ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls

March 29, 2006 @ 3:14 am

Here's a bug with the ATLAS UpdatePanel: If you have invisible controls in the updatepanel that require PostBack scripts to be embedded into the page, and you then later enable

I just build a progressbar sample that simulates a long running request on the server and it starts out displaying the progress bar and the DataGrid that eventually is used to display the data is not loaded because no data has yet been loaded into it. After the processing is complete, the code goes back and fetches the data updates the DataGrid.

Works fine except if you now put paging or sorting or link buttons – anything that requires __doPostBack() scripts – that code won't work.

Makes sense. ASP.NET generates that code only if there's a control on the page that needs it and when the page originally renders it doesn't need it. However on the Callback it only updates the areas of the page that have changed not the entire page. The script block that's missing not included.

Workaround: Drop a linkbutton onto the form outside of panels and set style="display:none" on it. That'll force the script to be loaded.

Now I suspect there will be other places this can bite - anything where ASP.NET normally injects script into the page is potentially vulnerable to this same behavior.

Feedback for this Weblog Entry

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Eilon March 29, 2006 @ 11:52 am

Hi Rick,
I'm a developer on the ASP.NET Atlas team and this definitely sounds like a bug. My guess would be that since the control is invisible, no one calls Render() on it (and probably a few other things don't get called either), so it never gets a chance to tell ASP.NET that it requires the PostBack scripts, etc. I've opened a bug to track this and we will investigate it for a future release of Atlas.

Thanks,
Eilon

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Larry March 29, 2006 @ 8:54 pm

Hi Rick,
My menus were losing style after UpdatePanel callbacks. Taking a hint from your diagnosis, I moved the style from the ascx file to a css file and the menu stabilized.
Thanks,
Larry

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Rick Strahl March 29, 2006 @ 11:17 pm

Eilon. Thanks for checking this out. I'd be curious how this will get fixed. This will end up changing the whole way the page is laid out. As Larries comment indicates it affects more than just the PostBack script - anything injected into the page is potentially affected.

Interesting thought.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Tara April 10, 2006 @ 10:05 am

Hi Rick,

I am new to ASP.net. I had struggled with this problem for several hours until I found your blog. I have a similar problem: a linkbutton which can work before I put atlas:updatepanel in now stops working. I use the linkbutton to download files from SQL Database.

I saw your workaround, but I still couldn't figure out what I should do after I add a dummy linkbutton outside the updatapanel.

Please help me out. Thanks, Tara.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Dan Bayley July 04, 2006 @ 3:31 pm

I think I'm experiencing the same / similar problem.

I have a nested update panel the child panels being on a user control. The host page update panel is firing and the content rendering however the controls on the child update panels (within the user control) within the user control don't render no matter which control / event I wire them to. I know for sure these events fire (databind, etc) but still no joy. If I take out the child panels then the content renders.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Joe July 21, 2006 @ 6:27 pm

Not sure if this is related, but sounds like it.

I am having a problem with validation controls using a link button and the atlas:scriptmanager.

Build a simple web form including a textbox, a link button, and a required field valuator.
All works fine right? Now add a reference to the atlas:scriptmanager wth the partial render option set to true.

Poof; no more validation. Buttons and image buttons work fine.

HELP!!!!

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by zaheer August 03, 2006 @ 4:25 am

i am having problem with atlas i.e when i am clicking linkbutton which is used as tab and when tab index is changed i am changing active view index of multiview, here what is happinning is iam using validation caontrols in view1.now when iam changing tab for first time to change it changing the tab ,now for second time when iam changing tab index(i.e linkbtn) it is staying in same page.now when i removed validation ctrls ATLAS is working fine. i request u to please send any solution for this problem

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Arnout August 03, 2006 @ 2:19 pm

Hey,

I think I have the same problem with the menucontrol.

I have a MenuControl and an Multiview, which contains some Panes

Now clicking on the MenuControl changes the MultiView index, hence changing the Panes.
Its your common tabpanel approach.

Works perfect, until I put the whole stuff inside an UpdatePanel.

Now when the page is run the first time, everything looks great. But when I click my menucontrol, the menucontrol changes the multiview correctly but the menucontrol itself looses all styling :(

Any workarounds for the time being ?
I tried the above mentioned approaches (button link, cssoutside) but all fail.

Greets
Arnout

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Craig August 15, 2006 @ 12:38 pm

Rick, thanks for the work around. I've been searching on this for a while and came across your page. I've got a link button on the edit template of a data list that's in an update panel. I was getting a javascript error before finding your suggestion. Now I'm just getting an "Unknown Error" dialog. I love baby steps.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Craig August 15, 2006 @ 12:50 pm

I figured out the casue of my unknown error now. I was trying to use Server.Transfer within the code of the link button. It appears that even though you call Transfer it isn't handled properly (or I'm not as the case may be). It tries to render the page back through the UpdatePanel.

My next hunch is to have the link button work through a third party button outside of the update panel.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Rick Strahl August 15, 2006 @ 1:09 pm

There are problems with Server.Transfer and UpdatePanel. I can't remember the details but that just won't work. Server.Transfer relies on the full page cycle, which is not happening when you do a callback.

So you have to do a full postback or use Response.Redirect() to go to another page.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Firas August 27, 2006 @ 5:50 am

Salam
try this , it may help

protected void ScriptManager1_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ScriptManager1.EnablePartialRendering = false;
ScriptManager1.EnableScriptComponents = false;
}

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by mike September 12, 2006 @ 7:55 am

Hi,
I have found this problem several times. finally I was able to corner it in my case.
I was using several UpdatePanels on my page and have few javascript functions within SCript tag in HEAD section of page.
It is important to note that whnever javascript function contains "postfix increment operator" i.e ++ or "postfix decrement operator" i.e. --, it will throw "Unknown Error".

Similarly whenever javascript function contains "logical AND operator " i.e. && "logical OR operator" i.e. ||, it throws the "Unknown Error".
However, if these functions are inside "BODY" tag then it works just great. Or if they are moved to a separate JS file and then include it in HEAD tag, it all works fine.

Hope this helps.
Mayur

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Steve September 19, 2006 @ 9:42 am

Thanks Mayur, I had the "Unknown Error" and removed some JS from the <HEAD> tag and everything kicked into place.

Cheers

Steve

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Sole September 19, 2006 @ 11:22 am

Hi,

I tried to use the workaround but it didn't work

I have an Image Button inside a GridView, that in the Click Event calls Server.Tranfer and causes an Unknown error. The GridView is inside an Update Panel that only contains the GridView and an ObjectDataSource.

The unknown Error dissapear when I set the Script Manager’s EnablePartialRendering to false. But now using Atlas doesn't make sense anymore.

Any ideas?

DotNetSlackers: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by DotNetSlackers Latest ASP.NET News October 10, 2006 @ 9:09 pm

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by jnegocio October 19, 2006 @ 4:15 am

Remove, one by one, tag´s in head section or keep only :

<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Gaurav October 23, 2006 @ 11:15 pm

Hi

Definitely this is a big bug. I had face this while i'm trying to populate the textboxes and dropdown from database. The data is being fetched from the user control file(.ascx). The user Control returns me the dataset and and i'm populating the textboxes from that dataset.

When i use <atlas:updatePanel> it causes me a trouble and my textboxes are not populating.

Any suggestion to come out of this situation.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by JRBlack10 October 24, 2006 @ 11:39 am

I have been trying to figure out how to put an Update Panel inside a User Control. Sounds like some of you have done so. Can you share what needs to be done for that to work?

Google Groups: microsoft.public.de.german.entwickler.dotnet.asp
by microsoft.public.de.german.entwickler.dotnet.asp Google Group November 07, 2006 @ 8:39 am

The Solution
by Carlos Rafael Nobrega November 16, 2006 @ 12:59 pm

GridView and DetailsView when the EnableSortingAndPagingCallbacks property is set to true. The default is false.

Sample here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.gridview.enablesortingandpagingcallbacks.aspx

Other tips:
The following ASP.NET controls are not supported inside of an UpdatePanel:

TreeView and Menu

web parts

FileUpload control when the submitted file is attempted as an asynchronous postback.

GridView and DetailsView when the EnableSortingAndPagingCallbacks property is set to true. The default is false.

Login, PasswordRecovery, ChangePassword, and CreateUserWizard controls that have not been converted into editable templates.

Carlos

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Prashant November 27, 2006 @ 10:11 pm

Hi,

I was getting this problem before 5 mins.
I've used :
EnableEventValidation="false" in my page directive, and it's gone.
FYI, I am not using Javascript anywhere in my application.
Hope this helps.

Thanks

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by E_Screw December 06, 2006 @ 12:01 pm

Setting EnableEventValidation = False, will break all the Extenders not to work. The Extenders need to inject the script during partial postback and the PageRequestManager class will only render the controls present on a form if event validation is active. The Render of the ScriptManager class will not be called if EventValidation is set to false.

Thanks

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by martyn January 01, 2007 @ 3:22 am

hi,

Grid events are not working for certain pages with update panel while other pages are working fine inside an update panel.Help me.

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Prashanth Kamasamudram March 02, 2007 @ 1:43 am

Hi iam Developing a kind of time sheet and i got problem with the Updatepanel, actually i am using a gridview in which there are linkbuttons , when we click linkbutton of particular cell the popup must be opened But when i use the Update panel this is not happening, any way i have used CientCallback as alternative

I am firing Callback when the popup is closed here is the code.

  this is the code in popup that i am calling before Unload

              window.opener.update(1);  //the Update is function in parent page

 Here is the code that i am calling in parent window

function update(elemValue)
     {

                   if(Number(elemValue)==1);
                   {
                   
                      alert('gotit');
                      WebForm_DoCallback('__Page','TimeCallback',OnCallback,this,OnCallback,true);
                                        
                   
                   }


     }

the Callback event is firing but Grid view is not beeig Updated

Hope someone help me if any body have idea abt this mail me

shanthsp2002@gmail.com

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Victor June 04, 2007 @ 3:02 pm

Hello,

Thank you for defining this problem. It has helped me understand the problem, but not resolve it. The workaround does not seem to work for me. I have an Infragistics webgrid inside an update panel and my paging and sorting features do not work anymore. If I add a link button outside the update panel and click on it everything i sort a column or go to the next page it will work, but obviously that is not an acceptable solution.

Thanks

- David Yack's Blog! - Atlas Update Panel and Server.Transfer
by David Yack's Blog! July 21, 2007 @ 7:51 pm

re: ATLAS UpdatePanel problem with Postback Scripts and invisible controls
by Somnath Mali October 29, 2007 @ 5:39 am

Please check this,

http://weblogs.asp.net/infinitiesloop/archive/2007/09/17/inline-script-inside-an-asp-net-ajax-updatepanel.aspx