Disable the postback on an <ASP:LinkButton>

Question

I have an ASP.NET linkbutton control on my form. I would like to use it for javascript on the client side and prevent it from posting back to the server. (I'd like to use the linkbutton control so I can skin it and disable it in some cases, so a straight up tag is not preferred).

How do I prevent it from posting back to the server?

Answer 1

In C#, you'd do something like this:

MyButton.Attributes.Add("onclick", "put your javascript here including... return false;");

Answer 2

You might also want to have the client-side function return false.

<asp:LinkButton runat="server" id="button" Text="Click Me" OnClick="myfunction();return false;" AutoPostBack="false" />

You might also consider:

<span runat="server" id="clickableSpan" onclick="myfunction();" class="clickable">Click Me</span>

I use the clickable class to set things like pointer, color, etc. so that its appearance is similar to an anchor tag, but I don't have to worry about it getting posted back or having to do the href="javascript:void(0);" trick.

Answer 3

ASPX code:

<asp:LinkButton ID="someID" runat="server" Text="clicky"></asp:LinkButton>

Code behind:

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page 
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        someID.Attributes.Add("onClick", "return false;");
    }
}

What renders as HTML is:

<a onclick="return false;" id="someID" href="javascript:__doPostBack('someID','')">clicky</a>

In this case, what happens is the onclick functionality becomes your validator. If it is false, the "href" link is not executed; however, if it is true the href will get executed. This eliminates your post back.

Answer 4

This may sound like an unhelpful answer ... But why are you using a LinkButton for something purely client-side? Use a standard HTML anchor tag and set its onclick action to your Javascript.

If you need the server to generate the text of that link, then use an asp:Label as the content between the anchor's start and end tags.

If you need to dynamically change the script behavior based on server-side code, consider asp:Literal as a technique.

But unless you're doing server-side activity from the Click event of the LinkButton, there just doesn't seem to be much point to using it here.

Answer 5

I think you should investigate using a HyperLink control. It's a server-side control (so you can manipulate visibility and such from code), but it omits a regular ol' anchor tag and doesn't cause a postback.

Answer 6

GENIAL las Respuestas. Thanks a lot!!!

Answer 7

No one seems to be doing it like this:

createEventLinkButton.Attributes.Add("onClick", " if (this.innerHTML == 'Please Wait') { return false; } else { this.innerHTML='Please Wait'; }");

This seems to be the only way that works.

Answer 8

Why not use an empty ajax update panel and wire the linkbutton's click event to it? This way only the update panel will get updated, thus avoiding a postback and allowing you to run your javascript

Answer 9

call java script function on onclick event.

Answer 10

Instead of implement the attribute:

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page{
 protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
 {
    someID.Attributes.Add("onClick", "return false;");
 }}

Use:

OnClientClick="return false;"

inside of asp:LinkButton tag