcolor">
<td style="border:0px; border-right:1px solid #808080 ; border-bottom:0px solid #808080;">
<asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlMustApprove" CssClass="hidden" OnTextChanged="selection_Change" EnableViewState="true" AutoPostBack="true" >
<asp:ListItem Text="True" Value="True"></asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Text="False" Value="False"></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:label ID="mustApprove" runat="server" Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MustApprove") %>'></asp:label>
</td>
</tr>
</ItemTemplate>
<AlternatingItemTemplate>
<tr class="listcolor">
<td style="border:0px; border-right:1px solid #808080 ; border-bottom:0px solid #808080;">
<asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlMustApprove" CssClass="hidden" OnTextChanged="selection_Change" EnableViewState="true" AutoPostBack="true" >
<asp:ListItem Text="True" Value="True"></asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem Text="False" Value="False"></asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
<asp:label ID="mustApprove" runat="server" Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "MustApprove") %>'></asp:label>
</td>
</tr>
</AlternatingItemTemplate>
<FooterTemplate>
</FooterTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
My code is written in VS 2010 using .Net 4.0 and AjaxControlToolkit 4.1.60919.
Thanks
jason

Answer 1

ma.Text = currentChoice.MustApprove
replace this line with the following one.
if(ma.items.FindByText(currentChoice.MustApprove) != null)
{
ma.SelectedIndex = -1;
ma.items.FindByText(currentChoice.MustApprove).selected = true;
}
Just set the selectedindex of the dropdown as -1 like above.