Dynamically adding RadButtons

[Richard]

I am trying to dynamically add RadButtons to a page by simply sticking the HTML in on the page load.  The buttons are not showing up on the page.  I have tried using AddControl which does display the buttons, but after I call AddControl, I can no longer modify the InnerHtml.  Any ideas how I can make this work?  See Code below.

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (IsCallback)
            return;

        CompSubMenuDiv.InnerHtml = "";

        int ItemNum = 0;
        AddMenuHTML("Item Title 1",
                    "Item Description 1",
                    "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx",
                    ItemNum);

        AddMenuHTML("Item Title 2",
                    "Item Description 2.",
                    "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx",
                    ItemNum);

    }


    protected void AddMenuHTML(string ModTitle, string ModDesc,
                               string LearnMoreURL, string SampleURL, string CreateIllURL,
                               int ItemNum)
    {
        // Add the html for one menu item.
        ItemNum++;
        string Button1Name = "RadButton" + Convert.ToString(ItemNum);
        ItemNum++;
        string Button2Name = "RadButton" + Convert.ToString(ItemNum);

        CompSubMenuDiv.InnerHtml = CompSubMenuDiv.InnerHtml + "<br /><br /><br />" +
          "<span class=\"SubMenuItemTitle IISMenuItemText1\">" + ModTitle + "</span><br />" +
          "<div class=\"SysSubMenuLevel2Div\">" +
          "   <div class=\"SubMenuItemDescDiv\">" +
          "       <span class=\"SubMenuItemText\">" + ModDesc + " <a href=\"~\\comparisons.aspx\">learn more...</a> </span>" +
          "       <br />" +
          "       <telerik:RadButton ID=\"" + Button1Name + "\" runat=\"server\" " +
          "           Text=\"Show me a sample case...\"" +
          "           BorderColor=\"Black\" Height=\"1.5em\" ForeColor=\"#666666\" Style=\"padding-top: 2px; " +
          "           padding-bottom: 2px; margin-top: 0.5em; visible: true;\">" +
          "       </telerik:RadButton>" +
          "   </div>" +
          "   <div class=\"SubMenuCreateIllDiv\">" +
          "       <telerik:RadButton ID=\""+Button2Name+"\" runat=\"server\" " +
          "           Text=\"Create Illustration\" BorderColor=\"Black\"" +
          "           Height=\"1.5em\" Style=\"padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; margin-top: 0.5em;" +
          "            float: right\" BackColor=\"Gray\" ForeColor=\"White\">" +
          "       </telerik:RadButton>" +
          "   </div>" +
          "</div>";
    }

[Richard]

I just made the whole thing a user control and added it.  That seems to work so far.  I am still new to this stuff so finding may way around,

[Ianko]

Hello Richard,

The approach used is not working because RadButton is never loaded with the proper ASP.NET life cycle.

To add a button programmatically from the code behind, you should properly use the RadButton class and load it to the form. To do that withing a generic control, like DIV, you should use the Controls collection.

Example:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    CompSubMenuDiv.InnerHtml = "";

    AddMenuHTML("Item Title 1",
                "Item Description 1",
                "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx", "~\\Comparison.aspx");
}


protected void AddMenuHTML(string ModTitle, string ModDesc,
                           string LearnMoreURL, string SampleURL, string CreateIllURL)
{
    string Button1ID = "RadButton" + Convert.ToString(Guid.NewGuid());

    RadButton button = new RadButton();
    button.ID = Button1ID;
    button.Text = "Show me a sample case...";

    CompSubMenuDiv.Controls.Add(button);
}

ASP.NET markup cannot be treated as plain HTML. By doing so, the controls are not rendered properly and all their dynamically loaded resources cannot be requested.

Regards,
Ianko
Telerik