ASP.NET button-click, using jQuery on a server control

Question

When you attach a client-side click event via jQuery to an ASP.NET button do you then lose the ability to do a postback? I merely need to do some jQuery prior to the server-side stuff happening and it seems to be interrupting this process.

 $('[id$="btnDisableAlarms"]').click(function () {
            var commentValue = $('[id$="txtComment"]').val();
            if (commentValue == "") {
                // add red border (CSS)
                $('[id$="txtComment"]').addClass("redCommentError");
            }
            return;

        });

The button is wired up with a click event but the browser doesn't budge.

 btnDisableAlarms.Click+=new EventHandler(btnDisableAlarms_Click);

 public void btnDisableAlarms_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Response.Write("Still able to manage a postback from server");
    }

Answer 1

The problem is that your jQuery click handler is overwriting the click handler that ASP assigns to the button. You could do something like:

$('[id$="btnDisableAlarms"]').each(function (index, button) {
    var oldClickHandler = button.onclick;
    $(button).click(function () {
        // Do your stuff
        oldClickHandler();
    });
});

That might not be the right syntax for caching the old click handler, but it would be something similar to that.

Edit: Actually it would be safer to preserve the context and the click event, something like:

$('[id$="btnDisableAlarms"]').each(function (index, button) {
    var oldClickHandler = button.onclick;
    $(button).click(function (clickEvent) {
        // Do your stuff
        oldClickHandler.call(button, clickEvent);
    });
});

This ensures that if the old click handler uses this or tries to access the click event that triggered it, it'll still work properly.