ASP.NET 2.0 - Need to programmatically click a link

Question

Is there a way to click a link programatically, so that it has the same effects as if the user clicked on it?

Example:

I have an ASP.NET LinkButton:

<asp:LinkButton id="lnkExport" runat="server" CssClass="navclass">Export</asp:LinkButton>

I have a link on a sidebar directing to the .aspx page that has this linkbutton on it. For various reasons I can't have the code for the LinkButton executed until the page has refreshed -- so I am looking for a way to force-click this LinkButton in my code once the page is completely loaded. Is there a simple/doable way to accomplish this? If it involves triggering an event, please provide a code sample if you can. Thanks.

Solution 1

Rashack's post show's how to do it. You can just do it in javascript.

function ClickLink() {
  document.getElementById('').click();
}

If you want this to fire after some other event, you can add code in c# to add a call to that function on the client side when the page loads.

Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(
  this.getType(), 
  "clickLink", 
  "ClickLink();",
  true);

Solution 2

I certainly think that, there is a design and implementation flaw which forces you to conclude as you described.

Well, invoking the click event means nothing but executing the event registration method.

So, the worst suggestion I can think of is, just call the function at what point you want to happen the click event like,

lnkExport_Click(lnkExport, new EventArgs());

Solution 3

Triggering a click event programatically on a link will trigger the “onclick” event, but not the default action(href).

And since linkbuttons come out as hrefs, so you could try doing this with Javascript.

var lnkExport = document.getElementById('<%= lnkExport.ClientID %>');
if(lnkExport){
   window.location = lnkExport.href;
}