Programmatically adding ASP.net User Control to UpdatePanel

Hi All, I got a real doozy here. I have read hundreds upon hundreds of forum posts and found numerous others who have replicated this problem, but have yet to find a solution. Through testing I have been able to find the cause of the problem, and will describe it here first textually and then through a code example.

The purpose of what I am trying to do is to create a postback-free web application through the use of ASP.net AJAX UpdatePanels and User Controls. When programmatically adding a User Control to a web page through a normal postback everything works fine. All the controls within the user control are registered properly in the page and any update panels included in the user control also work properly. HOWEVER, if instead of using a full postback you use an UpdatePanel and a partial page update of the UpdatePanel the controls do not get registered with the page and events from them do not fire (for instance, a button click event never hits the event breakpoint).

Because the very same user control works fine if loaded in a full postback or dynamically added from a namespace works fine, I can be relatively sure that it only is trouble when loading via a partial page update into an UpdatePanel. I load the control via the LoadConrol method and then add it to the page via a PlaceHolder control. Theoretically, adding the User Control to the PlaceHolder should register itself and it's controls and events with the page, but it does not.

The following code sample is a UpdatePanel-free page using a user control that works, later I will show the same code with an UpdatePanel that does not.

I think I need to figure out how to register the controls and their events with the page without going through a full page postback. Any suggestions??

This example works as expected:
Default.aspx:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head runat="server">

    <title>Untitled Page</title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

        <div>

            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="UCPlaceHolder" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>

        </div>

    </form>    

</body>

</html>

Default.aspx.cs:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
 
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page 

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        Control ctl = LoadControl("~/UserControlDemo.ascx");

        ctl.ID = "UC1";

        this.UCPlaceHolder.Controls.Add(ctl);

    }

}

UserControlDemo.ascx:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 <%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="UserControlDemo.ascx.cs" Inherits="UserControlDemo" %>

<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Display from UC" OnClick="Button1_Click" />&nbsp;<br />

<br />

<asp:Label ID="Content" runat="server" Text="Content"></asp:Label>

UserControlDemo.ascx.cs:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Collections;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
 
public partial class UserControlDemo : System.Web.UI.UserControl

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

    }

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        Content.Text = "Content Changed.";

    }

}

Now, consider this variation, where instead of loading the control in the PageLoad event, you do so programmatically via a button Click event. This does not work as it cause a full postback which refreshes the placeholder. Viewstate does not seem to be working in this case. (uses the same user control as the previous example)

Default.aspx:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head runat="server">

    <title>Untitled Page</title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

        <div>

            <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Load User Control" OnClick="Button1_Click" />&nbsp;

            <br />

            <br />

            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="UCPlaceHolder" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>

        </div>

    </form>    

</body>

</html>

Default.aspx.cs:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
 
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page 

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

    }

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        Control ctl = LoadControl("~/UserControlDemo.ascx");

        ctl.ID = "UC1";

        this.UCPlaceHolder.Controls.Add(ctl);

    }

}

To solve this postback problem, one would naturally want to use an UpdatePanel, like the following example. However this does not work as the controls do not seem to get registered with the page, and further nesting of user controls in UpdatePanels (to create a postback free app) are no better.

Default2.aspx:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default2.aspx.cs" Inherits="Default2" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">

    <title>Untitled Page</title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" EnablePartialRendering="true"></asp:ScriptManager>

    <div>

        <asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel2" runat="server">

            <ContentTemplate>

                <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Load User Control into UpdatePanel" OnClick="Button1_Click" />

            </ContentTemplate>

        </asp:UpdatePanel>

        <br />

        <asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server" UpdateMode="Conditional">

            <ContentTemplate>

                <asp:PlaceHolder ID="ContentPlaceHolder" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>

            </ContentTemplate>

            <Triggers>

                <asp:AsyncPostBackTrigger ControlID="Button1" />

            </Triggers>

        </asp:UpdatePanel>

    </div>

    </form>

</body>

</html>

Default2.aspx.cs:

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Collections;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
 
public partial class Default2 : System.Web.UI.Page

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {
 
    }

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        Control ctl = LoadControl("~/UserControlDemo.ascx");  //loads into the page

        ctl.ID = "UC1";

        this.ContentPlaceHolder.Controls.Add(ctl); //adds to page control tree (or at least it should)

    }

}

I know I can use the "visible" property of my controls to toggle them on and off a page to create a flicker free experience, however, my application is a database intensive app and I don't want the page running queries against the database unless I'm absolutely sure the user wants them. Rendering a 10 forms and keeping them hidden isn't a big deal, but running 10 queries that the user never wants to see is, otherwise I'd stick to that method, its works perfectly. Any suggestions? Or requests for clarification? Any help you can provide is much appreciated...

Jun 16 '07 #1

Subscribe Post Reply

33598

senaka

try this.... UpdatePanel.Controls.Add(control_name) instead of this.ContentTemplate.Controls.Add(control_name). Because, this refers to the page as a whole and not to your update panel.

the Visibility issue works well if your control is embedded inside a Panel... Therefore, if the panel is not visible, your controls wont get loaded.

Regards,
Senaka

Jun 16 '07 #2

ChrisCicc

try this.... UpdatePanel.Controls.Add(control_name) instead of this.ContentTemplate.Controls.Add(control_name). Because, this refers to the page as a whole and not to your update panel.

the Visibility issue works well if your control is embedded inside a Panel... Therefore, if the panel is not visible, your controls wont get loaded.

Regards,
Senaka

Hey Senaka,
thanks for your suggestion. No matter which combination of Controls.Add() I use it doesn't seem to make a difference as long as the User Control is added to a UpdatePanel. The control itself will load, but none of the controls or properties or events therein are accessible.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep using UpdatePanels, PlaceHolders, and User Controls to create a postback-free UI. Right now I'd have to settle for a postback on every page with only parts of the UI AJAXified.

Jun 16 '07 #3

Frinavale

9,735

Expert Mod 8TB

Hey Senaka,
thanks for your suggestion. No matter which combination of Controls.Add() I use it doesn't seem to make a difference as long as the User Control is added to a UpdatePanel. The control itself will load, but none of the controls or properties or events therein are accessible.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep using UpdatePanels, PlaceHolders, and User Controls to create a postback-free UI. Right now I'd have to settle for a postback on every page with only parts of the UI AJAXified.

I don't know if this can help you but have you thought about putting the UpdatePanel into your user control instead of adding your user control to the update panel?

-Frinny

Jun 17 '07 #4

ChrisCicc

I don't know if this can help you but have you thought about putting the UpdatePanel into your user control instead of adding your user control to the update panel?

-Frinny

Hey Frinny,
Thanks for the reply. Good suggestion, I have tried that, but it makes no difference whether the UpdatePanel is in the user control because even if it was the page wouldn't know it. It visually loads the user control, but does not programmatically register it's controls or events.

-chris

Jun 17 '07 #5

Frinavale

9,735

Expert Mod 8TB

Hey Frinny,
Thanks for the reply. Good suggestion, I have tried that, but it makes no difference whether the UpdatePanel is in the user control because even if it was the page wouldn't know it. It visually loads the user control, but does not programmatically register it's controls or events.

-chris

This is an interesting problem.
It seems to me that because you register a control with the page, and because the page is only rendered once, you might have an impossible task at hand....unless you do a postback to register the control with the page, but you don't want to do that. I believe you're going to have to re-think your system....

I'm interested to know how you solve this problem.

-Frinny

Jun 18 '07 #6

ChrisCicc

This is an interesting problem.
It seems to me that because you register a control with the page, and because the page is only rendered once, you might have an impossible task at hand....unless you do a postback to register the control with the page, but you don't want to do that. I believe you're going to have to re-think your system....

I'm interested to know how you solve this problem.

-Frinny

You hit the nail on the head. I can't believe that ASP.net AJAX has such a gaping hole in it, otherwise it's really an incomplete framework. Most other AJAX frameworks can do this, but I'd like to stay with the development ease of ASP.net AJAX. If I find a solution I'll pass it along!

Jun 18 '07 #7

amodi

Hi ChrisCicc,
I ran into the same problem, did you find the solution?
Thanks.

Nov 15 '09 #8

JWelch

I am so happy to finally find I am not the one with this problem. Did you find an appropriate solution yet? I have an update panel that loads a user control. The user control has an updatepanel containing a datalist. Outside of this updatepanel is an Add link. The Add link works great, but the "Remove" link tied to the datalist does not.

So - any solutions would be great to hear.

Many thanks!

Dec 8 '09 #9

Frinavale

9,735

Expert Mod 8TB

I just looked over the code posted in the original post and I realized that the original-poster is using the LoadControl method in the PageLoad event.

This could be causing all of the problems. Try moving this to the Page Init event instead.

http://bytes.com/topic/net/insights/...ntrols-asp-net

The ViewState contains state information about the control. If your dynamic control was a TextBox, the text that the user entered into the TextBox is loaded into the Server Side TextBox object when the ViewState is loaded for this dynamic TextBox happens.

Likewise, if you have a dynamic button and the user clicks the button, the button click event is detected when the ViewState is loaded for the button control.

If you do not instantiate your dynamic controls in the Page Init event then any events or other ViewState data will not properly be loaded and your code wont work as you expect it.

The crazy thing is that instantiating your dynamic controls elsewhere in the page life cycle will also work...but just not always.

Try this and let me know if it gets you anywhere.

-Frinny

Dec 8 '09 #10

JWelch

Yes, I had also seen this issue. I am using base classes for my user controls and my user controls are loading other usercontrols. Basically, we only want to load things onto the page when the user clicks for them.

I did find something interesting. If you register the user control on the page and then load it in via the placeholder, the events are fired just fine.

So the problem really is in relation to the controls being initialized fully prior to loading and using them.

Since we have a variety of controls we can be loading in depending on what was clicked, my end result will likely involve me setting the class property along with the control path for loading.

Two other important things are:
1) Make sure to always set an ID
2) Use Page.LoadControl when loading from base classes

I'll let you know what the final solution ends up being after it is well tested.

Dec 9 '09 #11

Frinavale

9,735

Expert Mod 8TB

I'll let you know what the final solution ends up being after it is well tested.

I'm looking forward to what you end up doing.

-Frinny

Dec 9 '09 #12

JWelch

I also forgot that you can register your usercontrols in the web.config in the <controls> section. While you wouldn't want to do this for a large number of controls, it does allow all pages to access these controls when needed. So, if you have a few controls that you need to load dynamically at different points, this is a good solution. I am only doing this for the 4 that I need access to for the async postbacks.

Using the web.config for is also good for things like headers and footers that every page uses. Just keep in mind that this slows down the initial start of the site vs. taking this time on the pages that use the controls so you should consider these tradeoffs.

I hope this is of help to others,

Jayme

Dec 10 '09 #13

quentez

Two other important things are:
1) Make sure to always set an ID
2) Use Page.LoadControl when loading from base classes

JWelch you saved my day !! I've been on this issue for 3 days now and this solved everything. I LOVE you man !

Feb 26 '10 #14

Ghayas

Hi JWelch ,
i have a vb file lets say abc.vb placed under app_code
i have defined <add tagPrefix="Custom" namespace="abc" />
in webconfig file under controls tag,
when i use it in my page its show an error that webconfig file is missing
what m i doing wrong,
thanks

Apr 28 '10 #15

Chirag Goel

JWelch ,quentez

I am on exactly same isuue.
I have a tab container with 4 tab panels.

In each tab panel i hv an update panel with a trigger to click a button and a placeholder for user control.

on tab click i am firing the trigger eevnt .. the control is getting loaded in the place holder..
But when i click on the next tab my usercontrol in the First tab disappear.

I hv also made sure that once the tab is loaedd then it won't fire a postback trigger.

Please help..

I want once the user control is loaded in the tab it will remain thier as it is .. no more posstbacks..

PLEASE HELP.. I am stuck here for days... :(

Sep 24 '10 #16

by: Martine | last post by:

Hi there! I have a problem with programmatically adding user controls to my mobile webforms. If I load my usercontrol programmatically (in the Page_Load), the object is instantiated, I have...

ASP.NET

Dynamically Adding User Control

by: ravi sankar | last post by:

Hi, U need to use a placeholder control and add the control to the placeholder. http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/081402-1.aspx regards, s.ravi sankar >-----Original Message-----

ASP.NET

Adding user control to a panel.

by: Marc Bishop | last post by:

i want to repeat a user control multiple times and add each instant to a panel. i know to add to the panel pnlProduct_Display.Controls.Add () i call my user control: <Products:List...

ASP.NET

adding user control programatically

by: francois | last post by:

Hi, I would like to add a USER control (not custom control) programmatically to my aspx page. I am using something like the following in my page_load code : * Bos.UserControls.HeaderFinance...

ASP.NET

Override Render - adding user control

by: John Hughes | last post by:

I'm trying to add a user control to a form via the pages render method and I get the following error : "Control 'Button1' of type 'Button' must be placed inside a form tag with runat=server" ...

ASP.NET

Error adding User control

by: malathyb | last post by:

Hi, I want to create a simple user control for the header and footer of my .aspx page. I've created the controls - it has simple html and no other server controls. When I try to include it on the...

.NET Framework

Dynamically Add User Control - Loads Twice

by: yohaas | last post by:

I am dynamically adding user control to a page using Controls.Add(control). It seems that the Page_Load as well as the other page rendering events (Init, PreRender etc...) get fired twice. I...

ASP.NET

Loading a User Control on an ASPX

by: C | last post by:

Hi, I have an ASP.NET Page. My page has a user control which is added to a panel programmatically. My user control has a series of dropdowns. When the user selects some values and clicks...

ASP.NET

Programmatically adding ASP.net User Control to UpdatePanel

by: ChrisCicc | last post by:

ASP / Active Server Pages

javascript in user control.

by: archana | last post by:

Hi all, i am having one user control. what i want is to add javascript which will gets called on button click of user control. but user control is not working if i add javascript in user...

ASP.NET

How to turn on java script in a villaon keypad mobile phone

by: Charles Arthur | last post by:

How do i turn on java script on a villaon, callus and itel keypad mobile phone

Java

Merging data from multiple Excel files

by: ryjfgjl | last post by:

In our work, we often receive Excel tables with data in the same format. If we want to analyze these data, it can be difficult to analyze them because the data is spread across multiple Excel files...

Data Management

Navigating the Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA)

by: BarryA | last post by:

What are the essential steps and strategies outlined in the Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) roadmap for aspiring data scientists? How can individuals effectively utilize this roadmap to progress...

Algorithms / Advanced Math

Looking to do Android software development, any suggestions? Is flutter better?

by: nemocccc | last post by:

hello, everyone, I want to develop a software for my android phone for daily needs, any suggestions?

General

Is that possible of reading the .csv file in column wise and the column have different lengths ?

by: Sonnysonu | last post by:

This is the data of csv file 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 the lengths should be different i have to store the data by column-wise with in the specific length. suppose the i have to...

C / C++

Changing the language in Windows 10

by: Hystou | last post by:

Most computers default to English, but sometimes we require a different language, especially when relocating. Forgot to request a specific language before your computer shipped? No problem! You can...

Windows Server

Problem With Comparison Operator <=> in G++

by: Oralloy | last post by:

Hello folks, I am unable to find appropriate documentation on the type promotion of bit-fields when using the generalised comparison operator "<=>". The problem is that using the GNU compilers,...

C / C++

Maximizing Business Potential: The Nexus of Website Design and Digital Marketing

by: jinu1996 | last post by:

In today's digital age, having a compelling online presence is paramount for businesses aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape. At the heart of this digital strategy lies an intricately woven...

Online Marketing

Discussion: How does Zigbee compare with other wireless protocols in smart home applications?

by: tracyyun | last post by:

Dear forum friends, With the development of smart home technology, a variety of wireless communication protocols have appeared on the market, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Each...

General

Programmatically adding ASP.net User Control to UpdatePanel

Similar topics