Is storing an array of objects in ASP.NET viewstate the best solution for this?

Question

I'm wondering if storing the data in viewstate is a good idea for this given problem. He's a simplified example of what I am trying to achieve, firstly we have a Repeater control:

<asp:Repeater id="Repeater1" runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:TextBox id="Name" runat="server" />
<asp:TextBox id="Age" runat="server" />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
<asp:TextBox id="NewPersonName" runat="server" />
<asp:TextBox id="NewPersonAge" runat="server" />
<asp:Buttin id="Button1" runat="server" Text="Add" OnClick"Button1_Click"/>

To keep things simple I'll forego the databinding code, as this is working it loads in the current list of people and ages and binds perfectly.

The problem is with the bottom 3 controls, what I want is for the user to be able to type in a new entry, click the add button and this would then be added to the Repeater, but not persisted to the database.

The user should be able to add multiple names to the list and then click a Save button to commit all the new names in one click rather than committing for each entry.

Hope I've explained everything ok, if not please ask for more info and I'll try and explain some more!

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Are you persisting the entire list from the database in the viewstate or just the uncommitted additions?

If it's just the additions, then this is a fine use of viewstate.

If the list from the DB isn't very large or volatile, then I guess that'd be OK, too.

Answer 2

I'd use a DataTable object and store it in the user's session. That way you have a quick way of data binding the upon each add/modify/delete and you can simple clear it out of the session when the processing is done. In addition, you could easily access the user list on a separate page if it was deemed necessary.

EDIT: One other caveat is that if necessary, you can easily drop a DataView on top of this is you need to do some quick sorting/filtering of the user list.

Answer 3

I'd use javascript and store it in object arrays. Then, the client side would reference the javascript arrays for building the UI.

You might take a look at some of the javascript frameworks like yahoo yui, script.aculo.us, jQuery, etc.

Answer 4

I'd handle this in one of two ways. The first would be JS arrays and do clientside adding to the repeater/viewing mechanism.

The other option would be to have a table in my DB where I store these uncommitted additions, and then just query them back out.

and in truth I'd probably do a combination of the two. Use AJAX to send the data to the uncommitted list table asynchronously while I'm building the new nodes for my display.

On the SAVE/COMMIT button, I'd send the commit command to the server asynchronously which moves the user's items from the uncommitted tableto the committed table.