ASP.Net repeater Item Command not getting fired

Question

OK, I've used repeaters literally hundreds of times without problems but something has gone awry today. I have a repeater and I'm subscribing to the itemCommand event, but when my command runs, the page posts back but the event isn't fired.

To get around this I'm having to do my databinding on each postback.

My repeater looks like this:

<asp:Repeater id="MyRepeater" runat="server" onitemcommand="MyRepeater_ItemCommand">
<ItemTemplate>
    <li>
    <asp:Label id="Label" runat="server" />
    <asp:LinkButton id="LinkButton1" runat="server" commandname="Complete" commandargument='<%# Eval("MyID") %>' text='<%# Eval("Title") %>' />
    </li>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

and my codebehind like this:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!IsPostBack)
    {
    SetupPage();
    }
}

private void SetupPage()
{
    // Do other stuff

    MyRepeater.DataSource = Repository.GetStuff()
    MyRepeater.DataBind();
}


protected void MyRepeater_ItemCommand(object sender, RepeaterCommandEventArgs e)
{


// Do all my stuff here
}

MyRepeater_ItemCommand is not getting called unless I comment out the if (!IsPostBack) line. Once that is commented out and the repeater is getting databound on each postback it works OK. I've done this in so many other pages but on this on it just doesn't seem to work.

Anyone else come across this behaviour or have a solution?

Answer 1

Do you have viewstate turned on for this page?

Answer 2

Most likely, you have disabled ViewState for the page.

The reason is that when you execute the postback, all the controls in the repeater are rebuild from the data in the viewstate normally. Then the object that should receive the event is identified based on the ID of the control, and the event is routed.

If you disable the viewstate, the control tree is not rebuild during postback, and therefore the control that should receive the event does not exist in memory. So the event dies.

If you really want to disable the viewstate, but still want to receive the event, I have a workaround (and it's not dirty at all). I've long been thinking about writing a blog entry about it, so if you want, I can take a bit time off my normal chores, and describe it.

Answer 3

I am not positive about this, but you might have to set the CommandName and optionally CommandArgument properties for the button causing the ItemCommand event. Otherwise ASP.NET would assume that there is no button on the page, which you'd like to fire the event. You can try that.

Plus, if you're not differentiating between command names, why not use each button's Click event instead? Just subscribe to those in the repeater's ItemCreated or ItemDataBound.

Answer 4

Try using Page_init instead of Page_load and that should fix the problem.

Answer 5

Here is the solution on Stack Overflow: link. Hope this helps!

EDIT: I noticed that your Repeater subscribes for the ItemCommand event from markup. If I do it that way, it is not firing for me, either!

I must also point out that the event only works AFTER the repeater has been data bound. So, try subscribing for the event in the code, and after calling the DataBind() method.