Question

So…I’m trying to find the client ID of a control (a hidden input field) which is part of a user control which is bound dynamically to a Grid view ‘Item template’.
I was trying to do the following in the “RowDataBound” event and doesn’t seem to work.

protected void grid_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
        if (ShowSelectColumn)
        {

            HiddenField MfrHiddenField =  (e.Row.Cells[2].FindControl("MfrNumHiddenfield")) as HiddenField;
}

wherein “MfrNumHiddenfield” is the ID of the hidden input field. e.row.cells[2] is the cell number of the column to which the ‘user control’ is bound to…

below is how the user control gets added to the gridview:

    grid.Columns.Add(CreateTemplateField(
            path + "ManufacturerHeader.ascx",
            path + "ManufacturerCell.ascx"));

Is anything wrong with what i am trying to do? please help

Answer 1

You don’t usually need to look in the cell. e.Row.FindControl("MfrNumHiddenfield") should be enough.

Since you are looking for a control in a custom control, you could try:

e.Row.FindControl("manufacturerCellControl").FindControl("MfrNumHiddenfield")

I have never tried it, but it seems plausible.

A better option would be to expose a property from the ManufacturerCell control to make the change you want. This would keep clients of the control from needing to understand the inner workings. Just create a property, and write the code in the get and set methods.