I'm missing something

[BiffMaGriff]

Hello,

I have an aspx webpage.
On this page is a custom control.
In this control is a formview.
Inside this formview (edit page) is a 2nd custom control.
Inside the 2nd custom control is a repeater.
Inside the repeater is a checkbox list.
And of course inside the checkbox list are checkboxes which have the values i want to save.

The problem is occurring when I postback from my formview. eg. click update, a button posts back
My repeater control loses all of its items before I get a chance to see their values.

I tried enabling viewstate on the repeater but that didn't help.

I'm thinking I'm missing something simple.

My repeater is being databound in the asmx. Perhaps I'll try doing it in the codebehind.


Anyone have any ideas?

[BiffMaGriff]

Ok the fix for this was weird.
I tried databinding my repeater when my custom control loads.
In my test page where I only have my 2nd custom control and and submit button, when I press the submit button the values in my checkboxes clear.
However! When I have my 2nd control inside my formview and I do the databind it actually retains its value!?!

Weird...

[Frinavale]

You probably shouldn't be doing a DataBind in the Page Load.
Consider moving this to the Page PreRender event instead.

[BiffMaGriff]

Hmm, it doesn't seem to want to work when I put it in there. I lose all my values again.

[Frinavale]

When do you dynamically get the content for the repeater?
In the Page Init Event?

[BiffMaGriff]

I load the values in the prerender for the repeater.

[Frinavale]

You need to consider the page life cycle when developing ASP.NET applications, especially when you are loading dynamic content.

Say you using a control dynamically created (like your repeater) ...you dynamically load it with data and then it's sent to the browser.

When the user causes the page to post back all of the state information about the control is loaded. ASP.NET is able to tell if something has changed in the control by loading it's view state.

If your dynamically created control is missing key components (like rows, columns, checkbox lists, etc) at this point then the control's state cannot be loaded.

You have to dynamically instantiate and load the control in the Page Init event of the page's life cycle. After the Page Init event the control's state information is loaded....which means that the dynamically create controls are loaded with the user's selection and other event/state information.

Once this is done you will be able to get the user's selection.

Also, you have to keep in mind when you do your DataBind. If you do your DataBind in the Page Load event then any user entered information will also be lost.

With this in mind I suggest that you create and set the data source for your repeater in the Page Init event and I recommend that you do your DataBind event in the Page PreRender event.


For more information please see how to use dynamic controls in ASP.NET

-Frinny

[BiffMaGriff]

Awesome Frinny! My 2nd subcontol works perfectly now. Thanks for your help :)