Datagrid Template Column

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:

Code:

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

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but it does not work in this case.

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

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?

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.

Code:

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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

I translated this into VB as follows:

VB Code:

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"

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

Cheers

DJ

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

VB Code:

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"?

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