Question

I have an asp:FormView control bound to a datasource. Everything is working fine.

If I put the following code in the Init event:

Private Sub frmEdit_Init(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles frmEdit.Init
   Debug.WriteLine(frmEdit.Controls.Count)
End Sub

…..the update no longer works (no exceptions, it just reloads itself with the old data.)

However, if I change it to this:

Private Sub frmEdit_Init(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles frmEdit.Init
   Debug.WriteLine("hello world")
End Sub

….it works again. So, the difference is that I am accessing the frmEdit.Controls in the first example. My question is, why does this break it?

Answer 1

When you access a Control collection, you are triggering code ensuring that the child controls are initialized as well. For a FormView, Init is far too early in the lifecycle for this. You’re initializing controls before the ViewState is ready, so the controls aren’t going to be re-populated correctly.

You can access the controls later in the lifecycle and I think frmEdit.Row.Controls is what you’re after.