Click here to Skip to main content
Licence CPOL
First Posted 27 Jan 2008
Views 14,816
Bookmarked 13 times

Generic State Collection

By | 22 Mar 2008 | Article
Generic implementation of IStateManager for ASP.NET state collections.
Download StateCollection.zip - 925 B

Introduction

While building custom ASP.NET controls I often need to implement IStateManager for collections of objects in order to persist them in ViewState.
The common way was to create collection by inherit List<T> and implementing IStateManager.
In most of the cases the code was same, I just have to change the generic type of the list.
That's why it was a perfect candidate for generic implementation. Implementation which made

The Generic State Collection gave me the ability to use any kind of state collections without a line of additional code.

The Code

StateCollection inherits List<T> class and implements IStateManager. Please, note I'm requiring the generic type of StateCollection to be one that implements IStateManager by itself.

Here is the source code of StateCollection class:

/// <summary>
/// 
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
public class StateCollection<T> : List<T>, IStateManager where T : IStateManager, new(){

#region Fields  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

bool _tracking;

#endregion

#region Properties  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

/// <summary>
/// When implemented by a class, gets a value indicating whether a server control is tracking its view state changes.
/// </summary>
/// <value></value>
/// <returns>true if a server control is tracking its view state changes; otherwise, false.</returns>
public bool IsTrackingViewState {
    get { return _tracking; }
}
#endregion

#region Methods /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

/// <summary>
/// Loads the state of the view.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="savedState">State of the saved.</param>
public void LoadViewState(object savedState) {

    object[] state = savedState as object[];
    if (state != null) {
        T item;
        bool exists;
        for (int i = 0; i < state.Length; i++) {
            item = (exists =( i < this.Count)) ? this[i] : new T();
            item.LoadViewState(state[i]);
            if (this.IsTrackingViewState)
                item.TrackViewState();
            if(!exists) Add(item);
        }
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// When implemented by a class, saves the changes to a server control's view state to an <see cref="T:System.Object"/>.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>
/// The <see cref="T:System.Object"/> that contains the view state changes.
/// </returns>
public object SaveViewState() {

    if (this.Count > 0) {
        int count = this.Count;
        object[] state = new object[count];
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
            state[i] = this[i].SaveViewState();
        }
        return state;
    }
    else
        return null;
}

/// <summary>
/// When implemented by a class, instructs the server control to track changes to its view state.
/// </summary>
public void TrackViewState() {
    _tracking = true;
}
#endregion
}

Points of Interest

As example of how to use StateCollection you can refer to GoogleMap Control source code.

History

  • 22.Mar.2008 - Initial release

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Velio Ivanov

Web Developer

Bulgaria Bulgaria

Member



Sign Up to vote   Poor Excellent
Add a reason or comment to your vote: x
Votes of 3 or less require a comment

Comments and Discussions

 
You must Sign In to use this message board. (secure sign-in)
 
Search this forum  
 FAQ
    Noise  Layout  Per page   
  Refresh
QuestionWhy ? PinmemberXmen W.K.1:49 26 Nov '09  

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.

Permalink | Advertise | Privacy | Mobile
Web04 | 2.5.120517.1 | Last Updated 22 Mar 2008
Article Copyright 2008 by Velio Ivanov
Everything else Copyright © CodeProject, 1999-2012
Terms of Use
Layout: fixed | fluid