Question

There is (suppose to be) a label or textbox in hidden mode that from the code behind will be set (text value) to “user” or “manager”.

I want to be able to make a JavaScript verify what is the value of the (hidden) textbox/label when there’s a click event on given table row (<tr>) which dose not have runat="server" property set.

If a client tries to click on that row (actually that row has a few textbox elements)
so if client try to edit e.g. click on the row
then action taken by a js function like alert("no edit allowed") will be taken.

<tr id="TR_editTimein" onClick="javascript:CheckIfManager();">
    <td> <input type="text" id="timeIn" /></td>
</tr>

1. If code behind recognize a manager(from Request.QueryString) it sets the hidden LBL or TXTBX with value “manager”

2. JavaScript onClick event over TR_editTimein will trigger CheckIfManager()
   function

3. CheckIfManager() will ask for the value of the hidden element and if value is “user” it will do alert(“no edit option for non Managers”)

For now, what happens is if i set that say aspTextBox to Visible=false
JavaScript also don’t see it.

what is the right way to validate if the client is user or manager?

Answer 1

If you set Visible=False, the ASP.NET control wont even get rendered in browser ( client -side ). That means DOM won’t have that object and so you cannot fetch that object using getElementById.

The alternative is to use an asp:HiddenField which renders as input type='hidden'.

If you have a resolute and unyielding need to use asp:Label or asp:TextBox set the display:none; from code-behind like this

myLabelID.Attributes.Add("style","display:none");

That way the object will be rendered in browser and hidden from user allowing you to fetch that using JavaScript.