I have a set of controls which take inputs, some of them require validation.
However, a few controls at the bottom of this form, don't actually have anything to do with form itself but still do postback, which requires the form to be validated. This is a hinderence.
I want to be able to trigger a function to update the form view with out having to fill in any information yet.
Stuff like, if i want to add multiple products to a page from a dropdown list but do not want to cause the form to post back, how do I do that?
You have several options, but your question is not yet clear. What controls should not cause postbacks?
Most controls have a AutoPostback property which you can set to false(although this is default for the most)
Another option is to use HTML controls instead which don't post back to the server
You can also set CausesValidation to false
You could use ValidationGroups to prevent validation for different controls
u can simply use HTML contols like this one
<input type="Button">value</input>
this wont post back
You can use ajax library control to prevents auto post back. In ajax library there is one control **Update panel you put your some controls only which require post back and other which have not you put out side update panel...
Related
I'm trying to build a very specific search page for a project and I'm having lot of trouble dealing with multiple postbacks invoked by dynamically-generated controls on a single page.
The page has to work like this:
There is a single checkbox, "Detailed search", that causes a postback on checking/unchecking.
When detailed search is not active, a simple grid with contents and buttons is displayed. Nothing special.
When detailed search is active, N checkboxes must be generated from some dynamic data, that represent the sections where you want the search to happen. Below the checkboxes, an AJAX-enabled tab control will appear, initially with no tab pages.
When checking one of the section checkboxes, a postback will occur. After the postback, data will be searched in the section selected by the user, then a new tab page containing a grid view of results and the name of the section will be added to the tab control. If the checkbox is unchecked, the tab page will disappear from the control, again, after a postback.
Now, the issue is that pretty much everything has to be generated dynamically, and that pretty much everything is connected to something else.
First issue: dealing with the "Detailed search" checkbox. Sounds easy, doesn't it? My initial idea was to set Page.Viewstate["DetailedSearchEnabled"] to true or false during the check/uncheck event handler, then create controls dynamically checking the value of DetailedSearchEnabled during Page_Load.
Nope. The postback event-handling happens between Page_Load and Page_LoadComplete. It would take an additional refresh for things to work as intended.
<< Then I'll just generate the controls on Page_LoadComplete! >>
Nope. Those controls need event handling as well, and if they're generated after Page_Load they will not be wired up correctly.
A possible solution would be generating everything in advance, on Page_Load, and only hiding/showing controls on Page_LoadComplete. But that is inefficient, and one important point of this search page is that only the minimum amount of controls should be generated.
The difficulty of this task seems to come from the way event wiring and the page life cycle work.
Surely there must be a better way of approaching this problem.
First issue: dealing with the "Detailed search" check box.
The correct approach (if you want to use page post-backs) is as follows:
In the CheckChanged event handler, save the value of the Checked property to ViewState["DetailedSearchEnabled"]. If the value is true, add the dynamic check boxes to the page. If the value is false, find and remove them.
Override LoadViewState. After calling base.LoadViewState, re-create the dynamic check boxes and wire up their events if ViewState["DetailedSearchEnabled"] is true. Note that neither Page_Load nor Page_LoadComplete is the appropriate place to do this.
Yes, you should create the dynamic check boxes at two points in the page life cycle. I recommend a helper method.
In general, your event handlers should add or remove just the dynamic controls (if any) affected by those particular events, but LoadViewState should re-create all dynamic controls that existed from the previous page request. You must store enough information in view state for LoadViewState to do so.
My answer to this other question demonstrates how to add and remove dynamic controls. You may want to use it as a reference.
Sounds to me like you should be using a CheckBoxList control to handle your dynamic checkboxes. You can add an remove items to the CheckBoxList during your post back and not have to worry about dynamically adding/removing actual controls/events to the form.
Here is a link to the msdn:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14atsyf5(v=vs.85).aspx
Here is some sample code:
Protected void Button1_Click (object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
CheckBoxList.Items.Add(new ListItem("TextValue1", "Value1"));
CheckBoxList.Items.Add(new ListItem("TextValue2", "Value2"));
}
If all else fails, you could still fall back on the quick-and-dirty old-fashioned ASP way.
Use Response.Write or <%...%> to generate your dynamic controls as plain old HTML (simple form fields, e.g. <input type="checkbox" name="foo" value="1" />).
Make sure you have a form field for every piece of information you may need after the postback(s). If necessary, use hidden form fields to 're-post' values across subsequent postbacks.
After postback, retrieve the values of the controls with the Request object.
Use those values to adjust the generation of controls as you see fit.
You should be able to do all of this in Page_Load. The advantage is total freedom. The disadvantage is total freedom to make a big mess of your aspx. So you may want to migrate all this dirty code out of your aspx, and into a custom-made control, which you can then add to your aspx.
When generating your own HTML, be careful not to introduce XSS vulnerabilities. Use HtmlEncode where necessary.
As you suggested yourself, there is a better way to tackle it.
If I was in the same situation, I would create web methods for interacting with the page, and use client side to do the UI. I'm currently working mostly with angular JS, although it does come with a learning curve. You could use ng-hide/ng-show to bind to the checkbox event to display the detailed search. When the n number of checkboxes needs to be displayed, you can then just fill them in with ng-repeat, for each of the items you need to display, after a check/uncheck you can dynamically populate new controls etc. through web method calls if extra data is needed.
Pure ASP postbacks are quite clunky from my experience, and not really suited for building a maintainable dynamic UI.
Instead of making so many postbacks, it would be better to use jquery and ajax calls to load the controls as needed and then attach events to it or you can even use UpdatePnael for that. Help Links:
https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/asp.net/ajax-basics-with-jquery-in-asp.net/
http://encosia.com/using-jquery-to-directly-call-aspnet-ajax-page-methods/
I have a Web User Control that I need to add to a page simply in order to add it to an HtmlForm so I can send an email with this User Control, however, I do not need this Control to appear on the page, I just need it to fill with data so I can send this email, and then be removed so it does not appear on the page.
Currently I have tried:
myControl c = new myControl();
c.InitializeAsUserControl(Page);
c.fillInfo(data);
//add to email form and send email
yet this adds the control to the current page on post back once the email has been sent and a confirmation message
I have also tried
myControl c = (myControl)Page.LoadControl("~/filename.ascx");
//send email
Page.Controls.Remove(c);
yet this also renders the control on the page and does not remove it. I have tried to add it to a panel and set Visible to false, but unfortunately this does not work either. If I simply create a new myControl() without rendering on page or calling LoadControl I get exceptions thrown when fillInfo is called when it tries to modify asp:labels in the User Control saying that the objects are null or not instantiated.
Which part of the page cycle are you loading and unloading the controls? To work properly it needs to be done in Page_Init. It's a common mistake to do it in Page_Load. If it is added anywhere else other than Page_Init it won't be added to the ViewState correctly and problems will ensue.
Rather than unload - I would add it to a Panel and set Visibility to false. Could be the reason that isn't working for you at the moment is that the control is being added at the wrong part of the page cycle and isn't being added to ViewState correctly.
Could that be your problem?
I suggest reading the entire TRULY UNDERSTANDING DYNAMIC CONTROLS series. To successfully use dynamic controls with postbacks, viewstate, bindings, and the other WebForms features, you really have to know the page and control lifecycles and their interactions inside out.
When you load and set ViewState depends on the cycle. ViewState is loaded between Page_Init and Page_Load, so the control has to be in Page_Init. However, any processing based on auto-loaded ViewState, needs to go in Page_Load. Where/when ViewState is enabled depending on the control hierarchy can also affect this. I suggest you read that guide above in depth if you really want it to work. Or, you'll have to post your entire control code and its use in a page for us to tell you which parts you are missing or have in the wrong part of the page lifecycle.
I've made dynamic controls work, but 99% of the time, unless the control is extremely trivial, it's easier to find a different solution than it is to make sure all the interactions work correctly with dynamic control creation.
I've a container (RadDockZone - Telerik), and inside it, a textbox field with an "Asp:RequiredFieldValidator", which makes it mandatory. Every time that I work with AJAX operations, the entire container is "reloaded", including the RequiredFieldValidator. This makes the ValidationSummary show the same error message twice, until the page is completely reloaded (I'm using RadAjaxManager to solve the AJAX operations).
So, how can I "don't reload" a specific control (in this case, the RequiredFieldValidator) using C#?
Regards!
If you place the following in page load if(page.Isvalid) the required field validator will be fired once after submitting that form. The message will not be displayed twice.
If you do not include the textbox (or its wrapping containers) in the list of controls updated by the ajax manager, the textbox and the respective required validator should not be updated on ajax requests and the error message should not be visualized.
You should use validation groups. This lets you group all of your validation controls into a group. Then put this same validation group on your submit button and those validation controls will only validate when that particular button is clicked.
Property is assigned on the validation control and button using the ValidationGroup property.
Thomasvdb's suggestion of setting CausesValidation to false also might be a good way to do it.
I'm adding a dynamically built set of checkboxes to an asp.net page from the code behind with something like this in a recursive fashion:
pnlPageAccessList.Controls.Add(myCheckboxControl);
The controls show up fine on the page, but they don't show up when I view source, nor can I access them from the code behind.
If I add the controls in the on_init method, they work. But I have some business rules driving changes to the list of controls itself that require I fire the add method elsewhere.
Has anyone seen this before? I'm away from work so I can't copy the exact code.
I have two terrible ideas for how to get it working. One involves some jQuery and a set of hidden controls holding a big array of integers; the other is run the method on_init AND on my other events so the controls at least show up. Both smell like ugly hacks. The second one I suspect won't work to read the values out of the checkboxes.
On the server side the page is recreated from scratch every postback, so if you add any controls dynamically, you have to re-add them on every postback.
As you add the controls at runtime they are not known at compile time, so there is no variables declared for the controls in the Page object. If you want to access the controls you either have to keep the reference from when you create the controls, or locate them in the Controls collection where you put them.
If you can set the ID for the checkbox controls you can use the FindControl method from code behind to retrieve the control instances.
#Anero is right that you can add an ID and use FindControl.
You can also use a checkbox list, and add checkboxes to that list. Then they're already in a predefined control in your markup and code-behind.
You don't say where the method has to be fired, but once they're added dynamically, they do have to be added on every postback. You probably have a little more flexibility than just adding them at the Init event, as long as you stay aware of where things like validation occurs (if it matters in this case), or where you want to handle the checkbox contents. You can defer as late as PreRender for getting checkbox content.
Well, looks like I'm going to have to do it clientside. Thanks for the answers. I'd be able to do it On_Init, but doing it clientside with a hidden control is gonna save me a lot of overhead and be more flexible moving forward.
If anyone's curious, here's the jQuery for finding all the checked checkboxes and putting their value attribute into a hidden control in a comma delimited list:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
$('[id*=PagesPanel]').find(':checkbox').click(function () {
$('[id*=PagesPanel]').find(':checked').each(function () {
$('[id*=lblHiddenPageArray]').append($(this).val() + ", ");
});
});
});
</script>
I am writing a survey generating system in asp.net. i asked an ealier question about the best way to create controls that can be passed about as variables. This was problematic with user controls so i was advised to use custom controls and a quick way to do this was to inherit from the panel control and just add a bunch of standard controls the the controls collection by overriding the CreateChildControls method. This way i could create my "survey" controls,which are basically Questions in the survey. THe question controls are then dynamically added to the page. This all works well but know i have come to the point that i want to try and retrieve the values from these controls and i seem to be lost in a nether world of of viewstates and page lifecycles. I can ensure that the dynamically added text boxes have a known ID, however even if i add the parent control in the page init handler the CreateChildControls method does not run until after until after the viewstate is loaded. I cannot work out how to retreive the values from these text boxes.
You can call the EnsureChildControls method on the init handler of your control to ensure CreateChildControls is called before the ViewState is loaded.
You certainly seem to be doing this the hard way. TextBox values are not saved in the Viewstate, they are posted in the request.
Why aren't you using a UserControl here? So you can "pass" it somewhere? what exactly are you trying to do?