search for ClientID client-side or server-side?

Question

I understand that I currently can't use <a onclick="alert('<%=TextBox1.ClientID%>')" directly because I need to access it in a table cell in a table in the EditTemplate of a DataList inside a UserControl.

That said, I need to recursively check the controls to get the ClientID, should it be done
client-side: alert(getMyElement('TextBox1').id), where getMyElement checks all elements of the form and returns the control with the id...or
server-side: alert('<%=FindElement(dlDataList, "TextBox1").ClientID%>') where FindElement is a base page function that checks the controls of the first param for an element with an id of the second param and returns that control ?

I'm figuring the client-side would be faster?

Answer 1

I always go with server side for this case. Otherwise you're traversing the entire DOM with each row - depending on the size, it could be a memory hog. Server side takes almost no resources for this.