Calling asp net button click event with JS will not call server side event

Question

Sorry to post perhaps a silly problem here, but I'm at my wits end with it. I have a hidden field with a button inside an update panel like so:

<asp:UpdateProgress runat="server" ID="updprCompLines" AssociatedUpdatePanelID="updpanCompLines">
        <ProgressTemplate> 
            <img src="../Images/ajax-loader.gif" alt="Please wait..." /> </ProgressTemplate>
        </asp:UpdateProgress>

        <asp:UpdatePanel runat="server" ID="updpanCompLines" UpdateMode="Conditional">

            <%--<Triggers>
                <asp:AsyncPostBackTrigger ControlID="btnFillMembers" />
            </Triggers>--%>

            <ContentTemplate>
            <div>
                <asp:HiddenField ID="hdnField" runat="server" />
                <asp:Button ID="btnFillMembers" runat="server" style="display:none;" 
                    Text="DummyButton" onclick="btnFillMembers_Click"  />                   
            </div>

The update panel also contains a gridview and inside my gridview I have a link button:

 <ItemTemplate>
     <asp:LinkButton ID="lkbtBenefName" runat="server" Text='<%#Eval("COMPETENCE_CODE") %>' 
      OnClientClick='<%#Eval("COMPETENCE_LINE_ID", "return SelectedCompetence({0})") %>'/> 
 </ItemTemplate>

The call is to a JS function that is supposed to call the above button:

<ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager runat="Server" EnablePartialRendering="true" ID="ScriptManager1" EnablePageMethods="true"/>   

<script type="text/javascript">
    function SelectedCompetence(CompetenceLineId) {

        document.getElementById('<%= hdnField.ClientID %>').value = CompetenceLineId;

        var clickButton = document.getElementById('<%= btnFillMembers.ClientID %>');
        clickButton.click();

    }
</script>

Button click event method:

protected void btnFillMembers_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    lblGvMemError.Text = "";
    lblGvMemError.ForeColor = Color.Red;

    if (hdnField.Value != null || hdnField.Value.ToString() != "")
    {
        try
        {
            int CompLineId = Convert.ToInt32(hdnField.Value);
            GetSelectedCompLineMembers(CompLineId);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            lblGvMemError.Text = "Error: " + ex.Message;
        }
    }

    updpanCompLinesMembers.Update();
}

The problem is that while debugging, it never runs the click event and it doesn't give any error messages either. I don't understand, I have a similar form where this works; I don't get why it doesn't here... Any help please?

Answer 1

Have you confirmed that SelectedCompetence is being called via an alert or similar? Additionally, have you made sure that the clickButton variable is being assigned to successfully?

I know this isn't an answer, but don't yet have the reputation to comment, and sometimes it's the easy stuff so maybe this will help! :)