ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit - CalendarExtender is reset on Postback

Question

Hello,

I have an ASP.NET page that has two input elements:

1. A TextBox that is ReadOnly. This TextBox is the TargetControl of a CalendarExtender
2. A DropDownList with AutoPostBack=true

Here is the code:

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr><td colspan="2">Date:</td></tr>
  <tr><td colspan="2">
    <asp:TextBox ID="dateTextBox" runat="server" ReadOnly="true" />
    <ajax:CalendarExtender ID="datePicker" runat="server" Format="MM/dd/yyyy" OnLoad="datePicker_Load" TargetControlID="dateTextBox" />
  </td></tr>

  <tr><td colspan="2">Select an Option:</td></tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Name:&nbsp;</td>
    <td><asp:DropDownList ID="optionsDropDownList" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true"  
      OnLoad="optionsDropDownList_Load" 
      OnSelectedIndexChanged="optionsDropDownList_SelectedIndexChanged" 
      DataTextField="Name" DataValueField="ID" />
  </td></tr>

  <tr><td><asp:Button ID="saveButton" runat="server" Text="Save" OnClick="saveButton_Click" /></td></tr>
</table>

When the DropDownList posts back, the date selected by the user with the datePicker is reset to the current date. In addition, if I look at the Text property of dateTextBox, it is equal to string.Empty.

How do I preserve the date that the user selected on a PostBack?

Answer 1

The fact that the text box is read only appears to be causing this problem. I duplicated your problem using no code in any of the bound events, and the date still disappeared. However, when I changed the text box to ReadOnly=False, it worked fine. Do you need to have the textbox be read only, or can you disable it or validate the date being entered?

EDIT: OK, I have an answer for you. According to this forum question, read only controls are not posted back to the server. So, when you do a postback you will lose the value in a read only control. You will need to not make the control read only.

Answer 2

I suspect your datePicker_Load is setting something and not checking if it's in a postback. That would make it happen every time and look like it was 'resetting'.

Answer 3

In stead of setting ReadOnly="False", set Enabled="False". This should fix your issue.

Answer 4

Thanks that helped a bunch!!!