Introduction
First, read "Post an ASP.NET form with JavaScript" By David Truxall before your read this article! It can understand for most develpers to have difficulty in using an ASP.NET postback process in .NET 1.x. In addition to David's article, This article describes how to post between frames or into popup, with a flexible javascript.
Background
The most web developers would think of posting a ASP.NET WebForm to another WebForm page(that is, through frame or into popup WebForm). In an enterprise web solution, we sometimes use framesets. I know that using framesets makes the performance worse. But if our customer want to use the framesets, what I have to do?
Using the code
I have a frameset which is horizontally divided into two frames. One has a frame name called "topFrame", the other "bottomFrame". When I input some text into TextBox and click a "Post to Bottom Frame" button on "topFrame", it posts the "bottomFrame" page. Additionally, When I click a "Post to Popup" button on "topFrame", it posts the Pop-up Page("PopupPage.aspx").
- Description of script function :
- fnPostBackBetweenFrames(postBackFormString, frameName, actionUrl)
: Post between frames
- fnPostBackBetweenPages(postBackFormString, actionUrl)
: Post between pages
- fnPostBackPopUp(postBackFormString, windowName, actionUrl, vWidth, vHeight)
: Post into popup page
function fnPostBackBetweenFrames(postBackFormString, frameName, actionUrl)
{
var postBackForm = eval(postBackFormString);
postBackForm.target = frameName;
postBackForm.action = actionUrl;
postBackForm.__VIEWSTATE.name = '';
postBackForm.method = "post";
postBackForm.submit();
return false;
}
string bottomFunction = String.Concat("javascript:return fnPostBackBetweenFrames('document.", formName, "','bottomFrame','BottomForm.aspx');");
btnPostFrame.Attributes.Add("onclick", bottomFunction);
The fnPostBackBetweenFrames script function is used to post between frames and the server code(of behind class) is showing the code registering the onclick event function of "btnPostFrame" button.
function fnPostBackBetweenPages(postBackFormString, actionUrl)
{
var postBackForm = eval(postBackFormString);
postBackForm.action = actionUrl;
postBackForm.__VIEWSTATE.name = '';
postBackForm.method = "post";
postBackForm.submit();
return false;
}
The fnPostBackBetweenPages script function is used to post between pages. this script is similar to the fn PostBackBetweenFrames function.
function fnPostBackPopUp(postBackFormString, windowName, actionUrl, vWidth, vHeight)
{
var postBackForm = eval(postBackFormString);
var wForm = ViewCenterPop("about:blank", windowName, vWidth, vHeight, 'no', 'no', 'no', 'no', 'no');
postBackForm.target = windowName;
postBackForm.action = actionUrl;
postBackForm.__VIEWSTATE.name = '';
postBackForm.method = "post";
postBackForm.submit();
wForm.focus();
return false;
}
string popupFunction = String.Concat("javascript:return fnPostBackPopUp('document.", formName, "','PopPostBackWindow','PopupPage.aspx',300,300);");
btnPostPopup.Attributes.Add("onclick", popupFunction);
The fnPostBackPopUp script function is used to post into popup page and the server code(of behind class) is showing the code registering the onclick event function of "btnPostPopup" button.
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
txaValues.Text = GetParamValue("txaContent");
}
If the data is posted to another WebForm, just handle Request.Form key with the customized function "GetParamValue(string sKeys)" (from BasePage.cs)
Points of Interest
The key point of this feature is the rename of "__VIEWSTATE". In VS 2005, we have a Cross-Page feature but I don't know that it solved the previous post processing problem. Sooner or later I will test the Cross-Page feature with VS 2005 and if needed, I will write other client script in relation to the post processing.