Possible to have dynamic content with accessable controls in asp.net/C# - c#

I really hope that someone can help, pointing me in the right direction. I'm still new to the more advanced features of asp.net / C#.
What i need is a div, in that div i would want some informations from the database. furthermore i want a textbox with a number and an arrow up and down to increase/decrease the amount in the textbox. And at last a button outside the div to submit the value.
Now the tricky part (for me), is that one div is not enough, I need one div for each "person" in the database. i can easily make that, but.. if i add it dynamically from the .aspx.cs file i am not able to access the value like : textbox1.text; because textbox1 does not exist in the code before it is created.
I have looked at listview and a repeater, but those seems more like they're for making lists, and i need more than that, as i need some functionally too.
The way i would do it now is to add the div by innerhtml. and then adjust the amount by a for loop which also inserts the information from the database which i got in an array. But as said, that doesn't really do the trick when i need to access the textbox and stuff.
Thanks in advance for just looking at it.
EDIT:
I'm not looking for at complete solution, i just want some directions.

I will asume by your post description that by asp.net you mean webForms. If you're new on asp.net development, you have to know that there are different development, in the past (but still very commonly used) you would use WebForms, now at days the trends are using asp.net MVC framework.
now back to your question:
in asp.net WebForms, you have your code defined in two sides: your markup (HTML code normally in a .aspx file) and your code-behind (c# or vb code normally in a .aspx.cs or .aspx.vb).
what I would suggest you to do, is to add your logic for retrieving data from your database in your page_load() function of your code-behind, with this data you would normally use a loop to read all your results and for each result you would create your div with your textbox inside (the trick is using native .net framework classes instead of inserting the HTML directly). a simple example:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string[] personsIDs; //<-- this came from your database
Dictionary<string, TextBox> textBoxes = new Dictionary<string, TextBox>();
foreach(string personID in personsIDs)
{
TextBox personTextBox = new TextBox();
personTextBox.ID = "textBox"+personID;
textBoxes.add("textbox"+personID, personTextBox);
}
I explain you:
first, I'm assuming there is an array of the personsIDs, so I created a dictionary (key -> value object) using strings as keys and TextBoxes as values.
then using a foreach I read all the personsID's, and for each one of them I create a new TextBox UIControl and add it to the dictionary using the personID as key. I also added its ID property as "textbox"+PersonID.
this way you can access your textboxes from code-behind by using your dictionary:
textBoxes["textbox"+personID] //(e.g: textBoxes['textBox11'])
but also, since your textBox.ID is equal to textbox+personID, you can also reference it after page has been rendered (e.g. using javascript).
now to add this controlers to your page, just use a container(UIControl) that already exists on your page, and use
container.controls.add(textbox);
this process can be expanded for extra elements, for instance:
1.- have a main placeholder already defined in your page:
<asp:Panel ID= "Panel1" runat = "server">
2.- in your code-behind for each person create a new panel and add all the elements you want inside that panel:
//this goes inside your foreach
Panel innerPanel = new Panel();
TextBox textBox = new TextBox();
Label label = new Label();
innerPanel.controls.add(textbox);
innerPanel.controls.add(label);
////
finally add your innerPanels in to your main panel:
panel1.controls.add(innerPanel);
so there you go, that's basically the idea, hope this helps.

Related

Asp.net controls not updating after a postback

I'm writing code to read data from asp controls to update records in a database. I've been debugging the last day and I've tracked it back to something that I ought to have noticed before.
The code first populates the controls with the existing values from the database.
When I click SAVE, it should read the current values from the controls and save with those.
Unfortunately, what it's actually doing is using the values of the controls before a change was made to them. It's not seeing the change to the controls.
Here's a sample:
<asp:TextBox ID="OtherCourseName_5" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
Here's the corresponding behind code in the btnSave_onClick() function:
int object_number=5;
string other_course_name_string
= "OtherCourseName_" + object_number.ToString().Trim();
TextBox ocn = utilities
.utils
.FindControlRecursive(this.Master, other_course_name_string) as TextBox;
I'm using the FindControlRecursive() I found somewhere on the web. It works, I'm sure, but just in case, I tried to address the control directly as OtherCourseName_5.Text.
Even if I just display the value in OtherCourseName_5.Text, it gives the original value.
I use this same page for both entering new data and for editing data. It works fine when I enter the data. That is, it correctly sees that the TextBox control has changed from empty to having data. It's only when I invoke the edit function on the page (by passing edit=true). I invoke it this way by adding the switch edit=true as a query string (the program correctly reads that switch, gets to the appropriate area of code, prints out all the correct values for everything - except the contents of the controls!).
The page is far too complicated to post the entire thing. I've tried to convey the essential details. It's entirely possible that I've made a simple coding error, but it's seeming more a possibility that I fundamentally misunderstand how pages are processed.
Is there anything known that can make it seem as though the value of a control has not been changed?
Note 1: I thought perhaps I had to go to another field after I entered the data, but I tried that and it's still a problem.
Note 2: I'm using both TextBox and DropDownList controls and have the same problem with both.
Note 3: These controls are on a panel and the page is using a SiteMaster. I haven't had any problem with that and don't think the problem is there, but I'm down to questioning the laws of the physics at this point.
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
//populate controls with data from database
}
}
When you do a postback before the postback handler is evaluated the PageLoad event is raised
so if you don't avoid to rebind your control they will be loaded with the values from the database. And then the postback event will save them to db
Asp.net Page Lifecycle
(source: microsoft.com)

Find what Elements were added by Javascript

I have got an ASP-Site, which enables the user to Add Label-Elements. I don’t know how many Labels where added or which ID they have. I know only, they will be within the Panel pnl_Added. After the user has added all his labels, he pushes a Send-Button for Update.
So, now I am at my Server, awaiting this postback, but I don’t know where, when and how to find out, which Elements were Added to pnl_Added. Can somebody help me?
I have tried something like that:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
[...]
for (int i = 0; i < pnl_Added.Controls.Count; i++)
{
[...]
}
[...]
}
But I think it is too late because of the loaded ViewState? Is that possible?
I am working with VS 2013, ASP c#, with the .Net Framework 4.
On server, controls tree doesn't created from actual client HTML. Actually, server doesn't know anything about client HTML besides input tags values in scope of submitted form. In general, all controls available in Page_Load method, created on server side from aspx file markup.
To implement your scenario, you need to add hidden field for each label, added from client and save label's inner text into hidden field's value. Then you'll can get these labels texts as below:
var labels = Request.Form["hiddenField's name"] as string[];
You should go one lever deeper and take the added elements from Request variable, because the control pnl_Added doesn't know about them as there was no postback.
Something like this:
Request.Form["field_id"]
I suggest to run the page in debug mode, review Request.Form collection and find what you need. You should see your label elements there.

Best control to handle changin images and text in a asp.net button click

I'm working on a asp.net website.. and I need a little help.. please see image as reference...
What I want to happen is when a button is click from the buttons on the right.. text would appear on the boxed space... I don't know which is the best control to use to hold the text on the space I would like text to appear..
which is the best control to hold images and texts at the same time? and how could I connect it to the button on the right?
You could use the HtmlGenericControl class. It has a constructor which accepts a string variable which initializes a new instance of the HtmlGenericControl class with the specified tag:
var div = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
It is also has InnerHtml and InnerText properties.
Setting up a div with the custom content means you could host images, text or basically anything else that you want to stuff inside a div.

Programatically Add Control to ASP.NET C# Page on Button Click

I want to be able to add fixtures to a particular gameweek on my asp.net c# page.
When a user clicks the add button, it should create two drop downs so they can select the home and away team. I want to be able to allow as many fixtures as the user wants to add, so therefore I need a dynamic way of adding controls to the page. Once all of the fixtures have been added, I want them all to be saved to the database.
Scrolling trough forums I have found the following method to get a control to be added programatically:
c#
protected void AddTeamButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DropDownList homeTeamName = new DropDownList();
homeTeamName.Items.Add("Arsenal");
homeTeamName.Items.Add("Aston Villa");
homeTeamName.ID = "homeTeam";
PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(homeTeamName);
DropDownList awayTeamName = new DropDownList();
awayTeamName.Items.Add("Arsenal");
awayTeamName.Items.Add("Aston Villa");
awayTeamName.ID = "awayTeam";
PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(awayTeamName);
}
aspx:
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>
This however only creates one set of controls, the second time you click add, nothing happens. It also does not create uniques IDs to access when I need to save.
Any ideas how I can solve these issues I am having?
Dynamic controls in asp.net are not all that easy.
You need to create them on each Post(Ideally on Init) till you require them on the page.
You also need to give them unique IDs.
If you want to create multiple controls, I suggest maintaining a counter in your Session and using that to loop and generate the required controls on Init.
On your AddTeamButton_Click you will only increment the counter and add one set of controls.

How do I assign an instance of the Image class to an Image control programatically?

Another noob question from me... Apologies!
My initial code would be as follows (this is simplified):
Image pic = new Image();
pic.ImageUrl = "~/Images/photo.jpg";
pic.BorderColor = "Black";
How can I assign the 'pic' Image object to an Image Control already on my ASP.NET page?
The following doesn't work but illustrates what I'm trying to do:
MyImageControl = pic;
I'm sure there must be an easier solution than:
MyImageControl.ImageUrl = pic.ImageUrl;
MyImageControl.BorderColor = pic.BorderColor;
If you want to dynamically put controls on the page you need to do just that. Have a container then add them to the container. If you have some sort of list or array that you are storing the controls in, you just need to iterate through the collection, setting any properties you need and call container.controls.add(control); You will have to do this every post-back as their state will not be kept.
Using an asp:Panel as your container where you want the controls to show up is the easiest way to style and position the controls.
SOLUTION (moved from original post) :
I have come up with something which works for me but would still be interested if there is a way to do what I've asked above - My solution is as follows.... Rather than having a blank Image Control in my .aspx page, I changed it for a PlaceHolder instead. Then, in the C# code, I can use the following to include my Image on the page:
MyPlaceHolder.Controls.Add(pic);

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