ASP.NET 2.0 Cookbook, 2nd Edition

3.8. Performing Validation Programmatically to Execute Your Own Application-Specific Logic

Problem

You have two logical sections on a form with controls that require different validation as a function of the button the user clicks. You want to have programmatic control over the validation performed because your application needs to carry out its own application-specific logic, such as when you want to check a new user’s registration against a database.

Solution

For each group of controls and their associated form-submit button, set the ValidationGroup attribute to a unique group name. This will cause only the controls with a group name matching the group name of the button to be validated when the button is clicked.

In the .aspx file:

1. Set the ValidationGroup attribute of a form-submit button to a unique group name.

2. Set the ValidationGroup attribute of each of the controls to be validated when the button is clicked to the same group name as the form-submit button.

3. Set the form-submit button’s CausesValidation attribute to False to disable both the client-side and server-side validation performed by ASP.NET when the button is clicked.

4. Repeat steps 1–3 for each form-submit button and its associated controls.

In the code-behind class for the page, use the .NET language of your choice to:

1. Add an event handler for each form-submit button.

2. Add code to the event handler to get the collection of validators associated with the button.

3. Iterate through the collection performing the required validation. ...