<asp:Button ID=”btnRefreshLayout” runat=”server” Text=”Refresh Layout” OnClientClick=”AdjustFrameDim(<%= _layout%>);” OnClick=”btnRefreshLayout_Click” />

The result is…

<input type=”submit” name=”btnRefreshLayout” value=”Refresh Layout” onclick=”AdjustFrameDim(<%= _layout%>);” id=”BI_TabControl1_ucLayout_btnRefreshLayout” />

It doesn’t seem to matter where in the server control code you put the <% … %>, it doesn’t work.

BUT, I have good news… If you need to dynamically add something to the properties of the server control, you could instead use the AddAttribute method of the server control and get the needed results that way.

btnRefreshLayout.Attributes.Add(“OnClick”, “AdjustFrameDim(“ + _layout + “);”);

Happy Coding.

The Problem:
ASP.Net gives a developer the opportunity to programmatically add controls to a web form using ParentControl.Controls.Add(new Control()); However, these controls are not persisted in any way thus having to be recreated for each subsequent request.

What I found:
On the page I have a PlaceHolder. Depending on the dynamic data at the time of processing, one of 10 “layout” UserControls need to be added to the PlaceHoder. And inside each of those “layouts” will be 2 to 4 “content” UserControls with dynamic data based on the data and properties set by the “layout” UserControl. While stepping through code, durring a PostBack with user data, I was able to see that properties and server controls were being properly set in both UserControls, but when the page was actually rendered to the browser the data displayed was the old data prior to the user making changes.

I tested this and retested this and it baffled me for quite some time. I thought maybe it was an issue of the beta version of Atlas I was using, so I removed the UpdatePanel surrounding all this and problem still existed. After much searching I began to learn that this is a problem (bug) with dynamically added UserControls and all the server controls and user controls within.

Durring my search I found someone who developed a workaround, or a better improved PlaceHolder to insure the proper handling of the data within the added UserControls. Though I did not use this, I suspect it would work, but instead, I found a different way to dynamically determin and build 1 of 10 different layouts.

What I Did:
I am not providing any real answer here, but just confirmation that this problem does indeed exist. So either find a different way or try out this guys workaround.

Instead of using 10 different layout UserControls (10 ascs files with different table formatting and each including 4 instances of a “content” UserControl (these 10 ascx fils all included the same layout.cs code behind file). I put logic in my business layer to determin the layout to use and send back a section of HTML and place the “content” UserControls with in it. My 10 to 1 layout page lookes like this:

<%= GetFrameTablePart(“a”) %>
<uc1:ucObjContent ID=”ucObjContent1″ runat=”server” />
<%= GetFrameTablePart(“b”) %>
<uc1:ucObjContent ID=”ucObjContent2″ runat=”server” />
<%= GetFrameTablePart(“c”) %>
<uc1:ucObjContent ID=”ucObjContent3″ runat=”server”/>
<%= GetFrameTablePart(“d”) %>
<uc1:ucObjContent ID=”ucObjContent4″ runat=”server”/>
<%= GetFrameTablePart(“e”) %>

To make the DIV tag overlay the existing page, I needed to set the Z-index of the DIV at a higher level then anything else on the page. I soon found that no matter how hard you tried, all DropDownList boxes and List boxes would show through the error dialog.

After some research, I soon found that this is an issue with Internet Explorer and wasn’t much I could do about it. It is because DropDownList boxes and List boxes are considered a windowed component in the browser and regardless the z-index you assign these components or the DIV that contains them, they will always float to the top. This issue is resolved in IE7, but the idea of making all customers upgrade to IE7 was not acceptable.

An iFrame is also windowed component. If I could put that iFrame in a DIV or TABLE that the visibility can be turned on or off, that would fix the problem of the other windowed components (drop down list and list box). I tried a DIV, but could not set the height to something specific so I could center the error dialog could be centered. I used the TABLE and could specify the height and it worked quite nice.

It wasn’t till later that I realized that everything under the TABLE, with no background, was not access-able. So once the error dialog window is made visible, the rest of the form elements can not be acted upon until you clear the error dialog.

To clear the error dialog, I needed to call a JavaScript function on the parent page to set the visibility of the TABLE equal to none. With out trying, I created my own modal dialog. Cool!

UPDATE:
Not used to this blogging stuff, so let me clarify.
Outside the FORM tag I set a Table to be width=100% and height=560 (or something big enough to cover what you need to, then centered in that table (one row with one cell) I placed an IFRAME that I will pass my error message to and then display. The page shown in the IFRAME will cover all form elements on the page behind it. All form elements not covered by the IFRAME, but covered by the Err_Table are unclick-able with exception to the DropDownList and ListBox. If need be, you could alwasys disable those controls prior to making the Err_Table viewable.

</div>
</form>
<table id=”Err_Table” style=”display: none;”><tr><td width=”100%” height=“100%”>
<iframe id=”Err_Message_Frame” src=”" frameborder=”no”
scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0px” marginwidth=”0″></iframe>
</td></tr></table>

Style:
#Err_Table
{ position: absolute;
top:0px;
width: 100%;
height: 560px;
background-color: Transparent;
border: solid 0px red;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
z-index: 100;
}

#Err_Message_Frame
{
width: 360px;
height: 300px;
background-color: white;
border: solid 0px black;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

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Adblock Plus by Wladimir Palant

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Forecastfox displays current conditions, radar, severe weather alerts, and up to a week of forecasts as customizable icons and text descriptions. Mousing over the icons brings up additional details, also fully customizable. Users can define profiles to track multiple locations all around the world.

Performancing by Jed Brown

Performancing is a full-featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted content, including images, from the page you are browsing and take notes as well as post to your blog.

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Web Developer adds a menu and a toolbar with various Web developer tools to the browser. The tools allow the user to disable, view, and edit cookies, CSS, HTML, forms, and images; validate pages; and much more.

Download Statusbar by Devon Jensen

Manage your Internet downloads from a tidy toolbar, without the download window getting in the way of your Web browsing. Despite its compact size, Download Statusbar packs in more useful features than the standard download window. The fully customizable interface auto-hides when not in use, allowing full control without interruption.

What is your favorite extension for Firefox?

powered by performancing firefox

Some highlights in the new release that look promising are:

• Built-in phishing protection: Phishing Protection warns users when they encounter suspected Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. Phishing Protection is turned on by default, and works by checking sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites.

• Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

• Resuming your browsing session: The Session Restore feature restores windows, tabs, text typed in forms, and in-progress downloads from the last user session. It will be activated automatically when installing an application update or extension, and users will be asked if they want to resume their previous session after a system crash.

• Inline spell checking: A new built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms (like this one) without having to use a separate application.

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http://koders.com/

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Today I stumbled accross another isse of my own JavaScript causing errors with Atlas. Typically you place all your JavaScript in the HEAD of the document. So.. today I added the following function to my JavaScript in the HEAD of the page.

After adding this code, any click on the page that used an Atlas Update Panel, caused the discreet Unknown Error dialog box. After many attempts to discove what the problem may be, I moved the entire function to script tags with-in the BODY of the page. All worked fine, with no Atlas “Unknown Error”.

I decided to test another sceniario, and put all my JavaScript in an external file (I usually wait till I am finished with the page for this step) and included it from with-in the HEAD of the page. Again I tested the page and all worked fine with no Atlas “Unknown Error”.

I thought this error may have something to do with the partial rendering that Atlas is taking care of, but after my second test, I an not so sure any more. Either way, I believe it may be a better practice to put all JavaScript in an external .js file and include it in the HEAD of your page.

Don’t expect me to keep this up.

In Visual Studio 2005, go to Tools>Options> Text Editor > HTML > Format > Check both:

• “Insert attribute value quotes when typing”
• “Insert attribute value quotes for formatting”

This will ensure all attribute values, such as the javascript value of the language attribute is always surrounded with quotes.

Thank you Steve.

When debugging, I was able to confirm that Atlas was working, I could step through my server code and populate the tree, but when execution was back at the browser, I would get this error pop-up “Unknown Error”.

I had made very little changes that morning, but due to closing the file earlier, I was unable to use the Undo function. After much time and testing, I remembered that in the HEAD of the HTML document, I had added another java-script function and noticed that the <script> tag did not have the language set, so I had set language=javascript. In Visual Studio 2005, the context sensitive help is great, and after typing language= it prompts with a choice of languages, and when you choose the language it adds it to your code with out quotes.

Now most of the time I have found that it doesn’t matter if you have quotes or not around your values. But this time it made a big difference. I added the double quotes around javascript and tested the page again, and this time there was no error and everything worked fine.

Intrigued by this finding, I did some more testing and found that if I put the SCRIPT tags with java-script functions just below the BODY tag, it did not matter if I used language=javascript or language=”javascript”, both ways worked just fine with Atlas.

So, in the HEAD of the HTML document, I needed to use language=”javascript”, but in the BODY of the HTML, double quotes didn’t seem to matter.

Also, see my post in this thread:
http://forums.asp.net/thread/1363655.aspx