Refresh Content In a .ascx File

Question

Because .ascx files are naturally rendered early in the page life cycle, if I want to update information on a form that is outside the .ascx part, how do I refresh the .ascx file to reflect the changes, say on button click (the same one that saves info)?

For instance (pseudocode):

Sub Page_load
    'user control is naturally rendered here'
End Sub

Sub Button_Click
    SaveStuff()
    ReRenderUserControl()
End Sub

Answer 1

User Controls (.ascx files) are rendered during the containing page life cycle, just as you mention. When you do a button click postback on the containing page, upon the postback load the User Control will be completely rerendered. If you require the User Control to contain different information upon this load there are many things you can do:

• In your User Control, go to a data store and return the information required during its load event or any other proper event (databind of a control, etc.)
• In the Page Load of your containing page, assign values to properties of your UserControl that you use within different aspects of the User Control. These values could come from a data store or querystring or whatever.

There are plenty of other options as well. If you're talking about partial postbacks or AJAXy type stuff, then you'll probably have to use JavaScript to update the different parts of your User Control (unless you're using UpdatePanels, which you shouldn't because they are the devil).

Answer 2

If you're creating a user control that's being built based on data saved. What you can do is create a method that does that building and then call it within the page and user control (pseudocode):

UserControl:

protected Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    BuildControlBasedOnData();
}

public BuildControlBasedOnData()
{
    // Build the user control based on saved data
}

Calling Page:

Button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    UserControl1.BuildControlBasedOnData();    
}

Answer 3

I came up with what I believe to be an imperfect, yet useable solution. All I did was make the Page_Load function in my .ascx file Public and then called it after my info was saved. This took care of my problem.

If anyone has a more elegant solution, please let me know!