FindControl issue (does not find the control)

[ptcoder]

Hello everyone.

I have done a lot of reading regarding the recursive issue with FindControl. I have a FormView with an <EditItemTemplate> and all I want to do is add javascript attributes to the form control like this:
smsTxt.Attributes.Add("onkeydown", "backspacerDOWN(this,event);");

My goal is to use JavaScript with the ASP.NET controls. I found some code on another forum to do the recursive lookup and here it is:

public static class Utils
{
    public static Control FindControl(this Control root, string id, bool recurse)
    {
        if (!recurse)
        {
            return root.FindControl(id);
        }
        System.Web.UI.Control controlFound;
        if (root != null)
        {
            controlFound = root.FindControl(id);
            if (controlFound != null)
            {
                return controlFound;
            }
            foreach (Control c in root.Controls)
            {
                controlFound = c.FindControl(id, true);
                if (controlFound != null)
                {
                    return controlFound;
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}
 

I have my code to add the attributes in the Page_Load:

TextBox smsTxt = FormView1.FindControl("SMSTextBox", true) as TextBox;
        if (smsTxt != null)
         {
              smsTxt.Attributes.Add("onkeydown", "backspacerDOWN(this,event);");
              smsTxt.Attributes.Add("onkeyup", "backspacerUP(this,event);");
         }

I am not getting any errors, but it does not add the Attributes to the control. I don't think it is actually finding the Textbox control. I wrapped the new FindControl in a Class because I was getting an error. Not sure if I even did that right. I am pretty new to .NET programming.

Can someone help me with this? I sure appreciate it!!
Thank you all.

[Plater]

If you were getting an error, you should check in to see why you were getting that error, instead of just hiding it.

Have you set a breakpoint and stepped through to see if the control is found?