"Object reference not set to an instance of an object" Exception When Using A DetailsView Control In ASP.NET

I ran into an exception recently when developing a website in ASP.NET which made use of a DetailsView control bound to an ADO.NET Entity Data Model as its data source (EntityDataSource). The complete exception message was:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
System.Web.UI.WebControls.EntityDataSourceView.ConvertWCProperty(IDictionary values, Dictionary`2 convertedValues, List`1 visitedProperties, PropertyDescriptor pd, ParameterCollection referenceParameters, Dictionary`2& exceptions) +35
System.Web.UI.WebControls.EntityDataSourceView.ConvertProperties(IDictionary values, PropertyDescriptorCollection propertyDescriptors, ParameterCollection referenceParameters) +216
System.Web.UI.WebControls.EntityDataSourceView.CreateEntityForInsert(EntityDataSourceWrapper entityWrapper, IDictionary values, ParameterCollection insertParameters) +49
System.Web.UI.WebControls.EntityDataSourceView.ExecuteInsert(IDictionary values) +239
System.Web.UI.DataSourceView.Insert(IDictionary values, DataSourceViewOperationCallback callback) +86
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DetailsView.HandleInsert(String commandArg, Boolean causesValidation) +274
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DetailsView.HandleEvent(EventArgs e, Boolean causesValidation, String validationGroup) +676
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DetailsView.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs e) +95
System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs args) +37
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DetailsViewRow.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs e) +113
System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs args) +37
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e) +118
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +135
System.Web.UI.WebControls.LinkButton.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +10
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +13
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +175
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1565

The cause of the error was a TemplateField containing an ItemTemplate with a bound DropDownList. I set this up through the wizard, which had placed the name of the bound value in square brackets, as shown below:

Bind("[LinkCategories.LinkCategoryID]")

It turns out this is a known bug in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1. Removing the square brackets, as shown below, corrected the issue.

Bind("LinkCategories.LinkCategoryID")

Comments

Popular Posts

Resolving the "n timer(s) still in the queue" Error In Angular Unit Tests

How to Get Norton Security Suite Firewall to Allow Remote Desktop Connections in Windows

How to Determine if a Column Exists in a DataReader

Fixing the "Please add a @Pipe/@Directive/@Component annotation" Error In An Angular App After Upgrading to webpack 4

Silent Renew and the "login_required" Error When Using oidc-client