Question

I have an asp.net page with a timer embedded in an UpdatePanel (UpdateMode=”Conditional”, ChildrenAsTriggers=”false”). The timer is responsible for updating some components of that page every few seconds.

There are also some HyperLink controls on the page and they open a JQueryMobile dialog when clicked (data-rel=”dialog”). The problem is that the timer i mentioned causes postback every few seconds. So when a dialog is opened and then closed, the first such postback after then causes the dialog to open once again.

Using the rel=”external” as another attribute of the HyperLinks I mentioned solves the problem, but this is no solution for me. This causes full redirection to the dialog page instead of showing it using AJAX (as if on top of current page).

My idea was to stop the timer when any hyperlink is clicked. This solves the problem, but I have no idea how to start the timer again when the dialog closes. Is it possible to detect when a JQueryMobile dialog is closed? I know, this sounds stupid, but I can’t come up with a better idea. Will you help me, please?

So basically, I don’t want the JQueryMobile dialog page to show up for the second time after a timer tick. Could you please advise me how to achieve that?

Answer 1

jQuery Mobile with asp.net Web Forms and an UpdatePannel? This just sounds like a horrible combination.

jQuery Mobile and Web Forms fundamentally don’t work well together. The specific issue that Web Forms requires a single <form /> element that wraps all controls (and most content). jQuery Mobile attempts to build up the DOM with “virtual” pages via ajax loading. This breaks the PostBack model by submitting the entire form instead of the individual form found within each page template. Now throw UpdatePanels in there…

Your only hope is go exclusively with Single page templates and to disable all ajax loading data-ajax="false" on both links and forms. And just say no to UpdatePanels.

asp.net MVC would give you much greater control over these issues.