ASP.NET Wizard control downside

I am in the process of evaluating the ASP.NET Wizard Control. Where we need to collect data from different steps, validate data and towards the end I should be able to show 开发者_Python百科a data summary.

I would like to know from the group if anyone has used this control and what issues they faced. Are there any usage limitations with this control?

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The Wizard control can save you a lot of plumbing time if you use it well - however, learning to use it well may cost you more than the plumbing time that you save. If you plan to reuse it, then the initial investment in learning about its idiosyncracies may be worth it.

I have built a wizard in which the steps displayed in the side bar depend on which step you are at (and on what you have done to that point). It follows that the step you go to when you press Next or Previous is also determined dynamically.

To implement this, I read a lot of stuff about dynamically disabling steps, hiding steps, and adding and deleting steps. The latter led me into deep water with the ViewState. For what it is worth, here is my basic approach:

You can control which steps are visible in the sidebar by setting the step ID (and Title if set) to an empty string e.g. I have the step names in arrWizardSteps() and my steps defined as integer constants, then use

  For i = intCREDENTIALS To intADDITIONAL_INFORMATION
    Wizard1.WizardSteps(i).ID = IIf(Wizard1.ActiveStepIndex < i, "", arrWizardSteps(i))
  Next

If the steps are relatively independent, you can handle the SideBarButtonClick, PreviousButtonClick and NextButtonClick events by calling the same routine, which you construct to handle leaving the current step, and entering the next, irrespective of which button you clicked to make the transition. For example, the routine might store the data captured by the controls of the current step, and load some data into the controls of the next step.

If you do handle these events, you probably need to handle changing the ActiveStepIndex yourself. The wizard will increment/decrement the ActiveStepIndex (depending on which button was pressed) if you don't change it (unless you set e.Cancel=true in your handler where e is the WizardNavigationEventArgs argument to the handler).

If your code for hiding steps needs to know the destination step then you need to put that code in PreRender, since at that point the wizard will have moved to the next step and you will know what it is.

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Personally I don't like the wizard control. Its quite rigid and I didn't find it very nice to work with. Since then I have used the MultiView control inside and UpdatePanel with User controls in each View for each step for my wizards. This way it can be completely flexible.

With the MultiView approach you can also see all steps of the wizard easily in the designer.

This is just my option on the control though, I didnt give it much of a chance on its first visit.