This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Scott Hanselman. Original Post: ASP.NET: Postbacks for Algernon Feed Title: Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com Feed URL: http://radio-weblogs.com/0106747/rss.xml Feed Description: Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com is a .NET/WebServices/XML Weblog. I offer details of obscurities (internals of ASP.NET, WebServices, XML, etc) and best practices from real world scenarios. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Scott Hanselman Latest Posts From Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

We're hip deep into this bank today.  Doing some amazing stuff and making a very rich user experience with as few moving parts as possible.  Reuse, Reuse, Reuse.

Here are some interesting things I've learned/been reminded of

• Pretty PostBacks when using RewritePath: When you call HttpContext.RewritePath to make “junk.aspx?specialparam=Y“ look like “someotherpage.aspx“ it will look nice in the Browser's Location Bar, but not in the Form Action.  Consequently, when you postback, you'll see the ugly URL in the Browser's Location Bar.
• So, call Page.RegisterStartupScript with this little block:
  
  Page.RegisterStartupScript("rewritepathfix","<script language='javascript'>document.YourFormNameHere.action = document.location.href;</script>");
  
• Complex Custom Confirmation Dialogs on LinkButtons in DataGrids while STILL maintaining PostBacks (whew!): If you want to have a javascript:confirm() dialog popup when clicking on a LinkButton (not a Button), BUT you want the javascript dialog to contain a context-specific message based on data, AND you still want a PostBack event to occur:
• Chain the JavaScript events by grabbing the LinkButton in the Grid's ItemDataBound.  Make a parallel HyperLink with an onclick that contains your javascript confirm, THEN the PostBack javascript, which can be got to via Page.GetPostBackEventReference.  In this example the function GetConfirmJavascript builds a confirm(”yada yada”) string based on the object passed in.
  
  

  public void GridDataBound(Object sender, DataGridItemEventArgs e)
  {
     if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem || e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item)
     {
        string target = string.Empty;
        HyperLink linkCancel = new HyperLink();
        LinkButton linkButtonCancel = (LinkButton)e.Item.Cells[CancelColumn].FindControl("LinkButtonCancel");
        linkEdit.Text = linkButtonEdit.Text;
        target = Page.GetPostBackEventReference(linkButtonEdit);
        linkCancel.NavigateUrl = GetConfirmJavascript(e.Item.DataItem as MyObject, target);
        linkButtonCancel.Visible = false;
        e.Item.Cells[CancelColumn].Controls.Add(linkCancel);
     }
  }