I have an ASP.NET web form which I am adding a variable number User Controls to. I have two problems:
The User Controls are added to a PlaceHolder on the form in the first PageLoad event (I only add them when "(!this.IsPostback)", but then when the form is posted back, the controls are gone. Is this normal? Since other controls on the form keep their state, I would expect these dynamically added ones to stay on the form as well. Do I have to add them for every postback?
I also have a button and an event handler for the button click event, but this event handler is never called when I click on the button. Is there something special I have to do to catch events on dynamically added controls?
Yes, you need to add them in every postback.
Yes... the control needs to be in the control hierarchy before asp.net dispatches the event (i.e. create the dynamic controls as early in the page lifecycle as possible).
1) You should add the controls on the Pre-init (Page life cycle)
2) You have to attach the event handler to the event of the created button.(events might occur much later in the page life cycle than the same events for controls created declaratively)
To achieve this, add your controls at page init instead of page load. (re-add at postback)
You'll need to know the id of the buttons added to bind them to the event.
I ran into a similar problem. I had a page that displayed a collection of custom web controls. My solution was to add an additional invisible web control so that when I clicked a button to add another control that I would just use the invisible one. Then on post back my load function would add another invisible control to the collection.
I figured out yesterday that you can actually make your app work like normal by loading the control tree right after the loadviewstateevent is fired. if you override the loadviewstate event, call mybase.loadviewstate and then put your own code to regenerate the controls right after it, the values for those controls will be available on page load. In one of my apps I use a viewstate field to hold the ID or the array info that can be used to recreate those controls.
Protected Overrides Sub LoadViewState(ByVal savedState As Object)
MyBase.LoadViewState(savedState)
If IsPostBack Then
CreateMyControls()
End If
End Sub
I ran into the exact same problem and struggled through like 5-6 hours.
I'm posting this maybe someone like me could get help.
1) You should initialize your controls at Page.PreInit event. (In my case I had to add my controls to a place holder so I extended PreInit to load those controls before but you don't need to do that. It depends on your scenario.)
2) You should bind those exact methods to your controls after you initialize them in your Page.PreInit event.
Here is my sample code:
protected override void OnPreInit(EventArgs e)
{
// Loading controls...
this.PrepareChildControlsDuringPreInit();
// Getting ddl container from session and creating them...
if (GetDDLSession().Count != 0)
{
foreach (DropDownList ddl in GetDDLSession())
{
ddl.SelectedIndexChanged += SelectedIndexChanged;
phDropDowns.Controls.Add(ddl);
}
}
base.OnPreInit(e);
}
public static void PrepareChildControlsDuringPreInit(this Page page)
{
// Walk up the master page chain and tickle the getter on each one
MasterPage master = page.Master;
while (master != null) master = master.Master;
}
Related
Allright so I have a slight issue when I want to load some basic usercontrols which contain an UpdatePanel inside to another page which is an usercontrol.
The set up:
Whenever an user clicks on a button a pop-up shows up containing some basic info on a certain person and a tab which contains the companies he worked for. The amount of companies he/she works for can range from 1 to 4~, so I do a query then for each company I get I add a view to a multiview, this view contains multiple simple user controls (Textfields inside an updatepanel). Now whenever I go to the page I get this error:
Cannot unregister UpdatePanel with ID 'UpdatePanel2' since it was not registered with the ScriptManager. This might occur if the UpdatePanel was removed from the control tree and later added again, which is not supported. Parameter name: updatePanel
Now I know this is a common error caused by generating UpdatePanels dynamically which aren't registered with the ScriptMaster. I can't add a PreInit event handler to the page which adds the UserControls with the UpdatePanels since it's an UserControl itself.
My question is:
How can I get rid of this nasty error in a not so nasty way e.g. not a hardcoded sub routine which adds the UpdatePanel to the scriptmaster
You could define the functionality you want to add inside your user controls. I have done the same in the past, adding the following, inside of my user control.
override protected void OnInit(EventArgs e) {
// your code here
}
Add a ScriptManager on your MasterPage before the UpdatePanel. And your updatePanel is a bit confusing so might change it as well. :)
Im trying to add buttons to a placeholder, each with an eventhandler to the same method.
if (!this.IsPostBack)
{
foreach (Entry ent in results)
{
HtmlButton btn = new HtmlButton();
btn.ServerClick += new EventHandler(resultSelected);
btn.InnerText = ent.name;
btn.ID = ent.ID.ToString();
PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(btn);
}
}
1)
The button is added to the page but when its clicked the method (resultSelected) is not called, only Page_Load again. And when it enters Page_Load the PlaceHolder is empty (the button is not displayed on the page). How do I accomplish what Ive tried to do?
2) How do I assign CSS classes to buttons created in this way?
It's quite common issue when you start working with ASP.NET for the first time - adding dynamic controls on server side.
First thing is that You have to add those controls and assign eventhandler on every page request - on every postback as well. For proper event handling and restoring ViewState, you have to assign to them the same IDs and apply the same hierarchy.
Controls needs to be added before Page Load event - most convinient would be adding them on in overriden CreateChildControls() method, which is fired on Postback before OnLoad method.
Events are fired after OnLoaded method, so if you will create any control in for example OnPreRender/Render method - any event won't be fired.
This is most straightforward approach with some details skipped in my description. For more detailed information please read about ASP.NET Application Life Cycle.
As for the second part of your question, you can either use explicit styles setting with Style Property or it should be also possible to add class attribute using Attributes Property, but right now i'm guessing, cause i think HtmlButton doesn't have CssClass property.
I have a checkboxlist and textbox controls on my asp.net page and the are dynamically created and added to the page. When I populate the values and submit the form, the values are empty by the time it hits the server. Any help?
They are empty because they are being re-created too late in the page lifecycle.
Without knowing the precise point in the ASP.NET Page Lifecycle you're adding your controls, (though I'd guess it's either Page_Load or an event handler), it goes something like this:
Build control tree
Add dynamic controls
Render
(Postback)
Build control tree
Reconstitute viewstate & bind to Post values
Add dynamic controls
Render
To solve this, you need to make sure your controls are created early enough in the lifecycle. Standard practice is to break the "control creation" into a separate method, and during CreateChildControls, check to see if they need to be created:
override CreateChildControls()
{
if(IsPostBack)
{
EnsureDynamicControlsAreAdded();
}
}
This way, if they do need to be initially added by something as far late in the lifecycle as an event handler (Button_Click, for example), you can call the same EnsureDynamicControlsAreAdded method from there as well, and on the next round-trip they'll be created much earlier.
Further to Rex M's answer, you could try creating the controls in the "Page_Init" event - this is one of the first events in the page lifecycle, and is where I would normally create controls in a viewstateless page (NB: If you do this, do not surround the content of the Page_Init handler with an "if (!IsPostback)" - this will prevent it from working as intended).
I am trying to build a server control that, depending on a "QuestionTypeId" display either a text box, date picker or Yes-No radio buttons.
I have my control displaying how I want it to, but when the submit button is pressed on the form, the text box, date picker or radio buttons that were generated in the RenderContents method are all null.
I have attempted to store the generated controls in view state, that stopped them being null, but the user inputs were not being stored.
I will post code if it is needed. Just ask.
I think you need to create (and add) the controls in CreateChildControls. This will mean you'll need to store the value of the QuestionTypeId in either Viewstate or ControlState (I'd argue that ControlState is applicable in this case, as your control can't work without this value).
When you add controls dynamically, you need to make sure they are recreated before the viewstate is restored.
I haven't done this in a while, but from memory I think you should recreate your controls in the OnInit method. This happens before postback data has been loaded and before the controls have their values set from viewstate.
It may be worth doing some reading on the asp.net page lifecycle:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx
You can create a user control and use server controls for textbox, datepicker, radiobuttons.
If you create a cusom server control then you have to add the posted data to your control properties. You can do this at your control OnInit event:
MyProperty = Request.Form("myControl");
A simpler method would be to create all the controls at design time and make the controls invisible based on you requirements.
Example code:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
txtBox.Visible = QuestionTypeID == 1;
chkBox.Visible = QuestionTypeID == 2;
}
If you do use dynamic controls you should do as David pointed out, save the value QuestionTypeID in ViewState or ControlState and then create the control you want based on that value.
(the control needs to be created every time the page loads even on a post back and they cannot be created later in the page life cycle then the Page_Load method if you want their ViewState persisted and recovered)
Example code:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var questionId = ViewState["QuestionTypeID"];
if(questionId == /* Value to create TextBox */) {
var txt = new TextBox { ID = "txt" };
placeHolder.Controls.Add(txt);
} else if(questionId == /* Value to create Calender */) {
var cal = new Calender { ID = "cal" };
placeHolder.Controls.Add(cal);
}
/* Once the controls are added they will be populated with the posted values */
}
P.S.
It's always a good idea with dynamic controls to specify the ID.
You can save the added controls to member variables and use them elsewhere (after they are assigned)
You can subscribe to their events and if the user posted a new value your method will be called
I have followed your advice and done the following:
1) Question Type is stored in view state in my server control.
2) on CreateChildControls now creates a new instance of my control and adds it to a place holder on the page.
My problem now is that things seem to fire in bit of an odd order:
1)On initial load of page, create child controls is fired and the RenderContents method of my server control fires.
2)A button is clicked to load a new contact, this triggers create child controls and RenderContents is fired.
3)details are entered and save is pressed, this triggers Create Child Controls but RenderContents is not triggered and a NullReferenceException is generated by trying to access my control to get the value out. (If i skip the code that access my controls, RenderContents is called and renders.
Seconly, another issue is that when I try an set a value (onDataBind) I try to access the Text box that has been generated in my server control and get another NullReferanceExeption
Thoughts?
I am adding some user controls dynamically to a PlaceHolder server control. My user control consists of some labels and some textbox controls.
When I submit the form and try to view the contents of the textboxes (within each user control) on the server, they are empty.
When the postback completes, the textboxes have the data that I entered prior to postback. This tells me that the text in the boxes are being retained through ViewState. I just don't know why I can't find them when I'm debugging.
Can someone please tell me why I would not be seeing the data the user entered on the server?
Thanks for any help.
This is based on .NET v1 event sequence, but it should give you the idea:
Initialize (Init event)
Begin Tracking View State (checks if postback)
Load View State (if postback)
Load Postback Data (if postback)
Load (Load event)
Raise Changed Events (if postback)
Raise Postback Events (if postback)
PreRender (PreRender event)
Save View State
Render
Unload (Unload event)
Dispose
As you can see, the loading of ViewState data back to the controls happen before the Load event. So in order for your dynamically-added controls to "retain" those values, they have to be present for the ASP.NET page to reload the values in the first place. You would have to re-create those controls at the Init stage, before Load View State occurs.
I figured out yesterday that you can actually make your app work like normal by loading the control tree right after the loadviewstateevent is fired. if you override the loadviewstate event, call mybase.loadviewstate and then put your own code to regenerate the controls right after it, the values for those controls will be available on page load. In one of my apps I use a viewstate field to hold the ID or the array info that can be used to recreate those controls.
Protected Overrides Sub LoadViewState(ByVal savedState As Object)
MyBase.LoadViewState(savedState)
If IsPostBack Then
CreateMyControls()
End If
End Sub
I believe you'll need to add the UserControl to the PlaceHolder during the Init phase of the page life cycle, in order to get the ViewState to be filled in by the Load phase to read those values. Is this the order in which you're loading those?
Ensure you are defining your dynamic controls at the class level and adding them to the ASP container:
Private dynControl As ASP.MyNamespace_MyControl_ascx
And when you instantiate the control, ensure you call LoadControl so the object is added properly:
dynControl = CType(LoadControl("~/MyNamespace/MyControl/MyControl.ascx"), ASP.MyNamespace_MyControl_ascx)
You have to create your controls in the Page_PreInit event handler. The ASP.NET server control model is tricky; you have to fully understand the page lifecycle to do it right.
As others have said, any form of control manipulation must be done before viewstate is created.
Here is a good link on the page lifecycle to help you out:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178472.aspx
We have experienced the same thing and have handled it by using ghost controls on page_load that have the exact same .ID and then the post back picks up the events and the data. As others said it's the dynamic adding of the control after the init stages that the state is built already and controls added after aren't stored.
Hope this helps a bit.
I also want to add that I've seen user controls work the way that you'd expect them to just by setting the Control.ID property at run time. If you do not set the ID, items may get built in a different order and work oddly.