It might be the first day of December but that hasn't stop us from launching 2 new websites to get our December releases off to a great start! Aquatech Ireland have launched 2 new online stores and a brochure site to open up their products to customers all around the world.

View Demo | Download Source

I was recently asked to look into making a JQuery UI dialog box (aka a modal box) work with asp.net. I thought it would be straight forward but as with anything in asp.net it turned out to be a little bit trickier than I had initially thought. Part of the problem was that I wanted to put the dialog box on an asp.net submit button and depending on the user's choice either submit the page or cancel the action.

Thankfully I stumbled across this great article over at DeviantPoint. It was pretty much exactly what I needed. However, for my example I needed to only show the dialog box if any of the checkboxes on the screen were not selected. In other words a normal postback would occur if every check was selected but if there were any checkboxes not selected the user would be asked to confirm their action.

If you take a look at my very basic demo page you will see exactly what I'm talking about. You will find all of the code within the source files I have posted for download but below is a brief overview of what is going on.

View Demo | Download Source

HTML used:

Javascript used:

// 
        $(document).ready(function() {
            $(function () {
                $("#MsgBox").dialog({
                    autoOpen: false,
                    modal: true,
                    buttons: {
                        "Continue": function () {
                            $(this).dialog("close");
                            eval($("#<%= MsgBoxContinue.ClientID %>").val());
                        },
                        "Cancel": function () {
                            $(this).dialog("close");
                        }
                    }
                });
            });
        });
        function showjQueryDialog() {
            //check to see how many checkboxes there are and how many of those are checked.
            //if any of the checkboxes are not selected then show dialog box.
            var TotalNumCheckboxes = $("#ContentContainer input:checkbox").length;
            var TotalNumCheckboxesChecked = $("#ContentContainer input:checkbox:checked").length;

            if (TotalNumCheckboxes == TotalNumCheckboxesChecked)
            {
                eval($("#<%= MsgBoxContinue.ClientID %>").val());
            }
            else
            {
                $("#MsgBox").dialog("open");
            }
        } 
    
// ]]>

C# Codebehind:

if (!Page.IsPostBack)

        {
            //this line is used to hold the exact postback function call used by the asp.net button
            this.MsgBoxContinue.Value = Page.ClientScript.GetPostBackEventReference(AddToBasket, string.Empty);

            //ensure the postback message is blank on load
            PostBackMsgTest.Text = ""; 
        }

        if (Page.IsPostBack)
        {
            PostBackMsgTest.Text = "Content posted back successfully.";
        }

One of the annoying little things about the asp.net repeater is that if you have text in a <HeaderTemplate> this will be shown on screen even if the repeater is empty. Nine times out of ten you will actually want to hide the text and only show it if the repeater contains information. This can be done by doing the following:

First adjust your repeater so that on PreRender of the repeater you call some code from your code behind:

    
Header text inside my repeater



    
    
        ... show database values in here ...
    

Next on your code behind page put in the following to check if the repeater contains any values:

protected void MyRepeater_PreRender(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{
   //check to see if the repeater contains any items and if not hide it
   if (MyRepeater.Items.Count == 0)
   {
      MyRepeater.Visible = false;
   }
}

Fire up your page and test the repeater with and without items inside it. You should notice that when the repeater is empty the header text is not displayed which is what we wanted to happen.

Dragnet Systems has just launched one of our newest online stores - thereallygoodsoapcompany.ie. This online store features a brand new fully featured Wholesaler section as well as all the existing functionality of our store software. This new section will let the website owners manage wholesalers, add specific wholesaler products and even control the pricing per wholesaler for shared products.

I'm just back from a weeklong trip in Kusadasi, Turkey. For anyone thinking about going to Turkey for a sun break I highly recommend it! Below are some top tips to help you get the most out of your stay while in Kusadasi.

If you want to set the default value of a drop down list from a value being passed to you by a third party you should always include a check to ensure that your drop down contains the value so that you don't end up with some nasty compiler errors.

To keep things simple let's say I want to check if my drop down contains the value "MyValue". If it does I want to pre-select that option for the user. To do this I would use something like below:

if (MyDropDownList.Items.FindByValue("MyValue") != null)

{
    MyDropDownList.SelectedValue = "MyValue";
}

You can also search based on the text value of your drop down by using FindByText instead of FindByValue.

If you haven't already looked into using the jquery UI calendars, you really should! One of my latest projects, www.hertzflydrive.com, uses these calendars on the homepage. They are quick to setup and offer loads of options that make them very flexible for anyone looking to use date pickers on their forms.

After many months of work I'm proud to announce my latest project HertzFlyDrive.com. This website was designed from the ground up provide Hertz with a more effective way to manage their car rental booking information and help speed up the booking process for end users.