ASP.NET CheckBox Control showing as a Literial

Question

I have a nested repeater that contains a CheckBox control.

<asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="optionalRepeater" OnItemDataBound="CheckCompCondiments">
    <HeaderTemplate>
        <div class="sectionHeader" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: underline; margin: 20px 0px 15px 0px;">
            Product Extras
        </div>
    </HeaderTemplate>
    <ItemTemplate>

        <div class="col-md-4" style="border: 1px solid #ccc; margin: 5px;">

            <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="salesMenuID" Value='<%#Eval("sales_menu_id") %>' />
            <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="minVal" Value='<%#Eval("minVal") %>' />
            <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="maxVal" Value='<%#Eval("maxVal") %>' />
            <p>
                <asp:Label runat="server" ID="condHdr" style="text-decoration: underline;" Text='<%#Eval("sales_menu_desc") %>'></asp:Label>
            </p>

            <asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="compMenuRadio">
                <HeaderTemplate>

                </HeaderTemplate>

                <ItemTemplate>
                    <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdPriLvl"/>
                    <input type="radio" name="compSelect" runat="server"/>
                </ItemTemplate>
                <FooterTemplate>
                    <hr/>
                </FooterTemplate>
            </asp:Repeater>

            <asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="compMenuCheck">
                <HeaderTemplate></HeaderTemplate>
                <ItemTemplate>

                    <asp:HiddenField runat="server" ID="hdPriLvl" Value='<%#Eval("pPriceLvl") %>' />
                    <asp:CheckBox runat="server" ID='compSelected' CssClass='<%# Eval("pcode") %>' Text='<%# Eval("pdesc") %> '/>
                    <%--<input type="checkbox" id="compSelect" runat="server" value='<%#Eval("pCode") %>'/>--%>
                    <%--  <%#Eval("pDesc") %>--%>

                </ItemTemplate>
                <FooterTemplate>

                </FooterTemplate>
            </asp:Repeater>

            <asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="compSelect" Visible="False" style="width: 98%; margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;"/>
        </div>

    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

On my Server Side I have the following code:

if (optionalRepeater.Items.Count > 0)
{
    foreach (RepeaterItem compItem in optionalRepeater.Items)
    {
        HtmlInputHidden priLvlVal = (HtmlInputHidden)compItem.FindControl("hdPriLvl");

        foreach (Control compCtrl in compItem.Controls)
        {
            if (compCtrl.GetType() == typeof(CheckBox))
            {
                CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox)compCtrl;
                CheckBox chk = (CheckBox) checkBox;


                if (checkBox.Checked)
                {
                    string prod = checkBox.CssClass;
                    string childGuiud = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N").ToUpper();
                    hasCondiment = true;
                    ShoppingCart.Instance.AddItem(prod, childGuiud, mainGuid, Session["transactionGuid"].ToString(), priLvlVal.Value, hasCondiment, 1, null);
                    checkBox.Checked = false;
                }
            }


        }
    }
}

My code get as far as this line

if (compCtrl.GetType() == typeof(CheckBox))

But never makes it inside the if statement. When I am expecting the type to be CheckBox it says literal Control.

Can anyone see anything that I could be doing wrong, I have been looking at this for a while now and I can't seem to get any further.

Thanks, Somango!

Answer 1

If you use an ItemTemplate you have to use FindControl to get the reference of the controls inside:

foreach (RepeaterItem compItem in optionalRepeater.Items)
{
    HtmlInputHidden priLvlVal = (HtmlInputHidden)compItem.FindControl("hdPriLvl");
    CheckBox compSelect = (CheckBox)compItem.FindControl("compSelect");
    if (checkBox.Checked)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

By looping the RepeaterItem.Controls property you just find a single Literal control which is the container for every control in the ItemTemplate . So you could loop compItem.Controls[0].Controls to find your CheckBox . But in my opinion using compItem.FindControl is much more readable.