onclick event of dynamically added button - c#

I need to add onclick event to some dynamically added button, but when i click the button, the onclick event is not fired. I saw some solutions to this, like link which says I should create the controls and attach the event on page_init or page_load every time there is a request, but, will this make the website very slow if I have a lot of controls to add?

Yes, you must recreate dynamic controls if you want to access them and have their events fire on postback.
If you have so many controls on a page that your site is slow, you have a design issue. Rethink your design so you do not have so many controls on one page (perhaps several pages/tabs?).

Allocate memory like below to button in Init Page Event
Button b = new Button();
b.Click += new EventHandler(b_Click);
void b_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
As told by #Oded, this approach can create Design issue.
When you have a Div like control IN YOUR PAGE which is supposed to consume this Button, then you can GIVE CSS styles to give it proper alignment and proper placement.
You have two option.
Add control at Runtime
Add control at Design Time
Definitely, site will go slow in case of many controls in both cases. As both options will take memory BUT, By End of the Page Life Cycle, all the controls will get disposed.

Related

Viewstate and controls in ASP.NET

I posted a question a couple of days ago about viewstate and after running some tests I have come to some conclusions/results. Based on these results I have a few questions as to how someone would do certain things.
Here are the results of my tests that I ran:
If usercontrolA is loaded from OnInit of a Page, then his viewstate will be available in OnLoad. All other controls that usercontrolA loads from it's OnInit, will have their viewstate ready in their OnLoad.
If usercontrolA is loaded from OnLoad of a Page, then his viewstate will be available in OnPreRender. All other controls that usercontrolA loads from it's OnLoad, will have their viewstate available in their OnPreRender.
If usercontrolA is loaded from an event (Example: button click. Events fire after OnLoad and before OnPreRender) of a Page, then his viewstate will not be available. All other controls that usercontrolA loades will not have their viewstate available.
So in a perfect world you would always load all controls using situation #1, so that their viewstate is available on their OnLoad. Unfortunately when you need to load a control from a button click or from a OnLoad, is there no way for control to get its viewstate before OnPreRender stage?
I have read a bunch of articles on viewstate and thought I understood it, but working on my current application which loads usercontrols which load other usercontrols, I am having a real hard time with being able to get viewstate on my leaf (last in the chain) usercontrol.
Any suggestions and/or links are appreciated.
I don't think I can add anything that this article doesn't cover.
Look specifically at the Life Cycle Events section.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/ms178472.aspx
It is accepted practice to load dynamic controls in OnInit, so that they get the full control lifecycle. I'm not sure I particularly understand your situation though - if you're loading a control based on a button click, why would it have viewstate at that point? On the next OnInit, you should load the control again (I usually use a page level Viewstate item to track that a particular control needs to be loaded) so that it can restore from Viewstate. Something like:
class Default : Page {
enum LoadedControl { Textbox, Label, GridView }
override OnInit() {
if (IsPostback) {
var c = Viewstate["LoadedControl"] as LoadedControl;
if (c != null) LoadDynamicControl(c);
}
}
void Button_Click() {
var c = (LoadedControl)Enum.Parse(typeof(LoadedControl), ddl.SelectedValue);
LoadDynamicControl(c);
}
void LoadDynamicControl(LoadedControl c) {
switch (c) {
case LoadedControl.Textbox:
this.ph.Controls.Add(new Textbox());
break;
...
}
ViewState["LoadedControl"] = c;
}
}
The slightly more interesting bit, though, is that according to catch-up events - it really shouldn't matter. The callstack for dynamically loading a control looks something like:
Control.Controls.Add(Control)
Control.AddedControl(Control)
Control.LoadViewStateRecursive(object)
Control.LoadViewState(object)
Taking Label as an example, it overrides LoadViewState and pulls it's Text property directly from ViewState. TextBox is similar. So, by my reading, it should be OK to add at any point, and then access ViewState. That doesn't seem to be jive with my experience, though, so further investigation seems warranted.
I'm surprised but interested about your results. When I work with dynamic controls I always add them in Page_Init. Anything else doesn't work. But you are right - how do you do it if you are adding them in response to a button click.
The only way I have found is by examining Request.Form("__EVENTTARGET") collection at PageInit. This contains the control ID of the control that has triggered the postback so for instance a button click. It will of course be qualified by the naming containers it appears in. Once you have identified the 'event' by this method you can add the controls you want.
It is of course all a bit hacky but it's the only way I found of doing these things. It does work.
It's interesting that the ViewState is available on PreRender if you add the controls at Page_Load. But as the above link indicates it too late to help you then. The controls state is rehydrated during the load cycle. If it's not there then your control state or dynamic controls are just going to disappear.
Did you try to use LoadComplete event?
Use this event for tasks that require that all other controls on the page be loaded.
This is fired after PageLoad and all events (ButtonClick, etc.), so your UserControls are are loaded in ButtonClick events, and in LoadComplete their ViewState is already initialized.

Loading ASP.NET user control at run time

I have an ASP.NET user control with a button, and I want to add it to the page when the user clicks a button from another user control. I have created an event handler to the first user control to handle it from the page and add the second user control to a page. Everything is working normally, but the button on the second user control doesn't respond to the event.
I place the second control on RadAjaxPanel
Note: When I add the second user control at design time its working fine.
All dynamically created controls should be added by the end of Page_Init (though sometimes you can get away with them added by the end of Page_Load).
If you're only adding them based on a button click event then you've done this in the event handers which fire AFTER Page_Init and Page_Load in the lifecycle - This is why your events don't fire and why it works fine when you add at design time.
This is because when a button is clicked on the second user control - the whole page lifecycle starts again. The page goes through Page_Load and Page_Init first and your control doesn't get loaded here. So, when the page lifecycle handles the "handle postback events" part, the control no longer actually exists, so the event doesn't fire.
Conversely, when you add at design time, the control exists in Page_Init and Page_Load so is able to handle the postback events from the user control because it already exists in the control tree - if this makes sense.
You need to think how you can restructure so they're added by the time Page_Load has finished at the very latest or it won't work. Without code samples or more detail it's hard to suggest exactly how you might do this. One possibility would be to set it visible instead of loading it outright - but if the control does some 'heavy lifting' on load like database hits or API calls then this might not be suitable for you.
I did something similar. What I did was to load some controls dynamically based on a selection from a DropDownList. If you have a method which loads the control for you, let's call it LoadControls(), then you can do something like this:
DropDownList_Click {
ViewState("LoadControls") = true;
LoadControls()
}
By setting the ViewState variable, you can then indicate Page_Load to load the controls on future postbacks:
Page_Load {
if (ViewState("LoadControls") == "true")
{
LoadControls();
}
}
This has the effect of then loading the control on-the-fly when the event first happens, and then at future times in the lifecycle.

How to ignore viewstate of a previous request for particular control?

I am dynamically generating controls, and sometimes I want to create a control and have it ignore the viewstate. For example, sometimes the user has clicked a button indicating they want a different form loaded, so the control tree I generate on postback is different from the original control tree. This is fine, except when I call Controls.Add then it tries to load the viewstate form the old controls into the new controls if the control tree structure is similar, and I want them to instead ignore that viewstate(and also ignore the postback values for input controls as well).
Can I do something like set the IDs of the controls or something that would allow me to conditionally prevent them from getting the viewstate/postback data of the previous request?
Edit: If I let the user of the control load the form on demand in postback handler, the postback data is not applied when I call Controls.Add(this really seems like a flaw in ASP.NET, because I would think if you're going to apply viewstate data "after the fact" through Controls.Add, it'd seem you would then apply the postback data automatically as well after the viewstate data is loaded). The real problem I run up against is my control is very dynamic, but the user of my control can't really tell it what to do until their postback handler fires, because one of the things a user can do is select different forms to be loaded via some link buttons. So it's not until the postback handler runs that they know what the uesr requested, and thus can ask my control to load a certain form. So I have to ask them to do convaluted things like saved the formID that identifies the last form to a session variable, and in OnInit they tell my form what the old formID was via a property. My control then loads the form in OnLoad so that it can consume the viewstate and postback data, and later in the programmer's postback handler, they can choose to clear the form and load a different one if they want.
Edit2: FYI Generating IDs for each control unique to the form works great, so I thought I could eliminate the pointless loading of the old form until the programmer requests a form be loaded in his postback handler. But as I mentioned above, what I found was that loading the form after postback data handling has occurred means that data is lost. Whereas viewstate gets loaded via Contorls.Add, playing catch up in the page lifecycle, it seems postback data does not! So it seems I am defeated at every turn.
You're going to avoid problems if you play along with the control lifetime. Basically, whenever you have a control that renders, it's best to ensure that control is recreated on the next postback, even if you aren't going to need it anymore. The first goal of a postback should be to restore the previous state -- only THEN do you make changes to it.
I described it best in this answer:
Wrong state in Server Controls with same ID's when dynamically adding UserControl to UpdatePanel
Giving the controls different ID's would certainly prevent ViewState from being loaded, that would be one way.
You may also be able to manipulate the ViewStateMode property of your controls by setting it to "Disabled". I'm not sure if this prevents it from loading (it definitely prevents them from saving viewstate), but you could try it.
Have you tried just calling controls.clear prior to adding in the new ones?
UPDATE
I'm starting to believe that you are generating the controls at the wrong point in the page lifecycle. What is your flow?
You must be generating dynamic controls on postback in pageload:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
--Generate Dynamic Controls--
}
You need to do it like:
protected override void OnInitComplete(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnInitComplete(e);
}
protected void OnInit()
{
--Generate Dynamic Controls--
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}

Generating event on .cs page by double click on the design view of .aspx page

I am developing a web application in asp.net and c#, now in a particular aspx page whenever I doubleClick(design view) on a button or on a drop down list, instead of going to
public void btn_click event or DropDown_SelectedIndexChanged event, the cursor points to protected void Page_Load only. Strange!! any remedy?
Not a fix for your VS misbehaving, if it is doing so. But this will help you wire up your events and perhaps notice anomalous event assignments:
Select the control in question, right-click>Properties, switch to the 'events' tab (lightning bolt) and either enter the name of a method or simply double click the empty space to generate an event handler in your codebehind.
This is also where you will see if Page_Load is already, for whatever reason, assigned to the event you are having trouble with.
HTH
May be both your btn_click event and DropDown_SelectedIndexChanged event delegates have Page_Load as the method. Check your events tab for button and dropdown.
this happens to me when I have my project running in debug mode and forget to stop it before editing my code. Long shot, but sometimes the obvious things are the things we overlook :)

ASP .NET Button event handlers do not fire on the first click, but on the second click after a PostBack

Background: I am customizing an existing ASP .NET / C# application. It has it's own little "framework" and conventions for developers to follow when extending/customizing its functionality. I am currently extending some of it's administrative functionality, to which the framework provides a contract to enforce implementation of the GetAdministrationInterface() method, which returns System.Web.UI.Control. This method is called during the Page_Load() method of the page hosting the GUI interface.
Problem: I have three buttons in my GUI, each of which have been assigned an Event Handler. My administration GUI loads up perfectly fine, but clicking any of the buttons doesn't do what I expect them to do. However, when I click them a second time, the buttons work.
I placed breakpoints at the beginning of each event handler method and stepped through my code. On the first click, none of the event handlers were triggered. On the second click, they fired.
Any ideas?
Example of Button Definition (within GetAdministrationInterface)
public override Control GetAdministrationInterface()
{
// more code...
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Text = "Click Me!";
btn.Click += new EventHandler(Btn_Click);
// more code...
}
Example of Event Handler Method Definition
void Btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Do Something
}
Page_Load Method that calls GetAdministrationInterface
protected void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsAsync)
{
List<AdministrationInterface> interfaces = <DATABASE CALL>;
foreach(AdministrationInteface ai in interfaces)
{
placeholderDiv.Controls.Add(ai.GetAdministrationInterface());
}
}
}
Good grief! I knew it was going to be something this stupid. Purely my fault of course and my lack of knowledge in ASP .NET.
After doing a multitude of Google searches and eventually being blocked by Google on suspicion of being a bot running automated scripts, I managed to squeeze in one last search in and stumbled across this article. Already at the point of giving up, I tried my best to read the article without skipping 10 lines at a time or looking for pretty pictures. In the section titled Assigning IDs to Dynamically Created Controls, I read these magical and most joyful words:
If you view the source HTML before you click the not-working button and after you have clicked it, you will notice a small difference. The buttons have different HTML IDs before and after the post-back. I got ctl04 and ctl05 before the post-back and ctl02 and ctl03 after the post-back.
ASP.NET button recognizes events by checking for a value for its ID in the Request.Form collection. (In truth it happens differently and controls do not check Request.Form collection by themselves. Page passes post data to controls by their IDs and to controls that are registered to be notified about post data). ASP.NET does not fire the Click event, because the button's ID has changed between the post-backs. The button you have clicked and the button you see after are different buttons for ASP.NET.
Sure enough, when I viewed the HTML the first time, my button had the ID ctl04$ctl36. After clicking the button, my button had the ID ctl04$ctl33.
So there you have it! All I had to do was set the ID on the buttons and presto! My event handlers are now being called!
Sample Solution:
public override Control GetAdministrationInterface()
{
// more code...
Button btn = new Button();
btn.Text = "Click Me!";
// !!THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!!
btn.ID = "The_Bane_of_My_Existence";
// !!THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!!
btn.Click += new EventHandler(Btn_Click);
// more code...
}
What a great way to spend two days...
I had the same problem, but the accepted answer here was not causing it. I had a text box and a search button, and clicking the button the first time didn't perform the search. The event handler of the button wasn't being hit. But clicking the button a second time did trigger the event on the server. Here is why:
If you have an <asp:Textbox> with its AutoPostBack set to true, after typing in the text box and then moving to click a button, the text box causes a post-back immediately the moment it loses focus. So the click even of the button doesn't count (the page is already posted-back as a result of the text box's event). That's why when you click the button a second time, it works because the text box is not involved in the second post-back.
Set the AutoPostBackproperty of the <asp:Textbox> to false to fix this issue.
A quick fix is to set an ID to the ASCX control your are loading on a page. For example, if your code is like this:
UserControl SpecsControl = (UserControl)Page.LoadControl("../name.ascx");
SpecsContainer.Controls.Add(SpecsControl);
then you need to add a line (before Controls.Add):
SpecsControl.ID = "Aribtrary_Name";
Then your handler method is fired at the first click.
I was facing the same problem. My button froze after my first click. For me this annoying problem got solved when I disabled the button's EnableViewState attribute.
For me it was the UpdatePanel , my Button and my TextBox were both inside an UpdatePanel , so when I post-back , it caused some weird behavior . It took it outside of the UpdatePanel and that fixed it .
Even i had the same problem. the cause was "localhost:1656/secure/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f".
if the request contain %2f as query string, the first post will not be succeeded even though "%2f" is representing "/".
one way to avoid this by having a condition check in pageload
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string queryString = Request.QueryString.ToString();
if(queryString == "ReturnUrl=%2f")
{
Response.Redirect("/secure/login.aspx");
}
}
Whilst its hard to know exactly without seeing the full Page_load method it does smell a little bit like the event handlers are not hooking up until the page is reloaded.
eg:
if (IsPostBack) {
// Add handlers here ...
}
I had same problem. And I searched on internet i didnt find a solution. After that i found sample code and I used it. It worked for me. Web site link is below:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/abhikumarvatsa/calling-an-Asp-Net-C-Sharp-method-web-method-using-javascript/

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