Events not firing for dynamic columns in SharePoint DataGrid

Question

In a Web Part for Sharepoint, I'm trying to add a variable number/ordering of ButtonColumns to a DataGrid dynamically based on an option the user has selected. The problem is that the dynamic columns aren't firing off the events I set up on the DataGrid (such as SelectedIndexChanged). When the table originally constained a static set of columns, they were created in CreateChildControls() and everything worked peachy. However, since they are now dynamic, I have to delay adding them until after a search button's click event fires. I was wondering if there was some place I needed to move the column creation to that still allowed it to be dynamic but also allowed it to register/fire events.

outputDG creation in CreateChildControls():

outputDG = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGrid();
outputDG.CellPadding = 4;
outputDG.HeaderStyle.Font.Bold = false;
outputDG.HeaderStyle.Font.Name = "Verdana";
outputDG.HeaderStyle.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(242,242,242);
outputDG.HeaderStyle.ForeColor = Color.FromArgb(128,128,128);
outputDG.HeaderStyle.Wrap = false;
//outputDG.ItemStyle.BorderColor = Color.Navy;
outputDG.HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Left;
//outputDG.BorderWidth = 1;
outputDG.GridLines = GridLines.Horizontal;
outputDG.Width = propsMgr.SearchGridWidth;
outputDG.PageSize = 10;
outputDG.AllowPaging = true;
outputDG.PagerStyle.Mode = PagerMode.NumericPages;
outputDG.PagerStyle.PageButtonCount = 5;
outputDG.PagerStyle.NextPageText = "Next Page";
outputDG.PagerStyle.PrevPageText = "Previous Page";
outputDG.PagerStyle.Visible = true;
outputDG.PageIndexChanged += new DataGridPageChangedEventHandler(this.outputDG_PageIndexChanged);
outputDG.AllowSorting = false;
outputDG.SortCommand += new DataGridSortCommandEventHandler(this.outputDG_SortCommand);
outputDG.SelectedItemStyle.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(255,244,206);
outputDG.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(this.outputDG_SelectedIndexChanged);
outputDG.ItemCreated += new DataGridItemEventHandler(this.outputDG_ItemCreated);
outputDG.AutoGenerateColumns = false;
outputDG.ItemCommand += new DataGridCommandEventHandler(outputDG_ItemCommand);
Controls.Add(outputDG);

During the search button's click event:

ButtonColumn buttonColumnSelect = new ButtonColumn();
buttonColumnSelect.ButtonType = ButtonColumnType.LinkButton;
buttonColumnSelect.CommandName = "Select";
buttonColumnSelect.HeaderText = "Column";
buttonColumnSelect.DataTextField = "columnField";
outputDG.Columns.Add(buttonColumnSelect);

And then later on it that same event I go through the result set and add in my data rows. Like I mentioned, this all worked back when the ButtomColumn code was up in CreateChildControls(), but it stopped working as soon as it was moved into an event. My best guess is that the event for the column doesn't have a chance to register in order to fire since it's happening from a different event. If I need to tackle this problem by building up the DataGrid differently, I'm definitely willing; I just need to be able to dynamically specify different columns to use.

Answer 1

maybe u need to set the ID-Attribute on the DataGrid. otherwise it would be difficult for asp to find your control.

Answer 2

The fix for my case was to move the adding of the columns to the page's load event and the adding of the DataGrid to the controls after all of the columns are added.