Form Post Values using plain html controls in ASP.NET web forms

Question

I have a simple form with some plain html input like bellow using ASP.NET Web Forms (not MVC)

<table id="tbl_SchoolDetails">
    <tbody id="tbody_SchoolDetails">
        <tr>
            <td>
            School Name
        </td>
        <td>
            <input id="SchoolDetails_SchoolName" type="text" value="<%= ViewModel.School.Name %>" />
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            Head Teacher
        </td>
        <td>
            <input id="SchoolDetails_HeadTeacher_Name" type="text" value="<%= ViewModel.School.HeadTeacher.Name %>" />
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            Head Teacher Email
        </td>
        <td>
            <input id="SchoolDetails_HeadTeacher_Email" type="text" value="<%= ViewModel.School.HeadTeacher.Email %>" />
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            Regent/Placement Contact
        </td>
        <td>
            <input id="SchoolDetails_Regent_Name" type="text" value="<%= ViewModel.School.Regent.Name %>" />
        </td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

When I do a post back to the server the values of the text boxes are not contained in the Request.Form element. Is there some reason for this that I am missing. I am reluctant to use asp.net controls as the page is later going to require a fair amount of javascript for changing the ui and other stuff.

I know I could easily do this with MVC but unfortunatly a change to this is not an option at this time.

Cheers Colin G

Answer 1

Give the input both an id and a name and see if that doesn't solve your problem.

<input id="SchoolDetails_SchoolName"
       name="SchoolDetails_SchoolName"
       type="text"
       value="<%= ViewModel.School.Name %>" />

The id property only identifies the tag within the DOM. The name property allows the tag to be posted back as part of a form. An ASP.NET control, or an HTML element with runat=server , automatically gets both the name and id properties assigned.

Answer 2

HTML elements are not part of the ASP.NET lifecycle. An easy way to start would be to add the runat="server" attribute to your INPUT elements.

Answer 3

@Colin Use ClientIDMode="Static" attribute and your server-side element name will remain the same on the client side even when you have runat="server" on the element. Hope this helps

Answer 4

@tvanfosson Cheers that worked just as I wanted.

@Bullins I really didn't want to use runat="server" as it causes the ID's of the controls to end up like ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl00_SchoolDetails_Address_Postcode which makes it difficult to achieve what i am looking for.