Postback Issues

M

Mike

I'm having some problems with "Invalid postback or callback argument" on an
ASP.NET page. It appears to only happen on Firefox browsers, but I could be
wrong about that.

At any rate, the exception is raised when the user clicks on a postback link
on the page before the page has completely loaded. Some of these pages are
rather long, so the chances of that happening is increased. And these pages
have a Repeater control and each line on the Repeater contains a postback
link that is built 'on the fly'.

Is there someway to prevent this exception or handle it more gracefully?
For instance, is it possible to disable postbacks until the page has
completed loading? Is there a best practice for trapping the exception?

Thanks,

Mike
 
W

Walter Wang [MSFT]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to MSDN Managed Newsgroup.

This is a known issue of ASP.NET postback with event validation enabled,
and this is not directly related to Firefox. Let me explain the root cause
the possible workarounds.

First, let me explain what is event validation in ASP.NET: this is a
security feature that ensures the postback actions only come from events
allowed and created by the server to help prevent spoofed postbacks. This
feature is implemented by having controls register valid events when they
render (as in, during their actual Render() methods). The end result is
that at the bottom of your rendered <form> tag, you'll see something like
this: <input type="hidden" name="__EVENTVALIDATION" id="__EVENTVALIDATION"
value="..." />. When a postback occurs, ASP.NET uses the values stored in
this hidden field to ensure that the button you clicked invokes a valid
event. If it's not valid, you get the exception that you've been seeing.

The problem happens specifically when you postback before the
EventValidation field
has been rendered (i.e., before the page is fully loaded). If
EventValidation is enabled (which it is, by default), but ASP.net doesn't
see the hidden field when you postback, you also get the exception. If you
submit a form before it has been entirely rendered, then chances are the
EventValidation field has not yet been rendered, and thus ASP.net cannot
validate your click.

There are many workarounds for the above mentioned problem, one of them is
that disabling postback until the page is fully loaded as you mentioned:

1. Set enableEventValidation to false:

<pages enableEventValidation="false" ...

2. One way around the problem is to mark the form as disabled and then
enable it in script once the load is complete.
Snippet 1:
========
function enableForm() {
document.getElementById("form").disabled = false;
}
window.onLoad = enableForm();

Snippet 2:
========
function disableElements(elements) {
for (var i = elements.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
var elmt = elements;
if (!elmt.disabled) {
elmt.disabled = true;
}
else {
elmt._wasDisabled = true;
}
}
}
function disableFormElements() {
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("INPUT"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("SELECT"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("TEXTAREA"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("BUTTON"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("A"));
}
function enableElements(elements) {
for (var i = elements.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
var elmt = elements;
if (!elmt._wasDisabled) {
elmt.disabled = false;
}
else {
elmt._wasDisabled = null;
}
}
}
function enableFormElements() {
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("INPUT"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("SELECT"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("TEXTAREA"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("BUTTON"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("A"));
}
Make sure that the variable _form is set to the ASP.net form on the page.
Then just call enableFormElements() and disableFormElements().


Hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything else I
can help. Thanks.



Sincerely,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
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Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
M

Mike

Walter,

Thanks for the explanation.

I would like to avoid the security issues raised by workaround 1. Could you
point me to a detailed example of using script code to enable and disable
the form?

Mike


Hi Mike,

Welcome to MSDN Managed Newsgroup.

This is a known issue of ASP.NET postback with event validation enabled,
and this is not directly related to Firefox. Let me explain the root cause
the possible workarounds.

First, let me explain what is event validation in ASP.NET: this is a
security feature that ensures the postback actions only come from events
allowed and created by the server to help prevent spoofed postbacks. This
feature is implemented by having controls register valid events when they
render (as in, during their actual Render() methods). The end result is
that at the bottom of your rendered <form> tag, you'll see something like
this: <input type="hidden" name="__EVENTVALIDATION" id="__EVENTVALIDATION"
value="..." />. When a postback occurs, ASP.NET uses the values stored in
this hidden field to ensure that the button you clicked invokes a valid
event. If it's not valid, you get the exception that you've been seeing.

The problem happens specifically when you postback before the
EventValidation field
has been rendered (i.e., before the page is fully loaded). If
EventValidation is enabled (which it is, by default), but ASP.net doesn't
see the hidden field when you postback, you also get the exception. If you
submit a form before it has been entirely rendered, then chances are the
EventValidation field has not yet been rendered, and thus ASP.net cannot
validate your click.

There are many workarounds for the above mentioned problem, one of them is
that disabling postback until the page is fully loaded as you mentioned:

1. Set enableEventValidation to false:

<pages enableEventValidation="false" ...

2. One way around the problem is to mark the form as disabled and then
enable it in script once the load is complete.
Snippet 1:
========
function enableForm() {
document.getElementById("form").disabled = false;
}
window.onLoad = enableForm();

Snippet 2:
========
function disableElements(elements) {
for (var i = elements.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
var elmt = elements;
if (!elmt.disabled) {
elmt.disabled = true;
}
else {
elmt._wasDisabled = true;
}
}
}
function disableFormElements() {
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("INPUT"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("SELECT"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("TEXTAREA"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("BUTTON"));
disableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("A"));
}
function enableElements(elements) {
for (var i = elements.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
var elmt = elements;
if (!elmt._wasDisabled) {
elmt.disabled = false;
}
else {
elmt._wasDisabled = null;
}
}
}
function enableFormElements() {
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("INPUT"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("SELECT"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("TEXTAREA"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("BUTTON"));
enableElements(_form.getElementsByTagName("A"));
}
Make sure that the variable _form is set to the ASP.net form on the page.
Then just call enableFormElements() and disableFormElements().


Hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything else I
can help. Thanks.



Sincerely,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
For MSDN subscribers whose posts are left unanswered, please check this
document: http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnts/pages/postingAlias.aspx

Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
ications. If you are using Outlook Express/Windows Mail, please make sure
you clear the check box "Tools/Options/Read: Get 300 headers at a time" to
see your reply promptly.

Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
W

Walter Wang [MSFT]

Hi Mike,

Please refer to following thread for more information:

http://forums.asp.net/t/955145.aspx?PageIndex=1

Eilon from ASP.Net team posted two replies in the thread to describe
workarounds.

Also, on the 10th page of the thread:
http://forums.asp.net/t/955145.aspx?PageIndex=10, there's also some other
workaround that to override the Render() method of the Page class to move
the __EVENTVALIDATION to the beginning of the page.

As Eilon already pointed out:

<quote>Unfortunately there's no "perfect" solution for this just
yet.</quote>

It's really difficult to get over this issue perfectly.

Regards,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
W

Walter Wang [MSFT]

Mike pinged me offline about an issue that if an anchor was disabled at
first, the previous javascript code doesn't work to enable it back.

Here's my reply to him in case anyone else need it:

Yes the Anchor elements are special since if it's initially disabled, the
ASP.NET engine will not render out its href attribute, therefore even after
it's enabled, you cannot click on it since it doesn't have href attribute.

The workaround is:

1) During runtime, in your case, in Repeater's ItemDataBound event, add a
custom attribute "href_disabled" to save the href used to postback, and
register the LinkButton for event validation. Since the ASP.NET engine
requires RegisterForEventValidation must be called during Render, we save
the LinkButtons in a list and deal with it in Render.

private List<LinkButton> m_links = new List<LinkButton>();

protected void repeater1_ItemDataBound(object sender,
RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem ||
e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item)
{
LinkButton link1 = (LinkButton)e.Item.FindControl("link1");
link1.Attributes.Add("href_disabled",
ClientScript.GetPostBackClientHyperlink(link1, ""));
m_links.Add(link1);
}
}

protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
foreach (LinkButton link in m_links)
{
ClientScript.RegisterForEventValidation(link.UniqueID, "");
}
base.Render(writer);
}

2) In client-side javascript:

function enableFormElements() {
enableElements(document.getElementsByTagName("input"));
enableElements(document.getElementsByTagName("select"));
enableElements(document.getElementsByTagName("textarea"));
enableElements(document.getElementsByTagName("button"));
enableAnchors(document.getElementsByTagName("a"));
}

function enableAnchors(anchors) {
for (var i = anchors.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
var anchor = anchors;
anchor.href = anchor.getAttribute("href_disabled");
anchor.removeAttribute("href_disabled");
anchor.disabled = false;
}
}


Hope this helps.


Regards,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
==================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 

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