Getting a reference to a behavior

For my work I use databound repeating controls extensively. Of course, when using a repeating server control, child control ids are mangled by asp.net to prevent naming conflicts. To facilitate client side interaction I have begun using jQuery to get a reference to DOM elements whose names have been mangled by asp.net.

I wanted to be able to dismiss ModalPopupExtenders on my pages by pressing the escape key and the first obvious problem that manifested was that in order to call the hide() method of the ModalPopupExtender behavior, I had to have a reference to it. But because the ModalPopupExtender is a Component and not a DOM object, I cannot use jQuery to select it.

In my next post I'll demonstrate how I ultimately implemented the functionality I desired, but for now I merely wish to describe a couple of ways to get a reference to a behavior.

I used the Sys.UI.Behavior.getBehaviorsByType() method which works like this:

var mpeArray = Sys.UI.Behavior.getBehaviorsByType($get("btnCausePopup"), 

            AjaxControlToolkit.ModalPopupBehavior);

getBehaviorsByType() returns an array of behaviors. The first parameter it takes is the TargetControlID of the Ajax Control Toolkit control, or in other words, the control that is being extended by the behavior. Here's what my ModalPopupExtender looks like:

 <ajaxToolkit:ModalPopupExtender runat="server" ID="mpePopup" TargetControlID="btnCausePopup"

        PopupControlID="pnlPopup" />

The second parameter is the type of the Sys.UI.Behavior objects to find. Be sure to include the AjaxControlToolkit namespace. In this case the type is "AjaxControlToolkit.ModalPopupBehavior," not "AjaxControlToolkit.ModalPopupExtender." If you are not sure what the type is for the control you are using, one way to find it is to view the source of the page from the browser and search for the value of the TargetControlID. You will find something that looks something like this:

Sys.Application.add_init(function() {

    $create(AjaxControlToolkit.ModalPopupBehavior, {"PopupControlID":"pnlPopup","id":"mpePopup"},

       null, null, $get("btnCausePopup"));

Here, the bold text indicates the Type. Once you have the array of behaviors, iterate through the array to access each individual behavior, setting properties or calling methods at your leisure.

Another useful method in this regard is Sys.UI.Behavior.getBehaviorByName(). Its first parameter is the same as getBehaviorsByType. The second parameter is the name property of the behavior.