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Invalid postback or callback argument error

I am using a repeater and I am getting this error after clicking the button (with a Command)
Invalid postback or callback argument. Event validation is enabled using <pages enableEventValidation="true"/> in configuration or <%# Page EnableEventValidation="true" %> in a page. For security purposes, this feature verifies that arguments to postback or callback events originate from the server control that originally rendered them. If the data is valid and expected, use the ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation method in order to register the postback or callback data for validation.
I did some research, and I read that I need to set EnableViewState=”false”, didn't work.\
Also tried that in the web.config file, didn't work.
Used also updatepanel: same problem.
What is this kind of error? In my previous ASP project this worked fine for me without changing settings.
Can anyone help me?

Without seeing your code, my guess is that you are binding the data for your control before the events are fired (i.e. data binding in the Page_Load, because that is called before the event handler code).
You need to only bind the data in Page_Load when the page is not a postback (i.e. first load of the page and not from event clicks), like this:
if(!Page.IsPostBack)
{
// Bind repeater data here
}
Then at the end of your event handler (i.e. your command click), then you should re-bind the data as the last line of that method or part of the method where you have the logic pertinent to the user clicking.

Issues with Custom Server Controls and Events in the ASP.NET page lifecycle

I am starting to go nuts with this one, it "seems" I can't get this to work in an elegant way and I'm sure i should be able to.
On the righthand side of the page I dynamically create Custom Server controls that have events in them that fire, I have proved this bit works in testing.
I have a Treeview on the left side of the page and this is autopopulated at page load assuming it is not a postback, if it is then its viewstate handles this nicely. When you click on one of the branches of the tree it will post back and when the event fires it will then populate the right side with new custom server controls that hold the inforation relevant to what branch you clicked. The right panel always populates with the correct controls, however the events don't fire when they are clicked as the new branch Id is only know after the page_load event (when the treeview event fires) which is too late for all the Event cleverness to register I think.
I have looked into using Response.Redirect, but then I lose the viewstate on the Treeview so have started looking at forcing a Javascript post back but haven't got very far with that.
I really can't believe this is an unusual problem so hopeing there is an elegant solution. If its just i am going about it the total wrong way then happy to change all the logic if we can get this to work!!
Many many Thanks!!
Matt
*UPDATE**
I'm not allowed to close this yet so will paste below
seems typing that out got me thinking about the Javascript route and what .NET must have some where. A bit of reading and I have come up with this.
PostBackOptions pbo = new PostBackOptions(pnlEvents); pbo.ActionUrl = Request.Url.AbsoluteUri; pbo.PerformValidation = false; string postback = ClientScript.GetPostBackEventReference(pbo); ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(typeof(Page), "AutoPostBackScript", postback, true);
This will cause another postback if you run this after the event fires that you get your information from, allowing you to load the Server Controls forn Init or Load as long as you store your value in viewstate or its in another controls viewstate.

Events can be registered in Page_Init or Page_Load. If you are still lost, check ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Overview on MSDN.
Update:
You can simply send the param in URL, and get it in Page_Load, not using postback mechanism at all.

WebBrowser and javascript

I am working with a website that has javascript that does some changes on the page load. However, when I load the page and handle the DocumentCompleted event, this change isn't there. If I then continue paste the DocumentCompleted event, I can see the change happen. However I need this change to happen during DocumentCompleted so I can check some things.
Is there an other event I can subscribe to, or a way to cause the webBrowser to do all the javscript on page?
Edit: This is what I am talking about.
I loaded a sample page just to show you, and clicked the submit button with all fields empty to generate an the error.
Here is the result:
http://s8.postimage.org/zfv6stcar/sfsdfsdfds.jpg
Now if I take the HTML at that precise moment from that WebBrowser control, and render it somewhere else, those errors go away. The same thing happens when the server sends back those errors. If I handle the DocumentCompleted event and take the html, it isnt there. But after the event, it shows up in the control.
Hope you understand, it's hard to explain.

The problem seems to be that the DocumentCompleted event is being fired before the javascript. You should do some reading on how client side/server side things function.
One option is to make a separate method for the DocumentCompleted event and call it form the javascript after it has been completed. This would get the sequencing of these events working properly, but is not very ideal.
Alternatively, you could call the javascript code at the beginning of your DocumentCompleted event. The link below gives a pretty good explanation of how to go about that.
http://forums.asp.net/t/1117189.aspx/1
Personally, I would avoid using javascript and do the validation on the client side .NET, but I don't know enough about the website to really say.
EDIT:
This should be the script you are looking for. Alternatively here is a thread related to your issue. Sorry I don't have the exact code as I don't have a project to test this on.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.clientscriptmanager.registerstartupscript.aspx
Calling JavaScript Function From CodeBehind
RE-EDIT:
What is happening on the link you provided in the comments, is that each textbox is calling some javascript as well as the submit button. The best way to examine this is using the "Inspect Element" in the right-click menu on Google Chrome. For example, doing this on the textbox would show that it is registered with a few events:
onfocus="$('f_tip_Username').style.display = 'inline'"
onblur="$('f_tip_Username').style.display = 'none'"
onchange="$('f_err_Username').style.display = 'none'"
The first the element with the ID 'f_tip_Username', sets the display style of that element to inline (visible).
The submit button calls the following:
onclick="return o_edit_profile_form.validate()"
Doing a find on "o_edit_profile_form" in the source code, you can find the exact javascript location that is being called. Enjoy!
FINAL EDIT (hopefully?):
Follow these steps: go to your site, right click and go view source. Do a find for "f_tip_Username". This is the ID of one of the div tags being used. The third entry of it, should be a "div tag" that is used under the first textbox to warn of "min 3 characters".
You'll notice above that in the code is a input type "text" with the Name "Username". Notice the three events it has registered in it:
onfocus="$('f_tip_Username').style.display = 'inline'"
onblur="$('f_tip_Username').style.display = 'none'"
onchange="$('f_err_Username').style.display = 'none'"
These either hide or make visible, the div tag we found (f_tip_username) and also a separate div tag (f_err_Username) which is the error message div tag. Let me know if you are not able to find these in the source. Follow the steps I provided and you will find it in the "view source" OR in the DocumentText.

clicking multiple times on a link or page number in grid view thows an error

I have got a button field in my grid view. When I click multiple times on the grid (3 times), I am getting an error which is shown below. The same issue is arised when I click multiple times on a page number(which is not the active page) of the grid.
Invalid postback or callback argument. Event validation is enabled
using in configuration or <%#
Page EnableEventValidation="true" %> in a page. For security
purposes, this feature verifies that arguments to postback or callback
events originate from the server control that originally rendered
them. If the data is valid and expected, use the
ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation method in order to
register the postback or callback data for validation.
Please help me solve the issue.

I guess you have added databinding code in page load without enclosing IsPostBack block.
void page_load()
{
if(!IsPostBack)
{
//put databinding code here
}
}
EDIT:
Please read these threads/posts:
Invalid postback or callback argument. Event validation is enabled using ''
MSDN blog - Validation of viewstate MAC failed error
Validation of viewstate MAC failed
Validation of viewstate MAC failed error

user control event handler lost on postback

I have a menu usercontrol called LeftMenu that has a bulletedlist of linkitems. It's on the ascx page as such:
<asp:BulletedList ID="PublisherList" DisplayMode="LinkButton" OnClick="PublisherList_Click" cssClass="Menu" runat="server"></asp:BulletedList>
I databind the list in the page_load under if(!isPostBack)
I'm having an issue on a page that loads the control. When the page first loads, the event handler fires. However, when the page posts back it no longer fires and in IE8, when I'm debugging, I get "Microsoft JScript runtime error: Object expected" in Visual Studio pointing at "__doPostBack('LeftMenu$PublisherList','0')." In FF I don't get the error, but nothing happens. I'm not loading the control dynamically, it's loaded on the aspx page using:
<%# Register TagPrefix="Standards" TagName="LeftMenu" Src="LeftMenu.ascx" %>
<Standards:LeftMenu ID="LeftMenu" runat="server"/>
Any ideas of where I'm losing the event handler?
I just realized this is happening on another user control I have as well. A text box and a button and I'm using the default button to make sure pressing the enter key uses that button. .Net converts that in the html to:
<div id="SearchBarInclude_SearchBar" onkeypress="javascript:return WebForm_FireDefaultButton(event, 'SearchBarInclude_QuickSearchButton')">
so as soon as i enter a key in the box I get a javascript error at the line saying "object expected." It seems like the two issues are related.
Edit Again: I think I need to clarify. It's not that I'm clicking on the menu item and it can't find the selected item on postback. I have this search page with the left navigation on it and then the main content of the page is something that causes a postback. Everything is fine with this postback. Once that page has been posted back, now if I click on the bulleted list in the left navigation I get a javascript error and it fails. The page_init for the LeftMenu control is never called.

It sounds like you might be losing the click because you are not DataBinding the list on PostBack. Therefore, the post back is trying to refer to a control (a specific bulleted list item) that does not exist.
You should try binding the list again on PostBack just to see if that fixes your issue. BUT, what should REALLY happen is that the LeftMenu and the BulletedList should store their information into ViewState so that you can ensure that the data that was shown to the user on their initial page load is the same data that the PostBack is processing and working with.

If you have EnableViewState=true for your UserControl and all controls within it, everything should work fine. With ViewState enabled, ASP will reinflate your controls from ViewState after Init has fired. This means that the postback event arg (which points to an index in your control list) will still find the control in that list position. Otherwise the list is empty on postback.
However, ViewState is the work of the devil and was designed simply to foster the illusion that you are working in a stateful environment. It is okay to use it for small amounts of data but typically not advisable for templated controls like repeaters and lists because you have no idea how much data is going to be created in ViewState.
If you are dealing with static, or relatively static data, store it in the application cache and rebind your lists in Page.Init every time (note that it has to be in Init because post-init is when ASP rebinds from ViewState; if you get in there first, your data will be used instead).
If you are dealing with volatile data, you have a problem because the data you rebind must be exactly the same as the original page request, otherwise the postback events will be firing against the wrong rows. In that case you need to either store your initial data in Session or you simply store the list of rows ids (in a hidden variable or Session) and you recreate the data to bind against from the ids each time.
An even better solution is to not use postback events at all. Try to turn all your events into GETs that have an ID on the query string. You can still create the list using binding the first time through the page (as you are currently doing), and you can even GET the same page with a new ID.
If you need to keep state on the same page but need to respond to the user changing a radio button selection (or something else), think about using Ajax calls to update the screen. You also do that with an ID that you pass to the Ajax call.
In general, the more you move from using stateful ASP, the lighter and more responsive your pages will become. You will also be in a better position to move to stateless MVC if necessary. You will also save lots of time lost to debugging obscure problems because ViewState is not available when you need it to be.
The best analysis of ViewState I've read is in the link below. If you fully understand how it works, you can continue to use it without necessarily incurring the costs.
http://weblogs.asp.net/infinitiesloop/archive/2006/08/03/truly-understanding-viewstate.aspx

It's possible that this might be javascript related, and that a script that is loading earlier in the page is throwing an error and causing the page to not be loaded properly.
Are your usercontrols loading any javascript onto the page? Can you check for javascript errors on the initial load of the page?

I moved the code into an existing project we have and for some strange reason, I stopped getting the javascript errors and instead got:
"Invalid postback or callback argument. Event validation is enabled using <pages enableEventValidation="true"/> in configuration or <%# Page EnableEventValidation="true" %> in a page.
For security purposes, this feature verifies that arguments to postback or callback events originate from the server control that originally rendered them. If the data is valid and expected, use the ClientScriptManager.RegisterForEventValidation method in order to register the postback or callback data for validation."
I haven't quite figured out where I'm supposed to put the register event validation with a user control, but in the mean time I just set enableeventvalidation=false and it seems to work now.

It looks like the doPostBack function is missing since its arguments are literals so they couldn't be the cause. Is that one of your own functions or did you mean to call the ASP __doPostBack function?
Have a look at the Firefox error console or allow script debugging in IE and see exactly what object can't be found. Even better, download Firebug and debug it.

I had a similar issue. It turned out that Akamai was modifying the user-agent string because an setting was being applied that was not needed.
This meant that some .NET controls did not render __doPostBack code properly. This issue has been blogged here.