Parsing checkboxes in ASP.NET that are created dynamically

[Paul Johnson]

Hi,

I have a very simple page which uses jqueryui to create a couple of tabs.

Tab1 is for data entry. Really simple, a couple of text boxes, a dropdown list and a few buttons. It performs a sort on the data entered and bungs it into an SQL table.

Tab2 generates a table in the format

checkbox id sortdir data timetaken

This is generated dynamically like this

private void generateTable()
        {
            long timer = 0;
            int sort = 0;
            string data = "";
            SqlConnection sql = connect();
            SqlDataReader sqlr = null;
 
            for (int n = 1; n < getRows() + 1; ++n)
            {
                TableRow tRow = new TableRow();
                Table1.Rows.Add(tRow);
                using (SqlCommand sqlc = sql.CreateCommand())
                {
                    sqlc.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
                    sqlc.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ID", n);
                    sqlc.CommandText = "spReadData";
                    sql.Open();
                    sqlr = sqlc.ExecuteReader();
                    if (sqlr.Read())
                    {
                        timer = (long)sqlr["timetaken"];
                        sort = (int)sqlr["sortedby"];
                        data = (string)sqlr["sortedvalues"];
                    }
                    TableCell check = new TableCell();
                    tRow.Cells.Add(check);
                    System.Web.UI.WebControls.CheckBox cb = new CheckBox();
                    cb.ID = n.ToString();
                    check.Controls.Add(cb);
 
                    for (int g = 0; g < 4; g++)
                    {
                        TableCell cell = new TableCell();
                        tRow.Cells.Add(cell);
                        System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lbl = new Label();
                        switch (g)
                        {
                            case 0:
                                lbl.Text = n.ToString();
                                break;
                            case 1:
                                lbl.Text = timer.ToString();
                                break;
                            case 2:
                                lbl.Text = sort == 0 ? "Ascending" : "Decending";
                                break;
                            case 3:
                                lbl.Text = data;
                                break;
                        }
                        cell.Controls.Add(lbl);
                    }
                    sql.Close();
                }
            }
        }
 

As you can see, the code generates an ID for the checkbox which is always going to be the same.

Problem is this. The checkboxes are to be used to select if the output is to be put into an XML file for export. I could add an event to each checkbox to store/remove from a list but I'd rather not.

The code I have to parse the checkboxes though isn't a happy beast - it's simply not picking them up (checked using the debugger in VS2010)

private void exportXML(object s, EventArgs e)
        {
            List<int> ids = new List<int>();
            long tt;
            int dir;
            string data;
            int n = 0;
            foreach (Control ctrl in this.Controls)
            {
                if (ctrl is CheckBox)
                {
                    if (((CheckBox)ctrl).Checked == true)
                        ids.Insert(n++, Convert.ToInt32(((CheckBox)ctrl).ID));
                }
            }
        }
 

A debug point at

if (ctrl is CheckBox)

shows that the code is working at this point, but is not showing anything that was generated dynamically.

The event is only fired off on the tab with the dynamic table on it.

Any clues on why this is failing?

Paul

[Paul Johnson]

Quick update

Changing

foreach (Control ctrl in this.Controls)

to

foreach (Control ctrl in Table1.Controls)

is getting me closer, but it's still not snagging the control box, only a TableCellControlCollection

Erg!