How to use __doPostBack()

I'm trying to create an asyncrhonous postback in ASP.NET using __doPostBack(), but I have no idea how to do it. I want to use vanilla JavaScript.

Something simple like a button click can cause the __doPostBack() event to fire. I'm just trying to learn how the mechanism works.

You can try this in your web form with a button called btnSave for example:

<input type="button" id="btnSave" onclick="javascript:SaveWithParameter('Hello Michael')" value="click me"/>

<script type="text/javascript">
function SaveWithParameter(parameter)
{
  __doPostBack('btnSave', parameter)
}
</script>

And in your code behind add something like this to read the value and operate upon it:

public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  string parameter = Request["__EVENTARGUMENT"]; // parameter
  // Request["__EVENTTARGET"]; // btnSave
}

Give that a try and let us know if that worked for you.

This is also a good way to get server-side controls to postback inside FancyBox and/or jQuery Dialog. For example, in FancyBox-div:

   <asp:Button OnClientClick="testMe('param1');" ClientIDMode="Static"  ID="MyButton"  runat="server" Text="Ok" >
</asp:Button>

JavaScript:

function testMe(params) {
    var btnID= '<%=MyButton.ClientID %>';          
    __doPostBack(btnID, params);
}

Server-side Page_Load:

 string parameter = Request["__EVENTARGUMENT"];
 if (parameter == "param1")
     MyButton_Click(sender, e);

Here's a brief tutorial on how __doPostBack() works.

To be honest, I don't use it much; at least directly. Many server controls, (e.g., Button, LinkButton, ImageButton, parts of the GridView, etc.) use __doPostBack as their post back mechanism.