Question

EDIT: for those who come here with a similar problem, now i know this was a BAD IDEA.

hi,
I have something like this:

bool preventEvents;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, eventargs e)
{
    preventEvents = doSomeValidation();
}

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (preventEvents) return;  
    // ...
}

protected void Repeater1_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (preventEvents) return;  
    // ...
}

The problem is that I have A LOT of events on the page.

Is it possible to just cancel all further events without adding the “if” line on every method?

EDIT:

got some interesting answers (thanks to everyone) but not what i was looking for, maybe i should be more specific:

given some condition, is it possible to skip all events after Page_Load and just jump to the rendering, without manually removing/mapping each event?

Answer 1

You can’t “jump ahead” to the rendering because there aren’t any conditionals in ProcessRequestMain to allow for it. The only option is to hack the event handlers of the relevant controls.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    // DON'T DO THIS!! Years from now, some poor soul tasked with
    // debugging your code will tear their hair out, until they
    // discover the unholy magic you have conjured herein. Keep in mind
    // this is the 21st century and this person knows where you live.
    // 
    // Seriously, just use the validation built in to ASP.NET.
    if ("true".Equals(Request.QueryString["disable_events"], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) {
        // disable *all* event handlers on button controls
        foreach (var b in this.GetControlDescendants().OfType<Button>()) {
            var eventList = (EventHandlerList) typeof (Control)
                .GetProperty("Events", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
                .GetValue(b, null);
            typeof (EventHandlerList)
                .GetField("head", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
                .SetValue(eventList, null);
        }
    }
}

Utility extension method for completeness:

/// <summary>
/// Performs a breadth-first traversal of a control's control tree. Unlike
/// FindControl, this method does not descend into controls that have not
/// called EnsureChildControls yet.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Enumerable of the visited controls.</returns>
public static IEnumerable<Control> GetControlDescendants(this Control parent) {
    // Don't force execution of EnsureChildControls
    if (!parent.HasControls()) yield break;

    foreach (Control child in parent.Controls) {
        yield return child;
    }
    foreach (Control child in parent.Controls) {
        foreach (var descendant in child.GetControlDescendants()) {
            yield return descendant;
        }
    }
}