1. Make sure your dynamic controls are Loaded on every postback.
Lets
play with a very simple example,
ASPX
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs"
Inherits="_Default" %>
C# Code Behind
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected
void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox t = new
TextBox();
t.ID = "textBox";
this.PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(t);
}
}
The above code works fine, but a common mistake is to try to
conditionally load dynamic controls, if we tweak the code a little bit you will
notice we loose our TextBox after any postback. The following code will not load
the TextBox after our first postback.
public partial class _Default :
System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender,
EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
TextBox t = new TextBox();
t.ID = "textBox";
this.PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(t);
}
}
}
Its recommended to load the dynamic controls during the Page_Init instead,
because we may want to hook up our events with proper handler at an early stage.
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e) {
TextBox t = new TextBox();
t.ID = "textBox";
t.TextChanged+=new EventHandler(t_TextChanged);
this.PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(t);
}
}
2. Do not assigning properties of a dynamic control (viewstate enabled),
during Page_Init, it will not be reflected.
Here is scenario of another
common mistake, "123" assigned to the Text property during Page_Init,
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected
void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox t = new
TextBox();
t.ID = "textBox";
t.Text = "123";
this.PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(t);
}
}
the above code will not work because, Initialization happens before
LoadViewState during the control lifecycle. The value assigned to the properties
during Initialization will simply get overwritten by the ViewState values.
3. If you are expecting your ViewState to retain after the postback, always
assign same ID to the dynamic control
The following piece of code will not work, as I am assigning a new ID to the
dynamic control after each postback. The LoadViewState retrieves previously
saved viewstate data using the control ID, as the control ID has changed, it
doesn't know anymore what to load, as a result it cannot load previously saved
viewstate data any more.
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected
void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TextBox t = new
TextBox();
t.ID = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
this.form1.Controls.Add(t);
}
}