I have a dropdownlist in an ASCX usercontrol on my page, and I want to pre-set it with a value, ie, something from a database.

The trouble is, it seems like the databinding happens after my calling page's Page_Load() method happens. I tried asking it to spit out the amount of items in the dropdownlist and it gives me 0. Only if I call the page again (ie, form postback) it tells me the right amount.

Could someone point out to me how to access the usercontrol and set a value in the dropdownlist from the calling aspx page? Thanks in advance.

"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"

__________________
\"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission\"

You could set the selected item later on in the page like during PreRender. Write a handler that handles MyBase.PreRender and set it there. By then, it should be bound to the data.

Peter
------------------------------------------------------
Work smarter, not harder.

You're great! Now that I can set those drop down lists, I'm struggling to get what was selected in a button click event (submitting the form). Can you help me figure out how to access those items?

I can do it in the method that handles MyBase.PreRender like this:

Dim dl_ControlAccount as DropDownList
dl_ControlAccount = ControlAccountList.ddl_ControlAccountList
dl_ControlAccount.Items.FindByValue(Trim(oDS.Table s(0).Rows(0).Item("Control_Account_Number"))).Sele cted=True

(be aware of wrapping)

But this doesn't work in the form postback method. Any suggestions? Thank you.

"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"

Did you post the correct code? The code I'm looking at is for setting a list item as selected not for retrieving the value.

You should handle things for a button event in the event handler (not PreRender in this case).

To access the selected item of a DDL, you just need to look at the SelectedItem property of the control. There is also SelectedIndex, SelectedValue and SelectedText.

Peter
------------------------------------------------------
Work smarter, not harder.

You're right... sorry for not being so clear... I put that in there to show how I was accessing the stuff to set the value, but I don't actually have any code for the fetching.

I understand how to get it out of a dropdownlist... but doing this:

(in the class declaration)

Public dl_ControlAccount as DropDownList

(then later in setting the value with the PreRender)

dl_ControlAccount = ControlAccountList.ddl_ControlAccountList 'ControlAccountList is the namespace of my user control, ddl_ControlAccountList is the dropdown

dl_ControlAccount.Items.FindByValue(Trim(oDS.Table s(0).Rows(0).Item("Control_Account_Number"))).Sele cted=True

and then... in the button click method:

Public Sub btn_SubmitUpdate_OnClick(Sender as Object, e as System.EventArgs)
   Response.Write(dl_ControlAccount.SelectedItem.Valu e)
End Sub

I get a "Object Reference not set to an instance of an object" error. I guess what I need to know is how do I find out what the .NET page is calling that user control. Thank you!

"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"

Usually this happens when SelectedItem is Nothing. But for a dropdownlist, you should almost never have no selected item. But it's possible for dl_ControlAccount to be Nothing. You'll have to check for those. If the DDL is nothing, then there might be another problem.

Peter
------------------------------------------------------
Work smarter, not harder.

Yes... IsNothing(dl_ControlAccount) in my btn_SubmitUpdate_OnClick() returns "True".

"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"

DataTable dt1=aSqlData.GetDataTable("select FCTY from Custorder group by FCTY","FCTY");
                ddlFTY.DataSource=dt1.DefaultView;
                ddlFTY.DataValueField="FCTY";
                ddlFTY.DataBind();
                ddlFTY.Items.Add("ALL");
                ddlFTY.SelectedIndex=ddlFTY.Items.IndexOf(ddlFTY.I tems.FindByText("ALL"));

If I may make a suggestion to snowhu's code: It's not very efficient to go and search back thru the whole item collection by a text string to select it when you could access the item object directly:

ListItem objItem = new ListItem("All");
ddlFTY.Items.Add(objItem);
<s>ddlFTY.Items.Add("ALL");</s>
ddlFTY.SelectedIndex=ddlFTY.Items.IndexOf(objItem) ;
<s>ddlFTY.SelectedIndex=ddlFTY.Items.IndexOf(ddlFT Y.Items.FindByText("ALL"));</s>

Might even be better to do this:

ListItem objItem = new ListItem("All");
ddlFTY.Items.Add(objItem);
ddlFTY.SelectedIndex = -1; //make sure nothing's selected
objItem.Selected = true;

Peter
------------------------------------------------------
Work smarter, not harder.

This code works... I can find the ControlAccountList user control as a child control of my form.

Dim FF as Control
FF = Page.FindControl("frm_EditForm").FindControl("Cont rolAccountList")

However I still am struggling how to figure out how to access what's in that control. It's a dropdown list. as in:

Dim eFF as Accounting.control_account
Dim oDL as DropDownList = eFF.ddl_ControlAccountList

I'm close... someone push me over the edge....

"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"