Related question: Get All Web Controls of a Specific Type on a Page
In the question above I asked how I can get all controls, works like a charm but something just doesn't quite fit so I thought it might be me. I have the following code but it's not manipulating the controls on the page but in my theory it should work.
List<DropDownList> allControls = new List<DropDownList>();
ControlEnhancer.GetControlList<DropDownList>(Page.Controls, allControls);
foreach (DropDownList childControl in allControls)
{
foreach (ListItem li in childControl.Items)
{
li.Attributes.Add("title", li.Text);
}
childControl.Attributes.Add("onmouseover", "this.title=this.options[this.selectedIndex].title");
}
Thats the code, GetControlList() code you can get from the related question which shows how it gets all controls, its just my manipulation. I am trying to get all dropdownlist listitems and add a title to them so I can have a tooltip.
It's a quick fix for IE8 and below which cuts of long text in drop down boxes.
Page_Load happens often too soon; Page_PreRender is the last moment before the page's HTML is actually rendered for the browser and in many cases is the best place to set attributes on user controls.
This because during the web form (page) life cycle there are other events in the page (and in the user controls contained in the page...) which sometimes remove/replace/overwrite (really) those attributes so the only way you can get those attributes to the browser is to append them after all other life cycle events have been fired and handled, in the Page_PreRender.
Actually, even PreRender might be too early in some cases (e.g. you could have DropDownList controls added to the control tree during databinding of controls that use DataSourceID).
There are two further events that might be more appropriate:
PreRenderComplete. At this point, all controls are created and the page is ready to render.
SaveStateComplete. Occurs after view state and control state have been saved. Any changes you make here won't be persisted to view state.
In your example (adding client-side attributes), I'd use the SaveStateComplete event to avoid unnecessary view state bloat.
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 am building a custom master page type control i.e. sort of like a datagrid but should be easier to add custom functionality into it. It's going great but part of the desired functionality is to have a paging control that switches on and off and part of that control would be a textbox that displays the current page number and on TextChanged redirects to the new page of the dataset.
The problem I'm having is that technically the textbox which has its event fired is embedded in a control that is embedded in the control you actually put on the page sort of like
Page
|
Display Control
|
Paging Control
|
Textbox
Buried all the way down there the event is not firing. Worse the postback javascript isn't even being written onto the page (Nothing on the page posts back so far this is the only bit that really needs to).
I've been trawling around Google for quite a while now and picked up that I need to implement INamingContainer (done) and I need to add the control into the page's control tree (is Pre_Init too late for that? When's a good time to Add the Control to the page?) then the event should fire, apparently. But I've been unable to find an example of best practice on this there are quite a few near misses where people are having button angst but this isn't a button.
So can anyone point me in the direction of getting a control embedded in a control embedded in a control added to a page to behave properly?
You need INamingContainer only if you plan to add more than one instance of your custom control to the same page. What it does is enabling unique id generation so you don't end up with controls with the same ID. I recommend you inherit from CompositeControl when creating your custom control.
Pre_Init is not too late. Actually it is pretty early considering the lifecycle. You can instantiate custom controls and add them to the live controls collection in a lot of places. I would recommend you do it in Page_Init (before viewstate is loaded) or Page_Load(after view state is loaded). Even if you add it later in the page lifecycle the control will catch up in events.
To subscribe to events of child controls you can use the FindControl method:
MyControl myControl = Page.FindControl("MyControl1");
TextBox textBox = myControl.FindControl("TextBox1") as TextBox;
The answer was a combination of the above answer and the comment on the original question. The vital thing to get the event to happen is to make sure that your controls (parent and child) inherit from CompositeControl and INamingContainer e.g.
public partial myControl:CompositeControl,INamingContainer
etc...
Then you override your composite control's CreateChildControls() method and create your controls and do the wire up there. This will ensure correct bubbling. and mean that the event handling takes place within your comoposite control...
I want to make use of "complex" usercontrols with more than one control element within. It's the same control I will reuse in the list, and I have a PlaceHolder control for it already.
I can add the control with LoadControl(path to .ascx) - no problem.
I can through my custom properties get/set access the embedded Labels, too, so I can initialize each control perfectly.
But when adding LinkButtons, I get into trouble/problems.
When I click the button, I do get a "submit" of the page rendering the controls; but the control's own button event does not seem to fire (or at least PageLoad on the parent page seems to fire first?) - I can't figure out where my event goes or where to look for a name/ID or parameter for this button.
How come or what am I doing wrong here?
I've made a "fake button" now by using a label more with a "hardcoded A HREF" with an ID in the URL, but I would like to learn what event I need to catch and where or how to init the button, because I want to be able to use "default ASP.NET" controls for these usercontrols (hopefully without too much patchwork-coding)...
The only reason that events get "lost" is because your controls are not being recreated in such a manner that ASP.Net can associate the event with the control after the postback. It does so through the use of the ID property.
In other words, you're doing one of three things wrong:
1) You're assigning the ID's of your linkbuttons differently during the creating phase in Init after the postback
2) You're creating your linkbuttons dynamically using code, but you're doing it after the Init phase of the page lifecycle, so that your controls do not participate in ViewState.
3) You're re-binding the datasource of the parent control containing the linkbuttons on every postback. Use if (!IsPostBack) to prevent rebinding it every time.
Without seeing your code I can't give anything more specific than that unfortunately.
I ran into a problem recently when using a repeater that I was adding dynamic controls into and although I've got a workaround that does functionally exactly what I want it to do, I'd like to know if there is a better way to do it for my understanding. I've been working with ASP.NET for about 6 months now, and everytime I think I've got the page lifecycle/viewstate completely sussed something crops up that I can't answer.
I was creating a form where users could register their interest for an event, and register for multiple people.
The aspx went something like:
<asp:Repeater ...>
<bunch of formatting and always there controls like firstname/lastname/address>
<asp:PlaceHolder ...>
<dynamic controls for workshop selection go here>
</asp:PlaceHolder>
</asp:Repeater>
An event can have workshops that the user can register for, and the availability of the workshops is dependant on the date that they choose to go to the event on. The availability of the workshops is dependent on the date, so they can't choose the workshops until they've selected a date.
Anyway the dynamic controls that I'm adding are basically a bunch of literals and a bunch of radio button groups.
I started off by adding the controls in the ItemDataBound event handler, but when saving my repeater items back to my delegate list the ViewState of the radio buttons was never updated. All the fields that were referenced in the ItemTemplate were handled fine, but not the radio buttons I was adding dynamically.
I tried to use the ItemCreated event instead, adding my buttons there, but that didn't seem to make any difference. In the end I settled on a workaround which was based off of this. Basically I'm just outputing the HTML input fields in a literal and reading them back from the request.
It all works perfectly now, and I'm happy with the functionality, it just seems really dirty to have to output the radio buttons as HTML inputs directly rather than use a server side control. Does anyone have a clue about why the ViewState wasn't being restored properly?
Just to be clear, the controls were recreated in the same order everytime, with the ID properly set. I'm using dynamic controls all over the place and they're working fine, I just can't get them to work in this case when I'm adding them inside a repeater.
//more clarification
I can't create these controls in Page.Init as the user selects the date which causes a postback and I have to wait for the viewstate of that control to load before I create the dynamic controls.
You're creating (or re-creating) the controls when the repeater is bound to its data source. If this happens after the ViewState has been loaded by the page, the ViewState won't be available to the dynamically-created controls.
Check you're binding your repeater early enough - Page.Init is OK; Page.Load is too late.
It is worth noting that Radiobuttons controls do not work 'out of the box' in repeater controls. Repeater controls inherit the INamingContainer interface which ensures all rendered html controls have unique name attributes. As radio buttons use the name attribute to group themselves this means you will not be able to create groups of radio buttons i.e. setting the GroupName property will not have the desired effect as the Repeater will override this and create unique names for each RadioButton.