Force the ASP.NET page lifecycle to go forward - asp.net

Ok, so I am working on a custom framework above the .NET framework, and some instructions are not written / called at the good places.
For example, a postback is done on the same page. Then, a Response.redirect occurs right within the page_load; but at this point, the new values of the controls of the page are not yet handled, so they get lost...
Therefore, I wanted to know whether it was possible to force the pagelife_cycle to go forward before the call to response.redirect, so that I can get the right values.
I can't just make that call in another function, because the page I am working on is called by many web applications (about 1-2k), and it would completely change their behaviour, which is not acceptable!
Is that even possible?

See a bit the second image and the Load PostBack Data section. Before the Load event of the page is raised, a textbox is already initialized. You can catch the value by overriding OnPreLoad or by adding a handler at PreLoad event.

Related

What happens between Page.PreLoad and Page.Load events?

Question is pretty straight forward.
Is there a technical reason for the existence of Page.PreLoad or is this just convenience to have a place where you can neatly place code that always have to be executed before the Load code?
Is there a difference between adding code in the PreLoad event handler and adding code at the top of the Load event handler?
And what would be a typical scenario where you use PreLoad?
Thanks!
What happens between Page_PreLoad and Page_Load is that all the other PreLoad event handlers (not just the handler(s) you wrote) have a chance to run. There is no reason to put code in Page_PreLoad. You see, chances are that you do want to be sure all the other PreLoad event handlers have fired (I'll explain in the last paragraph). Plus, by using Page_Load instead of Page_PreLoad, you give control adapter authors a chance to override the behavior of your implementation.
The purpose of the Page.PreLoad event (as far as I can tell) is to provide a hook for control authors. The behavior of the load phase of the page lifecycle, is that the Load event is raised on the page before it is raised on all its child controls. As a control author, you might want to perform some action after viewstate is loaded (so Init is too early), but before Page_Load is called (so Load is too late). How you do that is to add an event handler to Page.PreLoad.
Some of the built-in ASP.NET data binding controls use this hook to be able to auto-magically re-DataBind themselves when you update the control in certain ways after its viewstate has been loaded. Using a flag set in Page.PreLoad, a control can distinguish between changes you make in Page_Init and changes you make in Page_Load. If you implement Page_PreLoad and you don't take care to avoid touching any control that hooks PreLoad in this way, you're going to see undefined behavior because you don't know whether PreLoad is firing on the control or on the page first. To avoid this complication, always use Page_Load instead, as there is no reason not to.
I'm sure I've answered this a few times, but you're best bet is to have a thorough read thorugh the ASP.NET Page Lifecycle Overview from Microsoft and the ASP.NET Page Lifecycle explanation from 15 Seconds.

Problem with asp.net C# focus, page_load

I'm really new to asp.net and have a couple of issues I'm trying to get fixed. I have some programming experience, but it is not asp.net. However, I've been able to follow the code enough to make other changes in the code to fix other issues.
The first is this:
I'm working with a form that has a calculate amount method that gets called when the user inputs a value in an amount text box. The same method gets called when the next control, number of payments, has a value.
So in the two controls:
onTextChanged="ctrlName_textChanged"
Then in the code behind, the textchanged method does:
calculateAmount();
The problem is after the amount is calculated and returns, the focus seems to get reset and the user has to tab all the way back through the form to the place they were.
The textboxes in question are in a panel that starts out hidden and is made visible conditionally.
My apologies if I have not used the proper .net terminology.
It looks like the same issue may be causing my second problem. When the user types in an amount and then tabs and quickly adds the number of payments, you can see the amount get calculated correctly and very shortly displays the proper total in the total amount text box. However, even though it shows for that short time, the tab order again gets reset as well as the total amount value.
I've looked at different methods to try and fix the focus issue.
In the textchanged method, I tried using something like:
Session["myval"] = "someval";
Then tried to check against that in Page_Load with something like:
if(Session["myval"] != null) {
this.NextControl_Name.Focus();
}
but it didn't ever work correctly.
I also tried to set a cookie in that same textchanged method using something like this:
Response.Cookies["myval"].Value = "somevalue";
Then tried to check that in Page_Load using something like the previous if block above but using Request.Cookies["myval"] as the source.
Is there a good reference with some really clear code samples I can look at for this type of implementation?
Thank you in advance,
C.
Sounds like you have a postback problem...
Remember that the web is stateless. This means that when you have a web page rendered out in .NET and you attach an event that executes serverside code... it does an HTTP POST back to the server which is effectively a new page request. The Page_Load method will fire again as well as your bound event. So your onTextChanged event is firing a new request back to the server. This is why you see the focus reset and why when you tab quickly, the value seems to disappear magically.
You can do one of several things, you can implement the UpdatePanel in the AjaxControlToolkit
http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/samples/
you can use PageMethods and do your validation with javascript and jQuery (or other js library)
see page method info http://www.geekzilla.co.uk/View30F417D1-8E5B-4C03-99EB-379F167F26B6.htm
Hope this helps

What are the main differences of defining a control statically or creating it dynamically on page load?

I am working on a project which creates controls dynamically for a form in the page_load event, loads in their current values from the database and saves their values (using FindControl) when the user clicks the continue button.
When I added a control statically in the .aspx page and followed their same procedure of loading the value in the page load and saving it on the button press I found that the value would not save correctly. It seems that it wouldn't save because the click event fires after the page_load, so the page_load of the post back reverted the value and the user entered value was not saved.
The strange thing is that by changing the control to be dynamically created just as all the other controls on the page and keeping the loading and saving the same it now works. Even though the page load still creates the control with the old database value.
It seems like a very fundamental asp .net feature here but i'm just unclear as to what is going on. I suspect it is to do with the timing of creation and maybe when the view state kicks in.
Static page controls are created just like dynamic page controls. The difference might be coming in your Page_Load. Whenever you postback all the controls are created afresh which means they are created with their initial values. This happens because after creating the controls asp.net throws away the controls/objects.
So, when the request comes, the first thing that asp.net does it to recreate the controls by looking at their definitions (in the designer files). On each postback they are created and initialized again losing their state in the process.
But after creating the controls Asp.Net loads any viewstate that is sent along with the request which makes people think that the state is always saved at the server.
What might be happening is that either the viewstate is not enabled for your control (in case they are created in designer), in which case you may try using EnableViewState property to true of the control.
Or, when you're doing a Page_Load, you're forcefully re-initializing everything. And in process losing all the control data. If you could post the logic of Page_Load, it might get clarified.
Make sure that:
you are not setting the value again for the static control in Page_Load. The dynamic control are probably getting around it by grabbing the ViewState and form values at a different stage in the lifecycle.
The dynamic controls are added After the static control. Or at least they are added in a different container. Placement in the control's collection can affect the ViewState, although it doesn't look like your scenario / since what you mention seems to be more about the values in the current post.
The save is happening After the Page_Load in response to the corresponding event.
I've run into similar problems in the past (quite a few times actually), but what helped me the most is understanding the ASP.NET Page Lifecycle.
Microsoft has an article on it which describes it pretty well, but this post by Solomon Shaffer really cleared up everything.
I suggest reading them both and coming back with additional questions regarding to a particular state, when to load/save data etc..
Hope this helps.
Marko
Note that you may want to use Page.IsPostBack property to avoid reinitializing values on button clicks and other events.
private void Page_Load()
{
if (!this.IsPostBack)
{
// Assign values to the controls.
}
}

jQuery and ASP.NET drop down problem

I have a drop down in an ASP.NET page. Whenever the value of the drop down changes an ASP.NET AJAX request is made to the server. I also attached a jQuery "change" event handler to that list to execute some code when the value is changed. So, probably two different event handlers are being attached to the same drop down, and it's causing some problems, i.e., sometimes wrong drop down values are sent to the server. I don't know why is this happening but I think attaching two different event handlers to a same drop down may be the reason.
Can anyone tell me what is the problem here? If what I guessed is true, then is there any other way to execute some custom javascript code before asp.net AJAX request is sent ?
Normally the JQuery change() binder respects all previous binds (won't break them). If you want to be sure the methods are called in the correct order, bind ONE master method to the change event, and have that one method call both methods (the qsp and the jquery) in the right order :)

Page_PreRender fires twice on first load in session

When I run the web application, I notice that Page_PreRender is fired twice. This only happens the first time in a new session. It does not happen if I refresh the page, or on postbacks.
I use .NET framework 3.5 and the built in ajax functionality.
The problem is not
related to img tag with empty src
attribute (which I have seen other posts with similar problem
has mentioned). I know this because I see this in
both FireFox and IE. The posts I saw
about this stated that this was not a
problem in IE. I have also searched
and found no img tags with empty src
in the generated page source, so it
should not be this.
I have also made a simple test
page where I have included some of
the functionality, and this does not
happen.
Have anyone any suggestions on what happens?
Note:
It is the entire page cycle that is firing twice, not just render.
I've experienced it; it's probably not what you are experiencing, but I'll enter it here anyway; I've noticed it when the application does a Response.Redirect at the PreRender level, which a redirect does not stop current execution, but makes it appear the event happens twice...
Again, probably not related, but including it just in case.
I copied some code that states:
Page.LoadComplete += new EventHandler(Page_PreRender)
I did not realize that this code fire for second time my Page_PreRender event.
When I comment it, never fire twice.

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