Question

Consider I have 2 controls, C and CompositeC which contains C. Both C and CompositeC have ViewState.

Now consider a third control causes a postback.

The resulting life cycle will be as follow:

1. CompositeC tries to restore state. To do so it needs to create the child controls, so it creates C.
2. When C is created it’s ViewState is restored.
3. The third control’s postback event is triggered. At this time a handler calls CompositeC.RecreatedChildControls() and C is created again.
4. Everything renders.

The problem is that C state is not restored again after step 3. RecreateChildControls method should modify the control’s state so that when C is reintroduced to the CompositeC control’s collection it’s viewstate is automatically restored but it doesn’t.

What should I do?

Answer 1

Actually I found this is by design and it makes sense. ViewState is meant to allow for state restoration after a postback. If after that I recreate my controls, it won’t take place.