Manually updating a page by calling its Update method in Visual Studio .NET

Make PDF-417 2d barcode in Visual Studio .NET Manually updating a page by calling its Update method

protected void Update_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { UpdatePanel1.Update(); Update itself UpdatePanel2.Update(); Update other UpdatePanel3.Update(); panels on page }

The first Update method is called for the UpdatePanel that originated the asynchronous postback. Because the ChildrenAsTriggers property was set to False,

the panel s contents can be updated only when its Update method is called. The next few lines call the Update method for other panels on the page to render their contents. The previous sections will serve as a core reference to how the UpdatePanel is used, when you read later chapters. It s time to explore a few more advanced scenarios where you can apply the UpdatePanel.

So far, we ve covered the basics of the UpdatePanel, including its properties, methods, and usage. Most of the time, using the UpdatePanel is as simple as applying some of the techniques demonstrated earlier. But sometimes, more complex situations arise where you can use the UpdatePanel in a more creative fashion.

When you re working with repeatable data structures, such as a Repeater, DataList, or GridView, it s usually best to place the entire control in an UpdatePanel instead of each repeated item. However, in some cases you may want a panel around the repeatable item instead. Let s take, for example, a list of stocks in your portfolio. Next to each stock listing, you want a button that updates only that stock price. Listing 6.13 shows the markup listing of the portfolio application.

<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" /> <h1>My Portfolio</h1> <asp:XmlDataSource ID="data" runat="server"> <Data> <stocks> <stock name="STOCK1" value="STOCK1" /> <stock name="STOCK2" value="STOCK2" /> <stock name="STOCK3" value="STOCK3" /> <stock name="STOCK4" value="STOCK4" /> </stocks> </Data> </asp:XmlDataSource>

<div style="width: 200px; border: 1px solid gray; padding: 5px;"> <asp:Repeater ID="Stocks" runat="server" DataSourceID="data" DataMember="stock">

<ItemTemplate> <asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server" Repeating UpdateMode="Conditional"> panels <ContentTemplate> <asp:Label runat="server" ID="StockName" Text='<%# Eval("name") %>' /> <asp:Button runat="server" ID="UpdateStock" Text="Update" OnClick="UpdateStock_Click" /> <asp:Label runat="server" ID="StockPrice" Text="" /> </ContentTemplate> </asp:UpdatePanel> </ItemTemplate> <SeparatorTemplate> <hr style="border: 1px dashed gray;" /> </SeparatorTemplate> </asp:Repeater> </div>

In this example, an B XmlDataSource stores a simple list of stocks in the portfolio. In the ItemTemplate of the Repeater is the C UpdatePanel control. The panel contains a label for the stock name, a button to update the price, and another label to display the price. The server-side code that updates the price is shown in listing 6.14.

protected void UpdateStock_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { Button button = (Button) sender; Label price = (Label) button.NamingContainer.FindControl ("StockPrice"); Label stock = (Label) button.NamingContainer.FindControl ("StockName"); price.Text = LookupStockPrice(stock.Text); } private string LookupStockPrice(string name) { string price = "$0.00"; switch (name) { case "STOCK1": price = "$10.45"; break; case "STOCK2": price = "$4.00"; break;

case "STOCK3": price = "$5.58"; break; default: break; } return price; }

The server-side implementation B finds the controls in the repeated item, then C calls a private method to look up the stock price and update the label accordingly. For simplicity, you hard-code the values returned from the lookup method. When you run the application and select the first three stocks, you get the results shown in figure 6.6. Again, normally it s best to place an UpdatePanel around a single repeatable control. In the cases where you want to place it around a repeated item, be conscious of the number of items that will be rendered: A strain on performance may occur after some time with a large number of items in a repeatable control. Section 7.3.1 provides more insight into why this happens.

In addition to being able to repeat UpdatePanel controls, you can also nest them. This makes sense only if the UpdateMode property of the outer panel is set to Conditional. For example, consider the nested panel implementation in listing 6.15.