DetailsView resetting visibility on bind? - asp.net

I am using entity framework 4.0 to bind a database object to a DetailsView on an ascx control. Within the DetailsView, I have a number of asp:panels that I'd like to show/hide depending on what's happening in that person's visit.
So, the first time through the page I'm setting panelA.Visible=false in the FormView_OnLoad event, and all is well - that panel is not output in the HTML. It listens to what I'm asking here.
Once I click submit and postback, I am again checking what's going on and setting panelA.Visibe=false in both FormView_OnLoad and EntityData_OnUpdating. But this time, when the page comes up panelA is showing.
I find that I can only hide that panel after postback by setting visible=false in DetailsView_PreRender, or by binding visibility to a public variable.
I'm thinking perhaps in the life cycle the DetailsView is binding again way toward the end, and throws away my visibility settings, even though they're not bound. So to show/hide panels within the DetailsView on postback, will I always have to set visibility on DetailsView_PreRender or after?
Am I on the right track here, or is something else resetting me at the last second?
Why can I set visibility the first time through the page but not postback?

You should always make final modification of your page structure after postback processing - that is the reason why PreRender event exists. Other possible event in your scenario can be handling DataBound event but better and more clear way is PreRender.

Related

Textbox autopostbacks

I have a custom asp.net user control which has an update panel in it. In this update panel i have all the controls and content that are shown to the user. Amongst these controls there are two textboxes, which have AutoPostback = true. This is because when their value is changed, the structure of the page changes accordingly. This works as required, but when I modify the two textboxes in quick succession, the first autopostback works while the second one doesn't fire. It seems that while it is doing the first postback, any other attempted postbacks will be ignored. How can I work around this?
This behavior is by design. The usual approach is to use UpdateProgress control that disables the user input on the page while the postback is in process.
Alternatively you could add your own onchange event handlers that call __doPostBack() more intelligently (by using timers etc.) to avoid this problem for your specific scenario. You could also try aborting any postback is process before submitting a new one.
A resource that might be useful: http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=176

Items in a Repeater are lost during a postback (callback)

Using ASP.NET 4.0 WebForms.
I have a repeater with checkboxes in it. The repeater and checkboxes have viewstate enabled. There's a button which causes a callback postback. These elements reside in a callbackpanel (similar to MS's UpdatePanel but doesn't use viewstate). The repeater is bound to a datatable during initial load and repeater shows the checkboxes. Fine so far.
During the postback (a callback), I noticed that the repeater's items' count is 0 in the page_load. Therefore I can't get any checkbox values. I can see the key/checked value entries of the checkboxes in Request.Form collection.
I think I am missing something obvious but where in the life cycle can I read the repeater's items?
Or should I get them from Request.Form?
1) Try wiring up to LoadComplete. All child controls are loaded recursively, so sometimes not everything you expect to be there will be present during the Load event.
2) Make sure your repeater is initialized during or prior to Init event. If you have some code that runs to populate it, then this must be executed in Init. During the page's lifecycle, ASP.NET tries to take the posted values and apply them to the controls. If the controls are not created soon enough during the lifecycle, then they won't exist during that step to accept the posted values. This is one of the more frustrating things with dynamic pages in ASP.NET, as you have to ensure the page is reconstructed during the postback in init. So even when you see the data in the post, ASP.NET will ignore it if the controls aren't found in its collection of controls. Also, there is some magic that happens with control IDs that it uses to map the posted values into the controls. I don't remember the details of that though because it has been several weeks since I had to delve into the harry details.
Also, make sure you aren't doing something like using if(!IsPostBack) to initialize your repeater or other controls/data. Even if it's a postback, you still need the controls to exist so they can accept the posted values.
I have not used a callbackpanel though, so I am unsure of how this will muddy the waters.
I solved my problem by overriding the DataBind method on the control which contains the repeater. That prevents DataBinds on parent controls from trickling down and binding data to the repeater when it isn't ready for that. My problem was that a parent control/page performed a DataBind which trickled down to the sub-controls, including the repepater, causing it to get cleared. So you don't have to do a DataBind directly on the repeater on every postback like #AaronLS suggests:
Also, make sure you aren't doing something like using if(!IsPostBack)
to initialize your repeater or other controls/data. Even if it's a
postback, you still need the controls to exist so they can accept the
posted values.
All my RepeaterItems were stay present through postbacks even though I only databind once.
In my case, performing a DataBind on the repeater for every postback caused the form values to be reset.

Dynamically generated Radio Button calling CheckedChanged event

This is a little difficult to explain so please bear with me.
I have a procedure that is generating some radio buttons and assigning a CheckedChanged postback event based on the level being passed through (up to 4 levels). When the first level is checked (radio button selected) the postback event rb_CheckChanged00() is called and a check is done to see if this item has any children, if it does, it will create more radio buttons and assign rb_CheckChanged01 to the CheckChanged event for these - This part is working fine.
The issue I have is when I select the second Radio Button that has been created (the child), it doesn't seem to go to the post back event at all. The page is posting back when I click on it but everything resets because it won't go into rb_CheckChanged01.
I know this info is quite vague but I am hoping someone has an idea on how the post back event works and if I am somehow using it incorrectly.
Using: ASP.NET 2.0, IIS7
Thanks.
Most of the time when the dynamically created control's events are not fired, it's because the controls are 'reset' upon postback.
To make sure the same controls get created each and every time make sure that the control's IDs are set to the same values each and every time, before the ViewState is loaded. This way, when the control is added to the control collection of the page, once the ViewState is loaded, it'll persist it's properties. (just to describe what happens, in a nutshell)
One of the best articles I've read on this topic is this one. Make sure you read it, to fully understand what's happening in the background.
Looks like the child RBs are cleaned before they are able to trigger the event. From my personal experience, it's best to keep track of those dynamically generated objects, and regenerate them in every postback. The events will start to trigger :)
Your controls and events are not registered in the ViewState because dynamic controls need to be loaded in the Page_Init. Because they're not persisted in the ViewState, they won't be registered with events. A similar question:
Problem with dynamic controls in .NET
Only 1 thing can cause this, you create the rb's on page_load and don't add them to a List<> or something similar and that object to Session. What you need to do is when you create the items, Add them to a List and add that list to Session["RadioButtons"] and if the Page.IsPostBack is true, load your controls one by one from your list which is kept in your session to your page.

Persisting dynamically loaded user controls in view state

I have a simple user control containing two text boxes which I am adding to placeholder on Button Click event. I am storing the number(count) of clicks in View state and running a loop using count to create all previously added user control. I am also adding IDs to each User control (appending "UC" and count). I have also checked in view source the ids are same each time they are created. I have another button which basically does an post back. I have EnableViewState enabled ="true" in all controlls all the way up to Page Level.
My problem is that User Input does not persist on postback. please advice. Should this not be happening automatically for me?
Have a look at this:
http://www.denisbauer.com/ASPNETControls/DynamicControlsPlaceholder.aspx
I've encountered minor problems with it on a web farm, but for simple deployments its use is pretty straightforward. (Comes with source code, and the web farm glitch is a pretty simple fix.)
You need to create your dynamic controls in the Page_PreInit event rather than Page_Load or in a Click event handler. That way, they'll be there before ViewState, and then your posted values are applied.
I thinks what is happening is that you are creating your controls during the click event handler which happens AFTER ViewState and PostBack have been applied. This means your controls will be created empty each time.

ASP.NET Dynamic Page Controls: Is it possible to bind events AFTER Page.Load?

I have a site that I am currently working on in ASP.NET 2.0 using the usual WebForm stuff and ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. Is it possible to bind an event to a dynamically created control after the Page.Load event?
I have a table <td> element that I am dynamically creating similarly to this code:
' Create Link Button
lnk.ID = String.Format("lnkDetails_{0}", dr("Id"))
lnk.Text = dr("Name").ToString()
lnk.CommandArgument = dr("Id").ToString()
AddHandler lnk.Click, AddressOf DetailsLink_Click
cName.Controls.Add(lnk)
This this code is looped over for each row in a database (and of course more cells are added to the table, including an ImageButton with an event. The events work flawlessly when I execute this code during events leading up to and including Page.Load. I need to be able to fill this table with current data, which is updated during a btnClick Event elsewhere on the page, which occurs after this Page_Load event, so I am populating with old data. If I change this code to Page.LoadComplete, events stop working.
This data is a summary display of various components of an application, things like somebody's name, which when updated on a 'detail' form, updates the database by partial postback (a requirement), then it needs to show the update in this 'summary' section after an update. Currently it takes 2 postbacks to actually see the change in the 'summary' section, so effectively the summary is 1 step behind the changes (clear as mud?)
What would be the best way for me to populate this table with current data (which is available during/after Page.LoadComplete), but still have an event fire when a link is clicked (the event causes an UpdatePanel to display the 'detail' form).
I also have jQuery at my disposal and the usual ASP.NET AJAX methods, also javascript is a requirement for the website, so I do not need to degrade for unsupported browsers.
This is my first ASP.NET web application and need some help figuring out the best way to make this happen (I'm well versed in PHP, Django and the usual ways to do web forms - things like having multiple forms on one page o_O).
Update:
There really isn't a good way to bind control events to controls after Page_Load. The overall architecture of the pages is there is one ASP.NET form encompassing the entire page, there is only 1 aspx page. I am using master pages (however it doesn't have any obvious implications to my issue).
The page is split into a left and right 'pane', the left is a summary of all the data (in an update panel), the right 'pane' has 6 'tabs' implemented each as their own user control, each with several form fields and an update button all in it's own UpdatePanel.
An update on any of these tabs only refreshes the summary panel (UpdatePanel.update()) and its own panel. The 'refreshing' and event binding of dynamic controls of the summary from the db happens during Page_Load and the Update Button event updates db data. (The control event happens after Page_Load). I want to avoid doing a double post to get the summary to update, any thoughts are helpful.
You need to postback the whole page after your data changes in the 'btnClick Event elsewhere on the page'. It sounds like you have an UpdatePanel and it sounds like this is catching the postback of your btnClick event handler. Put the btnClick outside the UpdatePanel or change its triggers so that your btnClick forces a postback/refresh of your data. Or, redesign your table so it's AJAXly-refreshed when you click on btnClick, it's hard to get you more details without knowing more about the structure of your page and controls.
Good luck!
You can bind to an event whenever you want. It's just a simple event after all. But not all places might be suitable because you have to take into account when the event fires. And in most cases this happens between Page_Load and Page_PreRender. That includes the click event on a LinkButton. In general, I would recommend to add your dynamically created controls in the Page_Init stage.
You have to add the controls before Page.Load in order to maintain ViewState between postbacks, so use the OnInit event handler for that.
But once they're added, you should be able to bind event handlers (such as OnClick) at any point during or after the Page.Load... for example in your grid's ItemDataBound (or something like) or in the Page.PreRender.

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