ASP.NET Preload Post Back Event - asp.net

Is there any kind of event out there that would allow for a preload post back event.
The reason I ask is I have a control that adds sibling controls to it on postback events, however, by the time it has loaded the post back its too late to add the new control to the control collection. Therefore, the controls are never updated correctly.
Thanks!

Try the Init event.

Override CreateChildControls (make sure to call base!). In your postback event handler, make sure you are storing somewhere the list of controls that should be created dynamically, so when CreateChildControls gets invoked very early in the lifecycle on the next go-round, it will recreate the controls built on the last postback.

Here is a quick hack. You can always, query the __EventTarget and or the value of the submit button in init and can load dynamically the control.
But doing so, may not be appropriate as your control hierarchy would change and could cause problems.

As above, dynamic controls have to be added during the page Init event, so that they can be properly handled within the page's Viewstate. You might want to turn the Viewstate off for the page as well, since it can fire errors at you if the controls change.

As has already been stated the proper place to add dynamic controls is in the Init event.
Here's an article with more information.
Dynamic Web Controls, Postbacks, and View State
To get a better understanding of the ASP .NET page life cycle see:
ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Overview

This page explains the event order (and what happens in each one) in a postback, it helped me more than once.
I've just found this link, that can also be of use to you

Related

Dynamically add controls in Page_Init which loads every time (how to Avoid every controls reloading?)

I am adding RadDock control and adding its Item Command events which require to be added in Pag_Init. And adding user controls to RadDock.
My problem is that when I have some post back for a specific control page_Init calls which reloads the controls and every control is re-binded every time. I want to avoid control creation every time. And want the specific control's post back should happen.
If I apply (!IsPostBack) condition in Page_Init then controls are not loaded and page gets empty.
I am stuck.
Any best practice or work around is acceptable.
Thanks in advance.
I don't know the specifics of Telerik's tools, but if they work like regular ASP.NET dynamic controls, you have to add the controls to the control tree on every page load. Populating the controls with data is distinct from adding them to the control tree. If the controls are added correctly so that they are placed in the same way in the control tree as on the previous page visit, and implement ViewState correctly (if needed) the runtime will populate them with data from the posted data and ViewState when a postback occurs.
I added IFrame to RadDock and then gave user control source to IFrame. Now it is working fine, Only the specific control's post back occurs.
Any way, Thanks Jonas

ASP.NET control event handler not firing on postback?

I have a control which has an ImageButton which is tied to an OnClick event... Upon clicking this control, a postback is performed and the event handler is not called. AutoEventWireup is set to true, and I've double checked spelling etc.... We haven't touched this control in over a year and it has been working fine until a couple of weeks ago.
We have made changes to controls which load this control... so I'm wondering, what kind of changes could we have made to stop this event handler from being called? There is quite a bit of Javascript going on, so this could be the culprit too...
Edit: Some clarification... we are dynamically loading the parent control of the ImageButton in the OnLoad event of the page... if that makes sense.
AutoEventWireup is irrelevant. Is your ImageButton loaded dynamically, i.e. not written out in mark up? If it is loaded onto the page late in the Page lifecycle e.g. in PreRender then the event will not fire.
If there is a JavaScript issue your page will not even PostBack. Is that happening?
Did you give the ImageButton an ID?
I def agree with what BritishDeveloper said. I had a similar problem where I was dynamically loading controls, but I couldn't get a reference to the control using Page.FindControl("controlName") Someone pointed out that I needed to keep the page lifecycle in mind. I found out I needed to make sure to load the control in the PageInit because after doing an async postback the control was still there, but not loaded in the postback so there was no way to find it. This was all in csharp codebehind and ajax though, but I'm guessing the control isn't getting reloaded.
So, as it turns out we set the PostbackUrl property on one of our buttons in control A... this caused the event handlers for control B not to fire when a button in control B was pressed.
If you create a control dynamically. Any time you fire a postback using the new created control, you need to recreated it. Just think that your application are running at a server. How can the server hold information on controls created dynamically? Don't use Page.IsPostBack to create postback. PostbackUrl is bad solution. Workarround will be need.
I can go into a little more detail ... I just lost several hours fixing my own issue similar to the issue described here. In the course of creating some search controls, I added a pair of ImageButtons and set the PostbackUrl properties on them. A few days later while testing new code, I noticed that none of my other buttons on the webform were posting back properly. They would fire a postback, but the code-behind was behaving as if every postback was an initial page request and none of the event handlers were firing.
After several hours of troubleshooting, I came across this post. When I went back and removed the PostbackUrl from those two ImageButtons, everything went back to normal. I don't know why it was causing this issue, but the fix mentioned here worked for me. I want to add that my ImageButtons were not dynamically added ... they were in the markup and this issue still cropped up. Search your markup for any controls with PostbackUrl set ... remove that (program around it if needed) ... see if your event handlers will fire properly.

Add dynamic controls in ASP.NET, is there a difference between 1.1 and 2.0?

I am pretty sure back in the days of ASP.NET 1.0/1.1, controls created during runtime needs to be added before Page_Load event of the Page Lifecycle (i.e. inside Page_Init).
Here's one article by Microsoft on it (for .NET 1.0/1.1):
HOW TO: Dynamically Create Controls in ASP.NET:
Note When you create dynamic controls
on a Web Form, you must create the
controls and add them to the controls
collection in either the Page_Init
event handler or the Page_Load event
handler. Otherwise, the controls may
not behave as expected.
However, in a few posts here, it seems like the above is not the case anymore. Controls added within Page_Load seems to be working for everyone else. Some of the posts include:
creating dynamic control in asp.net
Viewstate - utter confusion.
I've tried it myself and indeed it worked though I've not done enough test to fish out any unexpected behavior.
So is Page_Load a safe stage to add dynamic controls? Or is it only for .NET 2.0 and above?
I have studied this with Reflector, and the Control class does indeed bring things up to speed when you add them dynamically, no matter when you add them. It does everything - loads viewstate/controlstate, calls postback events, calls event handlers, etc. I don't know if it was different in ASP.NET 1.x days, but in 2.0 and above this is the case.
As for the "dangers" - there are some gotchas that the inexperienced user might trip over, so it is recommended that you add them in Page_Init or before. (Note that the PreInit event only applies to the page itself, not the Master Page or subcontrols). Off the top of my head (I'm sure there might be a few more):
By default viewstate loads positionally. That is, it ignores control IDs and just takes control placement in the tree into account when loading viewstate. If your dynamic controls were present when the viewstate was serialized, but are not present when it is deserialized, the wrong viewstate item might get assigned to the wrong control, thus leading to exceptions. This can be changed by some settings, though I'm now too lazy to search for them.
Since the "bringing up to speed" happens when the dynamic control gets added to the page, the order of some events might be unexpected. For example, if you add a TextBox control to the page in the Page_PreRender event, the Changed event of the TextBox will happen there and then. If your event handler code depends on the event happening with the rest of them before PreRender, then you are screwed.
You can add controls at any time. However, they'll only work with viewstate if you add them before page loads.
In fact, if you check the .Net 2.0 version of the page lifecycle link you posted, you'll stilll find this quote under the PreInit event:
Use this event for the following: ... Create or re-create dynamic controls.
The Page_Load event handler is an acceptable place to add controls. If you re-read your note you will notice that they state that.
Note: When you create dynamic controls
on a Web Form, you must create the
controls and add them to the controls
collection in either the Page_Init
event handler or the Page_Load
event handler. Otherwise, the controls
may not behave as expected.
If the ASP.NET 2.0 article you linked to, under "Catch-up Events for Added Controls", they discuss how added controls are brought up to speed with the page.

postback not raised problem

I have next situation:
I load dynamic controls during on init, and I do correct initialization.
I add dynamic control before postback
I don't add anything later in load
control is loaded and diplayed correctly
I press postback and nothing happens
Why I really don't know.. I tried everything. So control IS properly initialised. __EVENTTARGET shows the same path as the UniqueId of linkbutton that is firing it. All controls in tree have viewstate=true. So, I really don't know what this is not working.
Any idea? I am desperate.. I don't know.. if anyone could suggest me, if not solution, then just things I should check would be very good.
Is this problem just for this page or do you have other pages on the same site with the same problem?
I am assuming that you have the same problem on all pages.
It could be relate do javascript not being allowed. You could try to add the site to local intranet security are, then refresh the page.
Dynamic controls have to be added back to the control tree on each postback for the events to fire.
Dynamically created controls are not part of their container's viewstate, so setting it to TRUE wouldn't have any effect on the situation and are not evaluated until after the on_init call completes anyways.
I would wrap the logic that is populating these dynamic controls in with a conditional check for a postback if(!IsPostBack)
{ //Insert logic here }
If your dynamic controls take input from the user, or need access to their view state, then you would need to move this call to the Page_Load method as this is the point in the page's lifecycle where viewstate is first evaluated.

Where to set User Control event handlers?

Where in the page life cycle is it most appropriate to set event handler delegates for events raised by custom User Controls?
I have a ReportFilter user control that raises an ApplyFilterClicked event. Currently I am just using Page_Load to assign a handler method.
reportFilter.ApplyFilterClicked += reportFilter_ApplyFilterClicked;
If you are creating your user controls dynamically, then the most appropriate place is in the Init phase, right where the controls are created (or should be).
Otherwise, the Load phase will work just fine, and is probably where most people set them. Obviously, you can't set the handlers anywhere later than that, otherwise they would never be called, since the event handling phase is next in line after Load.
Usually the init phase is best for creating controls because this will help with viewstate updates to the controls. Check out this page for some good info on page lifecycle:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx
Hope this helps

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