ListView fields not getting posted - asp.net

Question

I know I've done something like this before, but I have no idea why it isn't working now. I have a ListView with some textboxes. I want to read the text out of those boxes when I click a button (linkbutton, whatever).
<asp:ListView runat="server" ID="lv_bar" EnableViewState="true">
<LayoutTemplate>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Foo</th>
</tr>
<tr runat="server" id="itemPlaceholder"></tr>
</table>
</LayoutTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<tr>
<td><asp:LinkButton ID="lb_delete" CausesValidation="false" runat="server" Text="Del" /></td>
<td><asp:TextBox id="txt_foo" runat="server" /></td>
</tr>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:ListView>
<asp:LinkButton ID="lb_add" CausesValidation="false" runat="server" Text="Add" />
And then here's the relevant code-behind stuff:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lb_chapter_add.Click += lb_chapter_add_Click;
if (!IsPostBack)
{
lv_chapters.DataSource = new List<Foo>() { new Foo() { Name = "harbl"} };
lv_chapters.DataBind();
}
}
void lb_add_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
foreach (ListViewDataItem item in lv_bar.Items)
{
var txt_foo = (TextBox)item.FindControl("txt_foo");
Response.Write("foo: " + txt_foo.Text);
}
Response.Write("<br />the end");
Response.End();
}
But what I see when I enter some text into txt_foo and click lb_add is just "the end". What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

The problem it that you are using a a non persistent object as DataSource.
Due to clicking the button, you generate a postback and lv_chapters does not contain any items. Set a breakpoint in the line where the foreach is and you will see that lv_chapters.Items in null, or that it's Count property returns 0.