Question

I have a set textboxes where the user enters something and I use them when they click Submit. I need to add a button that lets them add another identical set of textboxes on the fly, enter data into those and then when the submit button is pressed I need to grab the value from both sets. The amount of added sets of items can be unlimited.

What’s the best way to handle something like this in ASP.NET/C#?

I’ve looked around and have basically only gotten that you can try to use JQuery on the front end which leaves the backend a mess or you can try to use a GridView and rebind it every time with new items which can get messy.

Any better/easier way to do this?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Use a Repeater control for the first set of text boxes, and have it repeat for each extra listing.

Here’s my comment control repeater. It’s a little arcane, as it was the first control I ever made in asp.net, but it should get you going.

<asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="repeater" 
  onitemdatabound="repeater_ItemDataBound"
  >
  <HeaderTemplate>
    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  </HeaderTemplate>  
  <FooterTemplate>
    </table>
  </FooterTemplate>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <tr id="trContents" runat="server"><td>
      <table id="tableComment" runat="server"
        width="100%" style="border-color:Black; border-width:1px; border-style:solid;background-color:#EEEE99">
        <tr><td id="tdHeader" runat="server"
           style="border-color:Black; border-width:1px; border-style:solid;padding: 5px">
          <table width="100%" id="tableHeader" runat="server">
            <tr>
              <td>
                <asp:Label ID="headerText" runat="server" 
                  Text="<%# GetHeader((CommentRecord)Container.DataItem) %>" />
              </td>
              <td style="text-align:right"> <%-- OnClientClick="aspnetForm.target ='_blank';"  --%>
                <asp:Button ID="btnEdit" runat="server" Text="Edit" 
                    PostBackUrl="<%$ AppSettings:TextEditor %>"  
                    />
                <asp:Button ID="btnReply" runat="server" Text="Reply" 
                    PostBackUrl="<%$ AppSettings:TextEditor %>"  
                    />
              </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </td></tr>
        <tr><td style="border-color:Black; border-width:1px; border-style:solid;background-color:#FFFFF0;padding: 10px">
            <%# ((CommentRecord)Container.DataItem).Text %>
        </td></tr>
        <tr><td>
          <table width="100%"><tr>
            <td style="text-align:left">
                <asp:Button ID="btnDelete" runat="server" Text="Delete" 
                    CausesValidation="False" />
            </td>
            <td style="text-align:right">
              <asp:Label ID="footer" runat="server" Text="<%# GetFooter((CommentRecord)Container.DataItem) %>" />
            </td>
          </tr></table>
        </td></tr>
      </table>
      <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolder" runat="server" />
    </td></tr>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>