Introduction
This article presents how to open a modal dialog window on a browser (IE only) which contains a web form. Submitting the form on the modal dialog window will refresh the main window content.Background
I was working on a project to convert a Windows application into a Web-based application. The Windows application's main form displays aDataGrid. Clicking on a row of the DataGrid opens a modal dialog window which holds detailed information about that DataGrid row record. The user can edit the data on the modal dialog window, and clicking on an Update button closes the dialog and refreshes the DataGrid on the main form. The client wanted the same effect in the web application. After much R & D, I came with a solution which I want to share with you.How to open a modal dialog window and how to get a return value from it?
Since I have no time, my source project contains all the code in one file (sorry! no separate business logic or data access logic classes given).First of all, let's look at the JavaScript code for opening a modal window (the
OpenModalDialog function in the Default.aspx page):vReturnValue = window.showModalDialog(url,"#1","dialogHeight: 300px; dialogWidth: 600px;" +
"dialogTop: 190px; dialogLeft: 220px; edge: Raised; center: Yes;" +
"help: No; resizable: No; status: No;");vReturnValue variable will contain the return value of the modal dialog window (when closed), which we can set in the ModalWindow form (in the detail.aspx page).window.returnValue = true;
//(I am returning true to refresh Main page and false for no action)Postback from JavaScript
The most important thing for me is to refresh the grid when I get 'true' as the return value from the modal window. For that, I use (look in JavaScript'sOpenModalDialog function):__doPostBack(btnName,''); //(this will trigger 'btnName' butoon's Click event)btnAddNew to add new data. Using the above JavaScript, I can fire the Click event of this button.Note :To make this work, you have to set the default.aspx page's
EnableEventValidation attribute to False. Setting this attribute to false enables us to fire a postback (server side events) using JavaScript.//Another example in details
//in parent page
//parent.aspx
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ParentForm.aspx.cs" Inherits="ParentForm" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Parent Page</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function OpenChildWindow()
{
//open a new dialog window
var sFeatures="dialogHeight: 200px;";
sFeatures += "dialogWidth: 400px;";
sFeatures += "center: yes;";
sFeatures += "edge: sunken;";
sFeatures += "scroll: no;";
sFeatures += "status: yes;";
sFeatures += "resizeable: no;";
var url = 'ChildForm.aspx?SomeValue=12345';
entryWindow=window.showModalDialog(url, 'ChildForm', sFeatures);
if(entryWindow ==true)
{
alert("Watch for CurrTime & ChildWin labels, its going to update since the new child window saved something");
//this would trigger the update panels update as the button is part of the UP
window.document.getElementById('btnHiddenForUpdate').click();
}
else
{
//No change will happen to the parent page as child page did nothing
alert("Nothing on the page will change as the new child window was cancelled");
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<asp:ScriptManager ID="smParent" runat="server" />
<div id="divUpdatePanel">
<asp:UpdatePanel ID="upParent" runat="server">
<ContentTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="lblCurrTime" runat="server" Text="CurrTime:"></asp:Label> <br />
<asp:Label ID="lblChildWinValue" runat="server" Text="ChildWin Value:"></asp:Label><br /><br />
<a href="javascript:OpenChildWindow();">Click to open the Child Window</a> <br />
<input type="button" id="btnHiddenForUpdate" runat="server" style="display:none" onserverclick="btnHiddenForUpdate_ServerClick" /> <br />
</ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>
</div>
<div id="divNormalUpdatePanel">
<asp:Panel ID="pnlFullPostback" runat="server">
<asp:Label ID="lblPageLoadTime" runat="server" Text="PageLoadTime:"></asp:Label>
</asp:Panel>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
//parent.aspx.cs
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Drawing;
public partial class ParentForm : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
//Set default values to the control on PageLoad for first time.
lblChildWinValue.Text = "ChildWin Value: " + "NONE";
lblCurrTime.Text = "CurrTime: " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
lblPageLoadTime.Text = "PageLoadTime: " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
}
}
protected void btnHiddenForUpdate_ServerClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Update Panels update - repopulate the controls the way needed.
lblChildWinValue.Text = "ChildWin Value: " + "SOME VALUE";
lblCurrTime.Text = "CurrTime: " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
lblChildWinValue.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
lblCurrTime.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
//Just to show that this label wont update as outside the update panel
lblPageLoadTime.Text = "PageLoadTime: " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
lblPageLoadTime.BackColor = Color.Yellow;
}
}
//child.aspx page
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ChildForm.aspx.cs" Inherits="ChildForm" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title>Child Page</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function WindowClose() {
//return some value from here based on which Parent will decide the partial update
window.returnValue = true;
window.close();
}
function WindowCancel() {
//return some value from here based on which Parent will decide the partial update
// window.returnValue = false;
window.close();
}
</script>
<base target="_self" />
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div align="center">
<br />
<asp:Label ID="lblParentPageValue" runat="server" Text="Value from parent page: "></asp:Label><br />
<br />
<br />
<asp:Button ID="btnOK" runat="server" Text="Save & Close" OnClientClick="WindowClose();" />
<asp:Button ID="btnCancel" runat="server" Text="Cancel" OnClientClick="WindowCancel();" /><br />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
//child.aspx.cs file
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
public partial class ChildForm : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (Page.Request.QueryString["SomeValue"] != null)
{
lblParentPageValue.Text = lblParentPageValue.Text + Page.Request.QueryString["SomeValue"].ToString();
}
}
}
//and one more thing if u use this functionality postback issue is there so we need to add 3 more details
Response.Expires = 0;
Response.Cache.SetNoStore();
Response.AppendHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");
//chk it
