Setting parent page controls visibility from Child user control page - asp.net

Question

I have a parent page Page1 which has button1. Page1 has a usercontrol uc1. uc1 has an update panel inside which a grid grid1 is present. I am trying to set Page1.button1's visibility to false, depending on the row command event(there are some if conditions in the row command event) of uc1.grid1. I am setting Page1.button1's visibility in the following way:
Create a IsButton1Visible property in uc1. Set the property in UC1.Grid1.RowCommand to false, on page1 PreRender event, access IsButton1Visible and set Page1.button1 visibility.
Even though in quick watch Page1.button1 visibility is set to false at the line of assignment, when I see the UI, it is still visible. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Or the way that I am getting hold of button1 and its visibility is not correct.
In general can we set a Parent page's control's property from a user control during the user control event?

Answer 1

If you use the event-driven model approach
Delegate/EventArgs code:
public class ButtonVisiblityEventArgs : EventArgs
{
public ButtonVisiblityEventArgs(bool visible)
{
this.Visiblity = visible;
}
public bool Visiblity { get; private set; }
}
public delegate void UpdateParentButtonVisibilityEventHandler(object sender, ButtonVisiblityEventArgs args);
User control code:
public event UpdateParentButtonVisibilityEventHandler RaiseUpdateParentButtonVisibilityEvent;
private void RequestParentButtonVisibilityChange(bool setVisible)
{
if (RaiseUpdateParentButtonVisibilityEvent != null)
{
RaiseUpdateParentButtonVisibilityEvent(this, new ButtonVisiblityEventArgs(setVisible));
}
}
And in your command handler, just call:
RequestParentButtonVisibilityChange(false);
whenever you want to hide the button. On your page:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.RaiseUpdateParentButtonVisibilityEvent += new UpdateParentButtonVisibilityEventHandler(uc_RaiseUpdatecurrentDisplayPanelRequestEvent);
}
private void uc_RaiseUpdatecurrentDisplayPanelRequestEvent(object sender, ButtonVisiblityEventArgs args)
{
button1.Visible = args.Visiblity;
}

Answer 2

If the problem you are having is that your button lives outside of the update panel, you can do the following. Page codebhind:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string hideScript = string.Format("function updateButtonVisibility( visibility ) {{ var button = $('#{0}'); if (visibility) {{ button.show(); }} else {{ button.hide(); }} }}", this.button1.ClientID);
Page.ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock(this.GetType(), "updateButtonVisibility", hideScript, true);
}
And in your user control command handler:
bool shouldButtonBeVisible = false; //update this appropriately in your logic
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this, this.GetType(), "upUpdateButtonVisibility", "updateButtonVisibility(" + shouldButtonBeVisible ? "true" : "false" + ");", true);
Please note that this creates a TIGHT dependency between your UC and the page. It requires that any page that consumes this control has registered this script. There are ways to get around this (such as setting a function script callback to call, detecting if that javascript function exists, etc), but this should at least get you moving.
If there is something specific on the page after your update panel finishes that you could key off, it might be better to register an end request handler
$(function() { Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance().add_endRequest(updatePanelEndRequestHandler); } );
function updatePanelEndRequestHandler() {
var shouldBeVisible = $('.MyClassThatSaysIShouldntAllowMoreButtons').length > 0; //do some checking on the grid
updateButtonVisibility(shouldBeVisible);
}

Answer 3

you can put your user controls inside panels on your parent pages and change the visibility.
e.g.
<asp:Panel runat="server" ID="pnlQuote">
...
</asp:Panel>
<asp:Panel runat="server" ID="pnlContact">
<uc1:ContactForm runat="server" ID="ContactForm " />
</asp:Panel>
From the child control you can make a button click event which does something like this
protected void btnBackToQuote_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Panel pnlQuote = this.Parent.FindControl("pnlQuote") as Panel;
Panel pnlContact = this.Parent.FindControl("pnlContact") as Panel;
pnlQuote .Visible = true;
pnlContact.Visible = false;
}