C# – Handling dynamically generated controls in asp.net

asp.netc

What's the best way to handle data entered through dynamically generated controls in ASP.NET?

Currently, I have a group of controls that are generated in the Page_Load stage, and I need to access the data from them. It seems like it might be possible to just use a hidden field that's read and parsed on postback, but I'd like to know if there's a better way to do it that makes better use of the framework.

Best Answer

The key is recreating the controls on postback.

Old but good article to explain how and why.

You can also use the request.form collection to grab the posted values.

Related Solutions

Dynamically added controls in Asp.Net

I agree with the other points made here "If you can get out of creating controls dynamically, then do so..." (by @Jesper Blad Jenson aka) but here is a trick I worked out with dynamically created controls in the past.

The problem becomes chicken and the egg. You need your ViewState to create the control tree and you need your control tree created to get at your ViewState. Well, that's almost correct. There is a way to get at your ViewState values just before the rest of the tree is populated. That is by overriding LoadViewState(...) and SaveViewState(...).

In SaveViewState store the control you wish to create:

protected override object SaveViewState()
{
    object[] myState = new object[2];
    myState[0] = base.SaveViewState();
    myState[1] = controlPickerDropDown.SelectedValue;

    return myState
}

When the framework calls your "LoadViewState" override you'll get back the exact object you returned from "SaveViewState":

protected override void LoadViewState(object savedState) 
{
    object[] myState = (object[])savedState;

    // Here is the trick, use the value you saved here to create your control tree.
    CreateControlBasedOnDropDownValue(myState[1]);

    // Call the base method to ensure everything works correctly.
    base.LoadViewState(myState[0]);
}

I've used this successfully to create ASP.Net pages where a DataSet was serialised to the ViewState to store changes to an entire grid of data allowing the user to make multiple edits with PostBacks and finally commit all their changes in a single "Save" operation.

C# – How to create a dropdownlist from an enum in ASP.NET MVC

For MVC v5.1 use Html.EnumDropDownListFor

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor(
    x => x.YourEnumField,
    "Select My Type", 
    new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC v5 use EnumHelper

@Html.DropDownList("MyType", 
   EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(MyType)) , 
   "Select My Type", 
   new { @class = "form-control" })

For MVC 5 and lower

I rolled Rune's answer into an extension method:

namespace MyApp.Common
{
    public static class MyExtensions{
        public static SelectList ToSelectList<TEnum>(this TEnum enumObj)
            where TEnum : struct, IComparable, IFormattable, IConvertible
        {
            var values = from TEnum e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(TEnum))
                select new { Id = e, Name = e.ToString() };
            return new SelectList(values, "Id", "Name", enumObj);
        }
    }
}

This allows you to write:

ViewData["taskStatus"] = task.Status.ToSelectList();

by using MyApp.Common