Question

How to preserve large data on postback without loading it again

Asked by: luefher

Hello,

I have a page with a table in UpdatePanel that is dynamically populated with a large amount of data, takes some time to retrieve. The table has LinkButtons in it to drill-down on that data, which is then displayed in a hide/show div. Problem is, since it's a postback, the original data has to be retrieved again - I'm trying to avoid this since it takes time but it's the same data that was retrieved before postback - I just want to retrieve the drilled-down data and show it. If I put the retrieval of initial data in (!IsPostBack), then it, of course is not retrieved on postback and is not showed. Is there some kind of a workaround?
Thanks!

<asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel" runat="server">
    <ContentTemplate>
        ...
        <asp:Table ID="TableData" runat="server">
        </asp:Table>
        <div id="...>
            <asp:Table ID="TableDrillDown" runat="server">
            </asp:Table>
        </div>
    </ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>
 
 
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.PopulateData();
}
 
private void PopulateData()
{
    // here we retrieve a large amount of data
    ...
    // then populate table
    ...
    // adding LinkButtons along the way
    TableRow tr = new TableRow();
    TableCell td = new TableCell();
    LinkButton lb = new LinkButton();
    lb.ID = linkButtonId;
    lb.Text = someDataValue;
    lb.CommandName = "drill-down";
    lb.CommandArgument = someArgs;
    lb.Command += this.LinkButton_DrillDownCommand;
    td.Controls.Add(lb);
    tr.Cells.Add(td);
    this.TableData.Rows.Add(tr);
    ...
}
 
protected void LinkButton_DrillDownCommand(object sender, CommandEventArgs e)
{
    // Populate drill-down table here
    TableRow tr = new TableRow();
    TableCell td = new TableCell();
    td.Text = someDataValue;
    tr.Cells.Add(td);
    this.TableData.Rows.Add(tr);
    ...
}

                                  
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Asked On
2009-01-08 at 13:00:23ID24036522
Tags

c#

,

.net

,

ajax

,

large data

,

preserve

,

postback

Topics

Programming for ASP.NET

,

Microsoft Visual C#.Net

,

Visual Studio

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: brawneyPosted on 2009-01-08 at 15:26:45ID: 23331341

Sounds like you might want to use a Repeater (http://weblogs.asp.net/anasghanem/archive/2008/09/06/comparing-listview-with-gridview-datalist-and-repeater.aspx) and (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.repeater.aspx).  It will keep the data in the view state and you won't have to refresh it.  But the view state can get a bit large so be careful of that.

Another option is to put the data into the Session once you've retrieved it for the first time.  You'll still need to populate your table (or Repeater) with the data on every post back, but you'll get it out of the Session instead of having to go back to the database.

You may want to look at using the Application Cache in the same way, but be aware that the Application Cache is Application wide, so the data pulled for user #1 would be the same data given to user #2 when that user hits the page and it goes to get the data out of the App Cache.

http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/100902-1.aspx
http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27327
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc301579.aspx

 

by: crazymanPosted on 2009-01-09 at 02:33:39ID: 23334239

Use an ObjectDataSource and bind a repeater/grid to it then enable the in built caching :
http://www.asp.net/Learn/Data-Access/tutorial-58-vb.aspx

 

by: luefherPosted on 2009-01-09 at 10:10:35ID: 23338425

Our report table does not have a regular row-by-row structure (I would've used GridView otherwise) and then the data retrieved uses several ad-hoc queries... Haven't thought about session, though - I am fine with the users having to wait once in a while (when it expires). Still interested if there is a way to do without resorting to session, but session works in this case!

 

by: brawneyPosted on 2009-01-09 at 14:17:23ID: 23340852

I've used the Enterprise Library caching block before too.  But in asp.net the application cache pretty much gives you the same thing without having to pull in the Enterprise Library.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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