Difference between RegisterStartupScript and RegisterClientScriptBlock?

Here’s an old discussion thread where I listed the main differences and the conditions in which you should use each of these methods. I think you may find it useful to go through the discussion.

To explain the differences as relevant to your posted example:

a. When you use RegisterStartupScript, it will render your script after all the elements in the page (right before the form’s end tag). This enables the script to call or reference page elements without the possibility of it not finding them in the Page’s DOM.

Here is the rendered source of the page when you invoke the RegisterStartupScript method:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1"><title></title></head>
<body>
    <form name="form1" method="post" action="StartupScript.aspx" id="form1">
        <div>
            <input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="someViewstategibberish" />
        </div>
        <div> <span id="lblDisplayDate">Label</span>
            <br />
            <input type="submit" name="btnPostback" value="Register Startup Script" id="btnPostback" />
            <br />
            <input type="submit" name="btnPostBack2" value="Register" id="btnPostBack2" />
        </div>
        <div>
            <input type="hidden" name="__EVENTVALIDATION" id="__EVENTVALIDATION" value="someViewstategibberish" />
        </div>
        <!-- Note this part -->
        <script language="javascript">
            var lbl = document.getElementById('lblDisplayDate');
            lbl.style.color="red";
        </script>
    </form>
    <!-- Note this part -->
</body>
</html>

b. When you use RegisterClientScriptBlock, the script is rendered right after the Viewstate tag, but before any of the page elements. Since this is a direct script (not a function that can be called, it will immediately be executed by the browser. But the browser does not find the label in the Page’s DOM at this stage and hence you should receive an “Object not found” error.

Here is the rendered source of the page when you invoke the RegisterClientScriptBlock method:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1"><title></title></head>
<body>
    <form name="form1" method="post" action="StartupScript.aspx" id="form1">
        <div>
            <input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="someViewstategibberish" />
        </div>
        <script language="javascript">
            var lbl = document.getElementById('lblDisplayDate');
            // Error is thrown in the next line because lbl is null.
            lbl.style.color="green";

Therefore, to summarize, you should call the latter method if you intend to render a function definition. You can then render the call to that function using the former method (or add a client side attribute).

Edit after comments:

For instance, the following function would work:

protected void btnPostBack2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{ 
  System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder(); 
  sb.Append("<script language="javascript">function ChangeColor() {"); 
  sb.Append("var lbl = document.getElementById('lblDisplayDate');"); 
  sb.Append("lbl.style.color="green";"); 
  sb.Append("}</script>"); 

  //Render the function definition. 
  if (!ClientScript.IsClientScriptBlockRegistered("JSScriptBlock")) 
  {
    ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock(this.GetType(), "JSScriptBlock", sb.ToString()); 
  }

  //Render the function invocation. 
  string funcCall = "<script language="javascript">ChangeColor();</script>"; 

  if (!ClientScript.IsStartupScriptRegistered("JSScript"))
  { 
    ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(this.GetType(), "JSScript", funcCall); 
  } 
}

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