dev|sushi

A few years ago I looked into using a Content Management System (CMS) to develop a site for a friend. At the time there were a few choices including Mambo, Joomla, Drupal, and about a hundred more which you can test at Open Source CMS. Mambo was really the only player that had the needed feature set which included forum/gallery/blogs/etc all in one user based interface (thanks to the many extensions). The only issue was that the system was horribly unfriendly to the internet and its standards. Each control/plugin box on the page was wrapped in a table inside another table and finally another table. Doing any template work was nightmare-ish especially if you wanted to use proper XHTML and CSS; and don’t even get me started on accessibility. I didn’t end up doing the project because my recommendation was to write it all myself.

The ASP.Net CheckBox and CheckBoxList control don’t allow for the use of the full W3C HTML standard. For some reason Microsoft decided to implement a reduced functionality version that creates more work for the programmer. Come on Microsoft why can’t you follow even the simplest of standards? In this case it would make coding the .Net framework easier for you not to mention us!

I have received a few requests via email and in comments for more detail on how to get your data back after postback with dynamic controls. This evening I started to put together some code examples and mulled over the details of the article in my head. The first step was to re-read my previous two articles so I could get my bearings on where to start. Part 1 of this series is an initial outline of how to create dynamic controls and use Request.Form to collect the data after postback. Part 2 went into detail on how to figure out which button was clicked to cause postback using a JavaScript technique. In the middle of re-reading the second article I had an epiphany. There is a better way to do that! The proper method is standards compliant, accessible and is outlined in the W3C HTML specifications. So I will put the original article on hold and explain this technique.