Text-property of my ASP.NET Composite-control doesn't set text-changes

Question

I have build a composite control which renders a TextControl or a RADEditor control, dependable of a property a set. Both rendered controls have a Text-property. The problem is that when I change the Textvalue on my webpage (when it is running) it won't set the new Text-value but the old Textvalue instead.

Does anyboy know what I'm doing wrong?

Below the code of my composite-control.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using Telerik.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using Framework.WebControls;

namespace Components.Broadcasting.Controls
{

    [DefaultProperty("Text")]
    [ToolboxData("<{0}:TextControl runat=server></{0}:TextControl>")]
    public class TextControl : CompositeControl, INamingContainer, IDisposable
    {       
        //private Control _myControl;
        private Label _myLabel;
        private HtmlGenericControl _contentContainer;
        private HtmlGenericControl _labelBlock;
        private HtmlGenericControl _inputBlock;

        public override ControlCollection Controls
        {
            get
            {
                EnsureChildControls();
                return base.Controls;
            }
        }

        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Appearance")]
        [DefaultValue("")]
        [Localizable(true)]
        public string Text
        {
            get
            {                
                String s = (String)ViewState["Text"];
                return ((s == null) ? String.Empty : s);
            }

            set
            {                
                ViewState["Text"] = value;
            }
        }

        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Campagne Broadcasting")]
        [DefaultValue("Naam label")]
        [Description("Label horende bij het contenttype")]        
        public string Label
        {
            get
            {
                String s = (String)ViewState["label"];
                return ((s == null) ? String.Empty : s);
            }

            set
            {
                ViewState["label"] = value;
            }
        }

        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Campagne Broadcasting")]
        [DefaultValue(XMLElementType.Heading)]
        [Description("Nog in te vullen")]
        public XMLElementType XMLElementType
        {
            get
            {
                if (ViewState["textContentType"] == null) return XMLElementType.Heading;
                return (XMLElementType)ViewState["textContentType"];
            }
            set
            {
                ViewState["textContentType"] = value;
            }
        }

        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Campagne Broadcasting")]
        [DefaultValue("0")]
        [Description("Layoutposition of the contentitem")]
        public int ContentPosition
        {
            get
            {
                if (ViewState["contentPosition"] == null) return 0;
                return (int)ViewState["contentPosition"];
            }
            set
            {
                ViewState["textContentType"] = value;
            }
        }

        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Campagne Broadcasting")]
        [DefaultValue("0")]
        [Description("Layoutposition of the contentitem")]
        public XmlOutputGroup XMLOutputGroup
        {
            get
            {
                if (ViewState["xmlOutputGroup"] == null) return 0;
                return (XmlOutputGroup)ViewState["xmlOutputGroup"];
            }
            set
            {
                ViewState["xmlOutputGroup"] = value;
            }
        }

        protected override void RecreateChildControls()
        {
            EnsureChildControls();
        }

        protected override void CreateChildControls()
        {
            Controls.Clear();

            string containerClass = "contentContainer";
            string labelBlock = "labelBlock";
            string inputBlock = "inputBlock";

            _myLabel = new Label();
            _myLabel.Text = Label;
            _contentContainer = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
            _contentContainer.Attributes["class"] = containerClass;

            _labelBlock = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
            _labelBlock.Attributes["class"] = labelBlock;
            _inputBlock = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
            _inputBlock.Attributes["class"] = inputBlock;

            _contentContainer = new HtmlGenericControl("div");
            _contentContainer.Attributes["class"] = containerClass;
            _labelBlock.Controls.Add(_myLabel);

            if (XMLElementType == XMLElementType.Heading)
            {
                TextBox _myControl = new TextBox();
                _myControl.Text = this.Text;
                _inputBlock.Controls.Add(_myControl);
            }
            else if (XMLElementType == XMLElementType.Content)
            {
                RadEditor _myControl = new RadEditor();
                _myControl.Content = this.Text;
                _inputBlock.Controls.Add(_myControl);                

            }
            else if (XMLElementType == XMLElementType.SlideTypeName)
            {
                TextBox _myControl = new TextBox();
                _myControl.Text = this.Text;
                _inputBlock.Controls.Add(_myControl);
            }
            else if (XMLElementType == XMLElementType.Image)
            {
                ImageUploader _myControl = new ImageUploader();                
                _inputBlock.Controls.Add(_myControl);
            }

            _contentContainer.Controls.Add(_labelBlock);
            _contentContainer.Controls.Add(_inputBlock);

            this.Controls.Add(_contentContainer);           
        }

        protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter output)
        {           
            _contentContainer.RenderControl(output);            
        }
    }
}

Thanks in advance

Kind regards, Patrick

Answer 1

You are exposing properties such as Label, Text, but only using them in CreateChildControls - which is too early in the page lifecycle. The easiest way to deal with this is to delegate the property to a child control, as in the example below for the Label property. You could handle the Text property similarly.

Alternatively, you can set the properties on your child controls in your RenderContents override, but this adds some complexity.

public string Label  
{  
    get  
    {  
        EnsureChildControls();
        return _myLabel.Text;
    }  

    set  
    {  
        EnsureChildControls();
        _myLabel.Text = value;
    }  
}