Datagrid Template Column

[robertx]

I am using a datagrid with a "Bound" column, a "Template" column and an "EditCommand" column.

The "EditCommand" column has an "Edit" button which when clicked shows a text box in the "Template" column which the user can enter text into.

How do you set the focus to the text box when it appears?

I have used Javascript like this:

<script language="javascript">document.getElementById('TextBox1').focus();</script>

but it does not work in this case.

[dj4uk]

Check that the client-side ID is "TextBox1". As it is inside a DataGrid I'm sure its client-side ID is different to the server-side one. You can use the ClientID property of the control server-side to get what the client-side ID will be.

HTH

DJ

[robertx]

That worked except that it allocates a different ClientID to each index.

eg. It was called DataGrid1__ctl2_txtQuantity at index 0 and
DataGrid1__ctl3_txtQuantity at index 1

how can I determine this on the fly?

[dj4uk]

OK what you need to do is this...

When the DataGrid is databound you need to grab the ClientID for the TextBox and generate the Client-Side code using this ID. You can do this using the ItemDataBound event of the DataGrid. Page.RegisterStartupScript will generate the JavaScript code.

void DataGrid1_ItemDataBound(object sender, DataGridItemEventArgs e) {
	if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.EditItem) {
		TextBox txtTemp = (TextBox) e.Item.FindControl("TextBox1");
		string clientSideID = txtTemp.ClientID;

		if (!Page.IsStartupScriptRegistered("EditFocusTextBox")) {
            		Page.RegisterStartupScript("EditFocusTextBox", "<script language=\"javascript\" type=\"text/javascript\">document.getElementById('" + clientSideID + "').focus();<\u002Fscript>");
        	}

	}
}

Let me know if you have any problems.

DJ

[robertx]

I translated this into VB as follows:

Private Sub DataGrid1_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs) Handles DataGrid1.ItemDataBound
        Dim txtTemp As System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox
        Dim sClientID As String
 
        If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.EditItem Then
            txtTemp = e.Item.FindControl("TextBox1")
            sClientID = txtTemp.ClientID
 
            If (Page.IsStartupScriptRegistered("EditFocusTextBox")) = True Then
                Page.RegisterStartupScript("EditFocusTextBox", "<script language=""javascript"" type=""text/javascript"">document.getElementById('" & sClientID & "').focus();<\u002Fscript>"")")
            End If
 
     End If  
 
End Sub

This did not work and I think it's because the template column is not databound. It is an empty column to receive data entry from the user.

"e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.EditItem" never equated to True so the script was never generated. When I removed the first "If" statement, I received an object not set exception at the line:

"sClientID = txtQuantity.ClientID"

[dj4uk]

Could you give a bit more detail on how the DataGrid is built - perhaps the asp.net code?

Cheers

DJ

[robertx]

I used your code to get it to work like this:

Private Sub DataGrid1_EditCommand(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridCommandEventArgs) Handles DataGrid1.EditCommand
        Dim sClientID As String
        Dim sJavaScript As String
 
        sClientID = "DataGrid1__ctl" & ((e.Item.ItemIndex) + 2).ToString & "_TextBox1"
        sJavaScript = "<script language=""javascript"">document.getElementById('" & sClientID & "').focus();</script>"
        Page.RegisterStartupScript("EditFocusTextBox", sJavaScript)
 
        BindDataGrid(e.Item.ItemIndex)
 
End Sub

I noticed that it allocated the ID number of the text box as 2 greater than the selected index of the grid.

However, this has created another problem - I now don't get focus to the search text box when the page is loaded. I'll try and use the same technique to set the focus to that text box when I am not updating.

What is the significance of the first parameter of Page.RegisterStartupScript ie. "EditFocusTextBox"?

[dj4uk]

Okey dokey sounds like you've got it sorted.

The first parameter is a unique key for the block of script so it can be referenced elsewhere -> full explanation.

DJ