ListItems attributes in a DropDownList are lost on postback?

A coworker showed me this:

He has a DropDownList and a button on a web page. Here's the code behind:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            ListItem item = new ListItem("1");
            item.Attributes.Add("title", "A");

            ListItem item2 = new ListItem("2");
            item2.Attributes.Add("title", "B");

            DropDownList1.Items.AddRange(new[] {item, item2});
            string s = DropDownList1.Items[0].Attributes["title"];
        }
    }

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        DropDownList1.Visible = !DropDownList1.Visible;
    }

On the page load, the items' tooltips are showing, but on the first postback, the attributes are lost. Why is this the case, and are there any workarounds?

I had the same problem and wanted to contribute this resource where the author created an inherited ListItem Consumer to persist attributes to ViewState. Hopefully it will save someone the time I wasted until I stumbled on it.

protected override object SaveViewState()
{
    // create object array for Item count + 1
    object[] allStates = new object[this.Items.Count + 1];

    // the +1 is to hold the base info
    object baseState = base.SaveViewState();
    allStates[0] = baseState;

    Int32 i = 1;
    // now loop through and save each Style attribute for the List
    foreach (ListItem li in this.Items)
    {
        Int32 j = 0;
        string[][] attributes = new string[li.Attributes.Count][];
        foreach (string attribute in li.Attributes.Keys)
        {
            attributes[j++] = new string[] {attribute, li.Attributes[attribute]};
        }
        allStates[i++] = attributes;
    }
    return allStates;
}

protected override void LoadViewState(object savedState)
{
    if (savedState != null)
    {
        object[] myState = (object[])savedState;

        // restore base first
        if (myState[0] != null)
            base.LoadViewState(myState[0]);

        Int32 i = 1;
        foreach (ListItem li in this.Items)
        {
            // loop through and restore each style attribute
            foreach (string[] attribute in (string[][])myState[i++])
            {
                li.Attributes[attribute[0]] = attribute[1];
            }
        }
    }
}

Thanks, Laramie. Just what I was looking for. It keeps the attributes perfectly.

To expand, below is a class file I created using Laramie's code to create a dropdownlist in VS2008. Create the class in the App_Code folder. After you create the class, use this line on the aspx page to register it:

<%@ Register TagPrefix="aspNewControls" Namespace="NewControls"%>

You can then put the control on your webform with this

<aspNewControls:NewDropDownList ID="ddlWhatever" runat="server">
                                                </aspNewControls:NewDropDownList>

Ok, here's the class...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace NewControls
{
  [DefaultProperty("Text")]
  [ToolboxData("<{0}:ServerControl1 runat=server></{0}:ServerControl1>")]
  public class NewDropDownList : DropDownList
  {
    [Bindable(true)]
    [Category("Appearance")]
    [DefaultValue("")]
    [Localizable(true)]

    protected override object SaveViewState()
    {
        // create object array for Item count + 1
        object[] allStates = new object[this.Items.Count + 1];

        // the +1 is to hold the base info
        object baseState = base.SaveViewState();
        allStates[0] = baseState;

        Int32 i = 1;
        // now loop through and save each Style attribute for the List
        foreach (ListItem li in this.Items)
        {
            Int32 j = 0;
            string[][] attributes = new string[li.Attributes.Count][];
            foreach (string attribute in li.Attributes.Keys)
            {
                attributes[j++] = new string[] { attribute, li.Attributes[attribute] };
            }
            allStates[i++] = attributes;
        }
        return allStates;
    }

    protected override void LoadViewState(object savedState)
    {
        if (savedState != null)
        {
            object[] myState = (object[])savedState;

            // restore base first
            if (myState[0] != null)
                base.LoadViewState(myState[0]);

            Int32 i = 1;
            foreach (ListItem li in this.Items)
            {
                // loop through and restore each style attribute
                foreach (string[] attribute in (string[][])myState[i++])
                {
                    li.Attributes[attribute[0]] = attribute[1];
                }
            }
        }
    }
  }
}