Using the MultiView Control in ASP.NET 3.5 with C#

This tutorial will show you how to use the MultiView Control in conjunction with AJAX to create multi-step applications. C#.

The ASP.NET MultiView control can be used for virtually anything. Introduced in ASP.NET 2.0, the MultiView provides exactly that - multiple views on one page, with one view being displayed at a time. This provides a great advantage over Panels when trying to develop a multi-step process, as you are not required to set the visibility of each individual view for each step. Instead, you can just set the currently active view. All controls within each view will be accessible in the code-behind.

In this example, we will look at how we can create a multi-step process with the MultiView control. The structure of the syntax is very straightforward and logical:

<asp:MultiView ID="MultiView1" runat="server" ActiveViewIndex="0"> <asp:View ID="View1" runat="server"> This is View1. Click the button to goto View 2. </asp:View> <asp:View ID="View2" runat="server"> This is View2. Enter your name and click the button to goto View 3.<br /> Name: <asp:TextBox ID="fld_Name" runat="server" /> </asp:View> <asp:View ID="View3" runat="server"> <asp:Literal ID="lit_Name" runat="server" /> This is View3. </asp:View> </asp:MultiView>

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Here, we have created three views within the multiview control. We set the ActiveViewIndex to zero, to make the default view the first.
The MultiView control should be used in conjunction with an UpdatePanel, as this gives a much more fluid feel to the application and when moving from View to View, only the View will be reloaded, instead of the entire page. We implement AJAX in ASP.NET 3.5 like so:

<form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ScriptManager ID="SM1" runat="server" /> <asp:UpdatePanel ID="UP1" runat="server"> <ContentTemplate> <asp:MultiView ID="MultiView1" runat="server" ActiveViewIndex="0"> <asp:View ID="View1" runat="server"> This is View1. Click the button to goto View 2. </asp:View> <asp:View ID="View2" runat="server"> This is View2. Enter your name and click the button to goto View 3.<br /> Name: <asp:TextBox ID="fld_Name" runat="server" /> </asp:View> <asp:View ID="View3" runat="server"> <asp:Literal ID="lit_Name" runat="server" /> This is View3. </asp:View> </asp:MultiView> <br /><br /> <asp:Button ID="but_Submit" runat="server" Text="Continue" onclick="but_Submit_Click" /> </ContentTemplate> </asp:UpdatePanel> </form>

Notice we also added a button to navigate through the views (or steps). We have a textbox control on View2, and then a Literal control on View3. We will reference both of these controls in the code-behind and you will see that it is no different than referencing controls that are simply placed onto a normal page:

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protected void but_Submit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (MultiView1.ActiveViewIndex == 0) { MultiView1.SetActiveView(View2); } else if (MultiView1.ActiveViewIndex == 1) { MultiView1.SetActiveView(View3); if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fld_Name.Text)) { lit_Name.Text = "You did not enter your name. "; } else { lit_Name.Text = "Hi, " + fld_Name.Text + ". "; } } else if (MultiView1.ActiveViewIndex == 2) { MultiView1.SetActiveView(View1); } }

Here, on the button click we check to see which view is currently active and then navigate to the next view. We also reference the controls like normal, and take the name from the TextBox and insert it into the Literal.

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