Firing Server Side Event from jQuery - __EVENTARGUMENT Does not Exist

Question

I am trying to fire a form submit via jQuery and have a particular server side event fire.

Client Side Code:

$("input[name=__EVENTARGUMENT]").val("SomeArg");
form = $("body form");
form.submit();

Server Side Code:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (Page.IsPostBack)
        {
            if (Request["__EVENTARGUMENT"] == "SomeArg")
            {
                //do some stuff
            }
        }
    }

The problem is, the "__EVENTARGUMENT" hidden input does not exist. I discovered that if I add an ASP.net server control dropdownlist with autopostback = true, the EVENTARGUMENT hidden input is created. Is there a cleaner way to have ASP.net create these hidden inputs, and allow me to get their values server side without adding controls I do not actually need on the page?

Answer 1

Add asp.net HiddenField control to the page

But you will have a problem which is to get this control id, which as.net generates automatically, you can solve this using the ClientID property for the hidden field like this article mentions