tags:

views:

280

answers:

4

I have a asp.net app that I want to disable the buttons as soon as they are clicked in order to prevent multiple submissions. I'd like to use jquery for this as the site already liberally uses it anyway.

What I've tried is:

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("#aspnetForm").submit(function () {
        $('input[type=submit]', $(this)).attr("disabled", "disabled");
    })
});

The above will disable the button, and the page submits, but the asp.net button on click handler is never called. Simply removing the above and the buttons work as normal.

Is there a better way? Or, rather, what am I doing wrong?

UPDATE Okay, I finally had a little time to put a very simple page together.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="SubTest.aspx.cs" Inherits="MyTesting.SubTest" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"&gt;

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt;
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function () {
            $("#form1").submit(function () {
                $('input[type=submit]', $(this)).attr("disabled", "disabled");
            });
        });
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" onclick="Button1_Click" Text="Button" />
        <asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" onclick="Button2_Click" Text="Button 2" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

The code behind looks like:

using System;

namespace MyTesting {
    public partial class SubTest : System.Web.UI.Page {
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        if (IsPostBack) {
            // this will execute when any button is pressed
            Response.Write("postback");
        }
    }
        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        // never executes
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
            Response.Write("Button 1 clicked<br />");
        } // method::Button1_Click

        protected void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        // never executes
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
            Response.Write("Button 2 clicked<br />");
        } // method::Button2_Click
    }
}

When you click on a button it obviously disables the buttons, but NEITHER of the button clicks are run.

Rendered HTML

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"&gt;

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt;
<head><title>

</title>
    <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function () {
            $("#form1").submit(function () {
                $('input[type=submit]', $(this)).attr("disabled", "disabled");
            });
        });
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form name="form1" method="post" action="SubTest.aspx" id="form1">
<div>
<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPDwUKMTcxODU4OTc0MWRkParC5rVFUblFs8AkhNMEtFAWlU4=" />
</div>

<div>

    <input type="hidden" name="__EVENTVALIDATION" id="__EVENTVALIDATION" value="/wEWAwKB57WhCAKM54rGBgK7q7GGCC6LlWKFoij9FIBVuI0HOVju/fTy" />
</div>
    <div>
        <input type="submit" name="Button1" value="Button" id="Button1" />
        <input type="submit" name="Button2" value="Button 2" id="Button2" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>
+3  A: 

You can do it a slightly different way, like this:

$(function () {
  $("#aspnetForm").submit(function () {
    $('input[type=submit]').click(function() { return false; });
  });
});

What this does is makes future clicks ineffective, basically making them do nothing. When you disable an input, it also removes the key/value pair from being submitted with the <form>, so your server-side action which is triggered by it doesn't work.

It's worth noting, in jQuery 1.4.3 you'll be able to shorten this down to:

$(function () {
  $("#aspnetForm").submit(function () {
    $('input[type=submit]').click(false);
  });
});
Nick Craver
I'm running 1.4.2 right now. the first one doesn't seem to stop multiple button presses;
Chris Lively
@Chris - Can you post your markup? Are you using submit buttons or possibly links as well?
Nick Craver
@Nick Craver: Finally got a chance to post some markup
Chris Lively
@Chris - can you post the *rendered* html? That's all the javascript's going to care about :)
Nick Craver
@Nick: rendered version is up.
Chris Lively
I have tried Nick's solution and it *does* work (in chrome and FF 3.6)
Chris F
I'm upvoting and accepting this answer as the only viable solution. Setting a button to disabled screws with asp.net's post back mechanism. However, if I combine the answer here with a step that changes the css class of the button to grey it out, then it achieves basically the same effect. Thanks
Chris Lively
A: 

If you have ASP.NET validation controls on your page its gets complicated. But this has been answered before: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/106509/disable-button-on-form-submission/612630#612630

jrummell
I tried that. I get a compilation error: the name 'ClientScript' does not exist in the current context. If I take out the line referencing 'ClientScript' then the button is disabled, but it never submits
Chris Lively
Are you trying this in a control instead of page? If so, you'll need to reference the ClientScript property on the page, e.g. `Page.ClientScript.GetPostBackEventReference(btnSubmit, string.Empty)`.
jrummell
It's in a page and there is no validation. Just updated my answer with the markup.
Chris Lively
+2  A: 

The approach of disabling the button before the submit has two effects: -

a) The button takes on the disabled appearance.

b) The button's value is not posted in the form parameters.

If the button's value is not being posted to the server, ASP.Net does not know which button was pressed and thus it does not run the relevent OnClick handler.

To verify add the following to your code behind

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Response.Write("Load " + IsPostBack + "<br />");
    foreach (string s in Request.Form.AllKeys)
    {
        Response.Write(string.Format("s:'{0}' = {1}<br />", s, Request.Form[s]));
    }
}

And then run the page (both with J.S. to disable the buttons and without). If the button's value is not being posted to the server, ASP.Net does not know which button was pressed and thus it does not run the relevent OnClick handler.

Chris F
+1 This was my finding exactly. As you said, it's an interesting gotchya.
Chris Lively
A: 

Just another observation. Alternatively, you can lock UI with a nice overlay busy message.

The Mark-up part:

$(function() { // when document has loaded

    ($.unblockUI); //unlock UI

    //Show busy message on click event and disable UI
    $('#btnHelloWorld').click(function() {
    $.blockUI({ message: '<h4><img src="busy.gif" />Please wait...</h4>' });

    });

});

<asp:Button ID="btnHelloWorld" runat="server" Text="Hello World" /><br/>

The Code behind:

   Protected Sub btnHelloWorld_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles btnHelloWorld.Click
        Label1.Text = "Hello World"
        Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000)
    End Sub

Check out jQuery BlockUI Plugin

Angkor Wat