Most of the examples you find on the web, of using javascript from ASP.NET pages puts the javascript in the markup file (*.aspx). This is, of course, a really bad idea(tm), for all but the simplest uses of javascript.
What we want, of course, is to wrap the javascript up into a class, and to instantiate an instance of that class and tie it to the code-behind.
Microsoft provides a framework for doing this for user controls and server controls, in its IScriptControl interface. This allows a developer to create a javascript "component" - to define a javascript class in a *.js file, to include the *.js file on the page that contains the control, to instantiate an instance of the component, to set variables in the component from values in the code-behind, and to get a reference to the component in javascript on the client side.
The thing is - IScriptControl only works for user and server controls. It cannot be used to instantiate javascript objects at the page level.
So - how do people do this? We have some patterns we've been using, that seem to work. I was wondering what everyone thought of them, and what other people were using.
We start by defining a javascript class in a *.js file. In the code-behind, we create a loadJavascript() function, that we call from Page_Load on initial load or full postback (but not on partial postbacks).
In loadJavascript(), we include the *.js file with ScriptManager.RegisterClientScriptInclude(), and then construct a bit of javascript that instantiates an instance of the class, assigns a reference to a known name, and registers the object's initialize() and dispose() methods as handlers for window.load and window.unload.
E.g.:
string url = this.ResolveUrl("./FooBar.js");
ScriptManager.RegisterClientScriptInclude(this, this.GetType(), url, url);
string script = @"
if (typeof {0}_obj == 'undefined')
{0}_obj = {{}};
{0}_obj.fooBar = new FooBar();
Sys.UI.DomEvent.addHandler(window, 'load',
function()
{{
{0}_obj.fooBar.initialize('{1}', '{2}');
}}
);
Sys.UI.DomEvent.addHandler(window, 'unload', {0}_obj.fooBar.dispose);
";
script = String.Format(script,
new object[]
{
this.ClientID,
this.foo.ClientID,
this.bar.ClientID
});
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(
this, this.GetType(), this.ClientID, script, true);
We construct an object name in the global namespace, based on the ClientID of the page, if we haven't already. We add an instance of our new class as a member of our global object. We add a window.load handler that calls our object's intialize() method, passing the clientIDs of the controls on the page that the object's methods need to access. And we add a window.unload handler that calls our object's dispose() method, that does whatever cleanup that is necessary.
This seems to be working, for us. We've used this pattern on a number of pages, some of which did significant amounts of partial-postbacks, without any problems.
I was wondering, first, what people thought of the pattern.
But more, I was wondering if we'd been reinventing the wheel, and if there were other approaches to dealing with the issues we were addressing, that we weren't aware of.
Anyone have any better ideas?