Button in a Repeater does not fire ItemCommand

Question

Why would a button inside a Repeater not fire the Repeater's ItemCommand event? Is there a way to force it to do so? ViewState is Enabled.

In the code below, btnApprove and btnDelete are the buttons in question:

<asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="rpt1" onitemdatabound="rpt1_ItemDataBound" onitemcommand="rpt1_ItemCommand" >
    <ItemTemplate>
        <table width="100%" style="margin-bottom:6px;">
            <tr>
                <td>
                    <asp:CheckBox ID="chkSelected" runat="server" Text=" " TextAlign="Right"/> Select
                    <asp:Button ID="btnApprove" runat="server" Width="80px" Text="Approve" />
                    <asp:Button ID="btnDelete" runat="server" Width="80px" Text="Delete" />
                </td>                                                                   
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td align="right">
                    <asp:Label ID="lblCommentStatus" runat="server" Text="Label"></asp:Label>
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
        <table width="100%" style="margin-top:6px;">
            <tr>
                <td><asp:Label ID="lblAuthorName" runat="server" Text="Author: " Width="60px"></asp:Label></td>
                <td><asp:TextBox ID="txtAuthorName" runat="server" Width="250px"></asp:TextBox></td>
                <td style="padding-left: 30px;"><asp:Label ID="lblAuthorLocation" runat="server" Text="Location: " Width="70px"></asp:Label></td>
                <td><asp:TextBox ID="txtAuthorLocation" runat="server" Width="250px"></asp:TextBox></td>
            </tr>
        </table>
        Title: <asp:TextBox ID="txtTitle" runat="server" Width="640px" Enabled="False"></asp:TextBox>
        Body: <asp:TextBox ID="txtBody" runat="server" Width="640px" TextMode="MultiLine" Height="60px" Enabled="False"></asp:TextBox>
        <table width="100%" style="margin-top:6px;">
            <tr>
                <td><asp:Label ID="lblVotes" runat="server" Text="Votes: " Width="80px"></asp:Label></td>
                <td><asp:Label ID="lblVotesCount" runat="server" Text="" Width="600px"></asp:Label></td>
            </tr>
        </table>
        <hr style="margin-top:20px; margin-bottom:20px;" />
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

/// <summary>
  /// Handles the ItemCommand event of the rpt1 control.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="source">The source of the event.</param>
  /// <param name="e">The <see cref="System.Web.UI.WebControls.RepeaterCommandEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
  protected void rpt1_ItemCommand(object source, RepeaterCommandEventArgs e)
  {
    var c1 = CommentRepository.GetById(Convert.ToUInt64(e.CommandArgument.ToString()));

    if (e.CommandName == "approve")
    {
      c1.Approved = true;
      c1.ApprovationUserId = WebAdminContext.RelatedUserId;
    }

    if (e.CommandName == "reject")
    {
      c1.Approved = false;
      c1.ApprovationUserId = 0;
    }

    if (e.CommandName == "delete")
    {
      c1.Deleted = true;
      c1.DeletionUserId = WebAdminContext.RelatedUserId;
    }

    if (e.CommandName == "restore")
    {
      c1.Deleted = false;
      c1.DeletionUserId = 0;
    }

    CommentRepository.Update(c1);

    ResetSubSequenceInfo();
    BindList();
      }

/// <summary>
  /// Binds the list.
  /// </summary>
  private void BindList()
  {
    _Criteria = lcb1.GenerateCriteriaFromUI();

    var sc1 = CommentRepository.Filter(
      new FilteringOptions(
        EntityListPager1.CurrentSubSequenceInfo,
        null,
        CommentRepository.GetCriteriaToFilterByTGID(CurrentEntityGEODEReference.GID).And(_Criteria)
        )
      );

    // BIND
    rpt1.DataSource = sc1.Items;
    rpt1.DataBind();

    EntityListPager1.BindToUI(sc1.Info);
  }

Answer 1

Edit: per your other comments, it sounds like you're re-binding the repeater on every postback. When you do that, you destroy the ItemCommand's event source - the original Repeater item associated with the button the client clicked.

The user selects "approved" or "deleted" from a dropdown, clicks search (a postback) and BindList() binds the datasource the to new results.

You can re-bind the repeater in your drop-down's handler, just make sure you aren't doing it during the execution path initiated by your 'Approve' or 'Delete' buttons.

---

There may be another issue, but you definitely need to specify command names for your buttons for that code to work:

<asp:Button ID="btnApprove" runat="server" Width="80px" Text="Approve" CommandName="approve"/>
<asp:Button ID="btnDelete" runat="server" Width="80px" Text="Delete" CommandName="delete"/>

I can't reproduce the problem: are you sure the ItemCommand handler isn't even firing? Using a slightly modified version of your code, my rpt1_ItemCommand method is clearly executing when I click 'Approve' or 'Delete', it just isn't hitting any of the cases, because those buttons don't have command names defined.