Event from dynamic ItemTemplate not caught

Question

I implemented a new dynamic ItemTemplate like this :

private sealed class CustomItemTemplate : ITemplate
{
    public CustomItemTemplate()
    {}

    void ITemplate.InstantiateIn(Control container)
    {
        Table ItemTable = new Table();
        ItemTable.CssClass = "tablewidth";

        TableRow btnRow = new TableRow();
        ItemTable.Rows.Add(btnRow);

        TableCell btnCell = new TableCell();
        btnCell.CssClass = "bgcolorBlueLight";
        btnCell.ColumnSpan = 2;

        btnRow.Cells.Add(btnCell);

        ImageButton ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode = new ImageButton();
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.CausesValidation = false;
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.ImageUrl = "~/Images/icon_insert_16.gif";
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.CommandName = "New";

        ImageButton ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode = new ImageButton();
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode.CausesValidation = false;
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode.ImageUrl = "~/Images/icon_edit_16.gif";
        ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode.CommandName = "Edit";

        btnCell.Controls.Add(ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode);
        btnCell.Controls.Add(ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode);

        container.Controls.Add(ItemTable);
    }
  }

It contains two buttons, the first one opening the Insert mode and the second one opening the update mode. They show up with no problem.

My goal is to use it in a formview :

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   formView1.ItemTemplate = new CustomItemTemplate();
}

And I'd like to catch commands from the two buttons :

protected void formView1_ItemCommand(object sender, FormViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("ITEM COMMANDNAME : " + e.CommandName);
}

Unfortunately, formView1_ItemCommand won't display anything when I click on my buttons

Yet, if I declare ItemTemplate classicaly :

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ProspectsCustomFormView.ascx.cs" Inherits="controls_ProspectsCustomFormView" %>

<asp:FormView ID="formView1" runat="server" OnItemCommand="formView1_ItemCommand">
<ItemTemplate>
    <asp:Table ID="ItemTable" runat="server" CssClass="tablewidth">
        <asp:TableRow>
            <asp:TableCell  CssClass="bgcolorBlueLight" ColumnSpan="2">
                <asp:ImageButton ID="ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode" runat="server" CommandName="New" CausesValidation="False" ImageUrl="~/Images/icon_insert_16.gif" ToolTip="New"/>
                <asp:ImageButton ID="ImgBtnfvPrincipalUpdateMode" runat="server" CommandName="Edit" CausesValidation="False" ImageUrl="~/Images/icon_edit_16.gif" ToolTip="Edit" />
            </asp:TableCell>
        </asp:TableRow>
    </asp:Table>
 </ItemTemplate>
 </asp:FormView>

Then it works...

Which solution do you suggest ?

EDIT

Forgot to mention the formView is actually wrapped inside a User Control :

public partial class controls_CustomFormView : UserControl
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
       fv.ItemTemplate = new CustomItemTemplate();
    }

    private sealed class CustomItemTemplate : ITemplate
    {...}

}

Answer 1

This is a little outside my experience, but I note you don't show your buttons raising events within your template. You don't appear to be handling the events raised by the button commands.

There's nothing that I see to make the buttons cause the template object they live in to raise its ItemCommand event.

Like I said, this is a bit outside my experience, so maybe that's supposed to auto-wire itself. But I'd try handling the buttons' Command event and having them raise the ItemCommand of the template.

ETA: Having done some reading, I think Luizgrs is right and you shouldn't need to do special event handling.

I'm wondering now if the problem is that you are not adding any of your controls to container.Controls until the very end. By doing it that way, you're relying on the Add method of container.Controls to go through the control hierarchy of the Table and hook up all the Command events with BubbleEvent.

Just as an experiment, try moving this line:

 container.Controls.Add(ItemTable);

... right to the top, like this:

 Table ItemTable = new Table();
 ItemTable.CssClass = "tablewidth";
 container.Controls.Add(ItemTable);

The difference would be that all your control additions would now be to controls already inside container.Controls.

ETA: ALSO! You need to assign an ID to the buttons!

    ImageButton ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode = new ImageButton();
    ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.ID = "ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode";
    ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.CausesValidation = false;
    ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.ImageUrl = "~/Images/icon_insert_16.gif";
    ImgBtnfvPrincipalInsertMode.CommandName = "New";