ASP.NET dynamically created controls and Postback

Question

I know this question has been asked thousands of times, and I've struggled with it before, but for some reason, I can't accomplish what I want to accomplish... I have a dynamically added LinkButton that when clicked will dynamically add a control (in this example, a textbox) to the same panel. The intent is to continuously add on as many controls as times the LinkButton was clicked (i.e. I click it once, one box, then another click will give me 2 boxes, another click adds a 3rd). In the code below, I use the current date and time serialized to create a unique ID for each textbox control.

When I execute the code, clicking "Add Filter" will generate a new textbox, but once clicked again will create a new one, and dispose of the one before it. Instead, I want to persist the previous textbox as well as any data submitted within it.

Your help is appreciated.

In the aspx:

<asp:Panel ID="pnlFilter" runat="server">

</asp:Panel>

In the aspx.cs:

protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        LinkButton lb = new LinkButton();
        lb.ID = "lbAddFilter";
        pnlFilter.Controls.Add(lb);
        lb.Text = "Add Filter";
        lb.Click += new EventHandler(lbAddFilter_Click);
}


void lbAddFilter_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    TextBox tb = new TextBox();
    tb.ID = "tb" + DateTime.Now.ToBinary().ToString();
    pnlFilter.Controls.Add(tb);
}

Answer 1

For anyone else trying to do something like this: don't. Instead, think of the flow of information and understand that there is a better way to do it. The input control(s) do not need to be dynamically created. They can be static, and upon filling out and submitting on one, that information has to go somewhere (database, cache, session, for example). Once its there, on postback, loop through all items in your storage of choice and create a display for them.

That is what I've done and it has made life a lot easier. Hope it helps someone.