ASP.NET dynamic controls count (creating controls as you go)

I'm trying to create a composite ASP.NET control that let's you build an editable control collection.

My problem is that when I press the add or postback button (which does nothing other than to postback the form) any values entered in the text boxes are lost.

I can't get it to work when the number of controls change between postbacks. I need to basically be able to recreate the control tree at two different times in the control life-cycle depending on the view state property ControlCount.

This test can be used to reproduce the issue:

public class AddManyControl : CompositeControl
{
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnLoad(e);
        EnsureChildControls();
    }

    protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
        var count = ViewState["ControlCount"] as int? ?? 0;

        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            var div = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
            var textBox = new TextBox();
            textBox.ID = "tb" + i;
            div.Controls.Add(textBox);
            Controls.Add(div);
        }

        ViewState["ControlCount"] = count;

        var btnAdd = new Button();
        btnAdd.ID = "Add";
        btnAdd.Text = "Add text box";
        btnAdd.Click += new EventHandler(btnAdd_Click);
        Controls.Add(btnAdd);

        var btnPostBack = new Button();
        btnPostBack.ID = "PostBack";
        btnPostBack.Text = "Do PostBack";
        Controls.Add(btnPostBack);
    }

    void btnAdd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ViewState["ControlCount"] = (int)ViewState["ControlCount"] + 1;
    }

    protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnPreRender(e);
        开发者_Go百科// If I remove this RecreateChildControls call
        // the collection lags behind each postback
        // because the count is incremented in the btnAdd_Click event handler
        // however, the values are not lost between postbacks
        RecreateChildControls();
    }
}

If you want to play with ASP.NET's custom controls, you have to play by its rule and its picky! When you start to play with the OnPreRender in a custom control, you know you're on the wrong track 90% of the time.

Generally, the best way to use the ViewState is to declare a property backed up by it, just like the standard ASP.NET controls do (.NET Reflector has been my teacher for years!). This way, it will be read and saved naturally during the event's lifecycle.

Here is a code that seems to do what you want, quite naturally, without any trick:

public class AddManyControl : CompositeControl
{
    private void AddControl(int index)
    {
        var div = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
        var textBox = new TextBox();
        textBox.ID = "tb" + index;
        div.Controls.Add(textBox);
        Controls.AddAt(index, div);
    }

    protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < ControlsCount; i++)
        {
            AddControl(i);
        }

        var btnAdd = new Button();
        btnAdd.ID = "Add";
        btnAdd.Text = "Add text box";
        btnAdd.Click += new EventHandler(btnAdd_Click);
        Controls.Add(btnAdd);

        var btnPostBack = new Button();
        btnPostBack.ID = "PostBack";
        btnPostBack.Text = "Do PostBack";
        Controls.Add(btnPostBack);
    }

    private int ControlsCount
    {
        get
        {
            object o = ViewState["ControlCount"];
            if (o != null)
                return (int)o;

            return 0;
        }
        set
        {
            ViewState["ControlCount"] = value;
        }
    }

    void btnAdd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int count = ControlsCount;
        AddControl(count);
        ControlsCount = count + 1;
    }
}

I believe you have to add the control into the view state.