Question

I’m using two custom controls. One gathers the criteria for a search, and the other displays a list. These two controls need to remain seperate for the time being.

What is the best method of transfering data from the search control, to the list control?

I’m thinking of ViewState, Session or wrapping both within a UpdatePanel and using custom events??

Answer 1

Maybe you can create a delegate and an event to pass a list of searchvalues? This way you can easily add another or multiple display controls in case that ever becomes necessary.

Note that this is just some quick sample code that should be optimized/improved.

public class SearchControl
{
    public delegate void SearchEventHandler(object sender, Dictionary<string, string> SearchValues);
    public event SearchEventHandler OnSearch;

    public SearchControl()
    {
        btnSearch.Click += new EventHandler(Search);
    }

    protected void Search(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (OnSearch != null)
        {
            Dictionary<string, string> searchValues = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            searchValues.Add("name", "John");
            searchValues.Add("age", "24");

            OnSearch(this, searchValues);
        }
    }
}

public class DisplayControl
{
    public void ShowResults(Dictionary<string, string> SearchValues)
    {
        // Some logic here...
    }
}

public class YourWebPage
{
    SearchControl searcher = new SearchControl();
    DisplayControl displayer = new DisplayControl();

    public YourWebPage()
    {
        searcher.OnSearch += new SearchControl.SearchEventHandler(searcher_OnSearch);
    }

    public void searcher_OnSearch(object sender, Dictionary<string, string> SearchValues)
    {
        displayer.ShowResults(SearchValues);
    }
}