Does asp.net have something against afghanisatn?

[jaimalchohan]

Ok, 2 files in question

countries.xml

<Countries>
    <country>
        <value>
            Default
        </value>
        <name>
            -- Please Select --
        </name>
    </country>
    <country>
        <value>
            AF
        </value>
        <name>
            Afghanistan
        </name>
    </country>
.
.
.

regiester.aspx.vb

Protected Sub valCountry_ServerValidate(ByVal source As Object, ByVal args As System.Web.UI.WebControls.ServerValidateEventArgs)
        args.IsValid = (ddlCountry.SelectedValue.Length < 7)
    End Sub

What should happen here is that user selects a country, if the lenght of the value for the country is less than 7 (i.e. not default) then a the drop down list is validated as being select and the form carry's on

What happens is that if the user selects the default vakue then the validation works,

if the user selects afghanistan then the validation does not work (i.e. say that country has not been selected)

if the user select anything else it works fine (i.e. recognises that a country has been selected)

I tried adding an extra country between default and afghanisatan, but afghanisatan would still not validate....

[jaimalchohan]

This is actually getting worse, I now have 3 drop down list boxes all binded to XMl sources, all of which seem to be working differenlty, even tho in essence they are the same.

[jaimalchohan]

After looking everwhere for a solution and reading about using response methods and and all sorts to validate a drop down list box, it seem you can validate a drop-down-list using requiredfieldvalidator and the InitialValue property

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

I'm not sure how you are using the validators, but I would start by ensuring that Client-Side validation is turned off.

[jaimalchohan]

Basically the idea s that there is a defalt value as the initial value (li.e value = default, name=Please Select) and the validator is supposed to check to make sure something other than the value 'default' has been selected (i.e. via dropdownlist.selecteditem.value <> "Default")

But after reading some articles it seems that dropdowns don't work the same as normal controls when using validtion and return the default valueeverythime when using validation.

So MSDN said use a required field validator and set the InitialValue proerpty (i.e. in my case InitialValue = "Default"), now this work for one of my dropdowns, but not the other two, even tho all 3 are exactly the same as each other, even bound the same way.

The other problem is the other two dropdowns are not retaining their viewstate (and I even forced viewstate by setting ViewState=true)

Confusing or what?

Edit; Just disabled client validation, no help there

[jaimalchohan]

Oh yea, and afganhistan still does not get validated as a vaild country!

[Staff: Warren Ashcroft]

Oh yea, and afganhistan still does not get validated as a vaild country!

Because its first in the list?

[jaimalchohan]

Because its first in the list?

Its second.

First is: value=Default text=-- Please Select --
Second: value=AF text=Afghanistan
Third: value=AL text=-- Albania

Even with the below settings instead, afghanistan still doesn't get validated properly

First is: value=Default text=-- Please Select --
Second: value= text=
Third: value=AF text=Afghanistan
Fourth: value=AL text=-- Albania


I am considering taking out country validation (don;t wanna do it) or doing it via vbscript (really don;t wanna do it)

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

I'm not sure, but I think you would need to look into doing custom validation on the drop down list.

Since you turned off client-script the validation is running on the server. This is normally triggered by a Page.IsValid method and you would probably need to use Reflector or some other Disassembler to see what is going on in within that method.

I personally haven't delved into using validation controls on a Drop Down List, instead I have handled it server side without the use of a Validation Control:

public void Submit_click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
       if (Page.IsValid && ValidateForm())
       {
           // Form is valid, continue processing.
       }
       else
       {
           // Form is Invalid, present some info to the user
           // and re-display the form.
       }
}
 
public bool ValidateForm()
{
       if ( ddlCountries.SelectedValue.Length >= 7)
       {
           // Country not selected
           //  Set an error msg to be displayed
           return false;      
       }
       
       return true;    
}

[jaimalchohan]

thanks sol, ill try it out.