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Uploading Files with AJAX

RadUpload has been replaced by RadAsyncUpload, Telerik’s next-generation ASP.NET upload component. If you are considering Telerik’s Upload control for new development, check out the documentation of RadAsyncUpload or the control’s product page. If you are already using RadUpload in your projects, you may be interested in reading how easy the transition to RadAsyncUpload is and how you can benefit from it in this blog post. The official support for RadUpload has been discontinued in June 2013 (Q2’13), although it is still be available in the suite. We deeply believe that RadAsyncUpload can better serve your upload needs and we kindly ask you to transition to it to make sure you take advantage of its support and the new features we constantly add to it.

RadUpload cannot upload files using AJAX calls. This is a limitation of the XmlHttpRequest component, used in all AJAX frameworks for asynchronous calls to the application. In order to upload a file your application must perform a full page postback.

If you have automatically AJAX-enabled buttons or other controls that normally perform postbacks placed in UpdatePanel, RadAjaxPanel, or RadGrid, you can use one of the following approaches to make the control to perform postbacks again:

Workaround for ASP.NET AJAX

You can create a PostBackTrigger in the UpdatePanel for the button that initiates postback:

<asp:UpdatePanel runat="server" ID="UpdatePanel1">
    <ContentTemplate>
        <telerik:radupload runat="server" id="RadUpload1" />
        <asp:Button runat="server" ID="ButtonSubmit" Text="Postback" />
    </ContentTemplate>
    <Triggers>
        <asp:PostBackTrigger ControlID="ButtonSubmit" />
    </Triggers>
</asp:UpdatePanel>

Workaround for RadAjaxPanel or RadAjaxManager

Attach an event handler to the OnRequestStart client-side event of the RadAjaxPanel / RadAjaxManager, which disables the AJAX functionality when a specific button is clicked.

The get_eventTarget() method of the args parameter contains the UniqueID of the clicked button.

<radscriptblock id="RadScriptBlock1" runat="server">
    <script type="text/javascript">
        // on upload button click temporarily disables ajax to perform
        // upload actions
        function conditionalPostback(sender, args) {
            if (args.get_eventTarget() == "<%= ButtonSubmit.UniqueID %>") {
                args.set_enableAjax(false);
            }
        }
    </script>
</radscriptblock>
    <telerik:radajaxpanel runat="server" id="RadAjaxPanel1" clientevents-onrequeststart="conditionalPostback">
 <telerik:RadUpload runat="server" id="RadUpload1" />
 <asp:Button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Upload" />
</telerik:radajaxpanel>

Workaround for RadGrid classic

RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX no longer supports the EnableAjax feature. However, if your application mixes RadUpload for ASP.NET AJAX controls with RadGrid "classic", you can use the same technique as in the previous workaround for buttons inside RadGrid. Since the button that initiates a postback is in a template, you cannot use its UniqueID directly. Instead, you must check for its ID.You must ensure that you have no other buttons with the same ID on the page.

UpdateButton and PerformInsertButton are the IDs of the integrated in RadGrid Update and Insert buttons. If you have custom edit form with buttons that have different IDs, use their IDs instead.

<script type="text/javascript">
    //on insert and update buttons click temporarily disables ajax to perform upload actions
    function conditionalPostback(sender, args) {
        var re = new RegExp("\.UpdateButton$|\.PerformInsertButton$", "ig");
        if (sender.EventTarget.match(re)) {
            sender.EnableAjax = false;
        }
    }
</script>
<telerik:radprogressmanager id="RadProgressManager1" runat="server" />
<radg:radgrid runat="server" id="RadGrid1" enableajax="true">
     <ClientSettings>
       <ClientEvents OnRequestStart="conditionalPostback" />
     </ClientSettings>
     <MasterTableView >
       <Columns>
         <radg:GridEditCommandColumn />
         <radg:GridTemplateColumn UniqueName= "Upload">
           <ItemTemplate>
              ...
           </ItemTemplate>
           <EditItemTemplate >
              <telerik:RadUpload id="RadUpload1" runat="server" />
           </EditItemTemplate >
         </radg:GridTemplateColumn >
       </Columns>
       <EditFormSettings >
         <EditColumn UniqueName="EditCommandColumn1">
         </EditColumn>
       </EditFormSettings >
     </MasterTableView >
</radg:radgrid>

Workaround for RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX

Since RadGrid for ASP.NET AJAX no longer supports the EnableAjax feature, one possible way of ajax-ifying it is by placing it inside a RadAjaxPanel for example (the workaround is similar when using RadAjaxManager).

If you have button or other control, which normally does postbacks, placed in the ajax-ified RadGrid you need to attach an event handler for the OnRequestStart client-side event of the RadAjaxPanel (RadAjaxManager), which will disable the AJAX functionality if a specific button is clicked. What is more AJAX can disabled only if there are files selected for upload. For this purpose the client ID of the RadUpload is stored in a global client-side variable as the Grid triggered in Edit Mode.

<telerik:radscriptblock id="RadScriptBlock1" runat="server">
    <script type="text/javascript">
        //On insert and update buttons click temporarily disables ajax to perform upload actions
        function conditionalPostback(sender, args) {
            var theRegexp = new RegExp("\.UpdateButton$|\.PerformInsertButton$", "ig");

            if (args.get_eventTarget().match(theRegexp)) {
                var upload = $find(window['UploadId']);

                //AJAX is disabled only if file is selected for upload
                if (upload.getFileInputs()[0].value != "") {
                    args.set_enableAjax(false);
                }
            }
        }
    </script>
</telerik:radscriptblock>
<telerik:radajaxpanel id="RadAjaxPanel1" runat="server" clientevents-onrequeststart="conditionalPostback">
    <telerik:radprogressmanager id="RadProgressManager1" runat="server"/>
    <telerik:radgrid runat="server" id="RadGrid1" onitemdatabound="RadGrid1_ItemDataBound">
     <mastertableview>
      <columns>
       <telerik:grideditcommandcolumn />
       <telerik:gridtemplatecolumn uniquename="Upload">
        <itemtemplate> ... </itemtemplate>
        <edititemtemplate>
         <telerik:radupload id="RadUpload1" runat="server" />
        </edititemtemplate>
       </telerik:gridtemplatecolumn>
       </columns>
       <editformsettings>
         <editcolumn uniquename="EditCommandColumn1"></editcolumn>
       </editformsettings>
       </mastertableview>
    </telerik:radgrid>
<telerik:radajaxpanel> 

protected void RadGrid1_ItemDataBound(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item is GridEditableItem && e.Item.IsInEditMode)
    {
        RadUpload upload = e.Item.FindControl("RadUpload1") as RadUpload;
        RadAjaxPanel1.ResponseScripts.Add(string.Format("window['UploadId'] = '{0}';", upload.ClientID));
    }
} 

Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridItemEventArgs)
    If TypeOf e.Item Is GridEditableItem AndAlso e.Item.IsInEditMode Then
        Dim upload As RadUpload = TryCast(e.Item.FindControl("RadUpload1"), RadUpload)
        RadAjaxPanel1.ResponseScripts.Add(String.Format("window['UploadId'] = '{0}';", upload.ClientID))
    End If
End Sub

Alternative workaround for RadAjaxPanel (and RadGrid classic)

RadAjax automatically replaces all instances of "__doPostBack" inside AJAX-enabled controls such as those that are placed inside RadAjaxPanel. If you create a JavaScript function which calls __doPostBack inside its body and call that function instead of __doPostBack, you can perform postbacks from AJAX-enabled controls.

If you place the realPostBack function defined in the example inside a user control, make sure that it is not placed inside RadAjaxPanel (or inside RadGrid classic ), because it will automatically replace the call to __doPostBack in the realPostBack function body. In this case, you must declare the realPostBack function in the ASPX page.


<script type="text/javascript">
    function realPostBack(eventTarget, eventArgument) {
        **doPostBack(eventTarget, eventArgument);
    }
</script>
<telerik:RadAjaxPanel runat="server" id="RadAjaxPanel1">
 <asp:Button runat="server" id="ButtonSubmit" text="Upload" />
 <telerik:RadUpload runat="server" id="RadUpload1" />
</telerik:RadAjaxPanel> 


protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!IsPostback)
    {
        GetPostBackEventReference(this);
        ButtonSubmit.Attributes.Add("onclick",
          string.Format("realPostBack('{0}', ''); return false;", ButtonSubmit.UniqueID));
    }
} 
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
    If Not IsPostBack Then
        GetPostBackEventReference(Me)
        ButtonSubmit.Attributes.Add("onclick", _
             String.Format("realPostBack('{0}', ''); return false;", ButtonSubmit.UniqueID))
    End If
End Sub

See Also

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