We use jQuery a lot here at LavaBlast, but we also use ASP.NET webforms. We needed a simple reusable way to cause a postback on an asp.net managed Button or LinkButton.

Here is how it would be used for <asp:Button ID=”btShow” runat=”server” OnClick=”DoSomething” />

// Cause btShow to postback to the server
$('[id$="btShow"]').postback();

If you are not too familiar with jQuery, the selector [id$=”btShow”] search for any control with an id which ends with “btShow”.

Since ASP.NET 4.0, you could also use the new ClientIDMode=”Static” property on the server control to be able to have a static ID on the client and use a jQuery selector like this: $(‘#btShow’), but this is the matter of another discussion completely.

The postback() method is a jQuery plugin which I include here:

(function ($)
{
    $.fn.extend({
        postback: function ()
        {
            return this.each(function ()
            {
                if (this && "undefined" != typeof this.click)
                    this.click();
                else if (this && this.tagName.toLowerCase() == "a" && this.href.indexOf('javascript:') == 0)
                    eval(this.href.toString().replace('javascript:', ''));
            });
        }
    });    
})(jQuery);

Feel free to use this and let us know if you find any problems with the code.