Validation Groups
Validation groups allow you to validate data entry controls in groups. Server
controls such as validation controls, Button and TextBox have
ValidationGroup property that takes a string value. All the server controls
having the same ValidationGroup value act as one validation group
Validation groups come handy in situations where you wish to validate only
a small set of controls from many controls housed on a Web Form. Using
validation groups is quite easy and straightforward. However, if you have a
validation group inside a user control and there are more than one user
control instances on a Web Form you face some problem.
To understand the problem and possible solutions lete's create a simple user
control. Have a look at the figure that shows such a user control:
114
localhost 1245/W x X
Clocalhost 1245N
Submit
Submit
The Web Form shown in
the above figure houses two
control TestUC.ascx. The user
- instances of a user
control consists of a TextBox,a
RequiredFieldValidatorand a Button. The
markup of the user control is
shown below:
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instances of TestUC.ascx as shown below
The Web Form contains two
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fyou set the ValidationGroup property of TextBox1,
RequiredField Validator1 and Button1 to some string (say VG) and then run
the Web Fom you will find that upon clicking any of the Submit buttons
both the RequiredField Validatior controls show the-error.
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localinost 1245Wex
C localhost:1245/ E
Submit
Submit
This behavior is undesirable and causes due to the fact that both the
instances of the user control use the same ValidationGroup value.
To overcome this problem you can take two approaches:
Supply a different and unique ValidationGroup value to the user
control from the Web Form
116
inside the user contro
Generate a unique value for ValidationGroup
ValidationGroup) in
to create a property (say
he firstsolution requires you will value for
the user control. This property accept a unique string Ine
server controls.
ValidationGroup and will assign it to all the required
be created:
following code shows how this property can
public string ValidationGroup
Get
return Button1.ValidationGroup;
set
{
Button1.ValidationGroup = value;
TextBox1.ValidationGroup = value
RequiredFieldValidator1.ValidationGroup=value
can name
As youcan-see, thesetblock of ValidationGroup property (you
this property.anything you want) assigns thesupplied value to the
Once
ValidationGroup of Button1, TextBox1and RequiredFieldValidator1. Form
the ValidationGroup property is created you can set it from the Web
as follows
sform id="form1" runat="server
<uc1:TestUC runat="server" id="TestUC1" ValidationGroup="Group1"
<br >
suc1:TestUC runat-"server" id="TestUC2" ValidationGroup="Group2" >
<form>
As you can see the ValidationGroup property of TestUC1 and TestUC2 is
set to some different and unique value. Now the individual user controls will
Work as expected.
In the second approach outined above you can auto-generate
ValidationGroup value inside the user control itself. The following code
shows how:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
117
if(lsPostBack)
string vgld Guid.NewGuid().ToString()
Button1.ValidationGroup = vgld;
TextBox1.ValidationGroup = vgld;
RequiredFieldValidator1.ValidationGroup = vgld;
The above code shows the PageLoad event handler of the user control.
The Page_Load event handier creates a new Guid using Guid.NewGuid()
method. It then sets the ValidationGroup property of Button1, TextBox1 and
RequiredFieldValidaror1 to this Guid string. This way, every instance of
user control will get a unique ValidationGroup value and the VWeb Form will
work as expected.
