Question

I come to you this time with a question to do with .NET. I was given the challenge of finding out the four steps involved with postback.

The exact challenge is:

‘There are four methods executed each time there is a postback. Describe and identify each.’

From what I can tell (this is a challenge for a .NET class), postback is what occurs when you submit a web form followed by the back button.

The only clues we are given are:

‘First time a page is requested, is it a postback? No.’

That’s all I have. Anyone have any ideas or resources?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

These are my notes from Reflectoring the source at some point:

1. LoadScrollPosition
2. PerformPreInit
   • Fire PreInit Event
   • Initialize Themes
   • ApplyMasterPage
3. InitRecursive
   • Recursively:
     • generate naming container ids for controls
     • set control.page property
     • init controls
   • set Page.Form property
   • Apply skin
   • Fire Init Event
4. OnInitComplete
   • Fire InitComplete Event
5. (if postback) LoadAllState
   • Load control state for registered controls
   • Load view state
6. (if postback) ProcessPostData
   • Load PostData for controls implementing IPostBackDataHandler
7. OnPreLoad
   • Fire PreLoad Event
8. LoadRecursive
   • Fire Load Event
   • Recursively:
     • Load controls
9. (if postback) ProcessPostData
   • Load leftover PostData for controls implementing IPostBackDataHandler
10. (if postback) RaiseChangedEvents
    • Raise changed events for controls implementing IPostBackDataHandler
11. (if postback) RaisePostBackEvent
    • Raise post back events for controls implementing IPostBackEventHandler
    • Validate
12. OnLoadComplete
    • Fire LoadComplete Event
13. PreRender
14. SaveState
15. Render

That makes LoadAllState, ProcessPostData, RaiseChangedEvents, and RaisePostBackEvent the ones that are only done on PostBack.