WebClient event firing order - json

Question

I'm new to WP7 app development and I'm having trouble passing parameters to an API on a website.
It's my understanding that the onNavigatedTo() is fired first when a page is open on the WP7, however when I try to grab the parameters the webClient_DownloadStringCompleted() is fired first.
public partial class Ranks : PhoneApplicationPage
{
private WebClient webClient;
private string pageType;
private string pagePosition;
public Ranks()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.webClient = new WebClient();
string header_auth = "application/json";
this.webClient.DownloadStringCompleted += new DownloadStringCompletedEventHandler(webClient_DownloadStringCompleted);
this.webClient.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Authorization] = header_auth;
Uri serviceUri = new Uri(#"http://www.example.com/api/API.php?type=" + pageType + "&position=" + pagePosition);
this.webClient.DownloadStringAsync(serviceUri);
}
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationEventArgs e)
{
string type, position;
if (NavigationContext.QueryString.TryGetValue("type", out type))
{
pageType = type;
}
if (NavigationContext.QueryString.TryGetValue("pos", out position))
{
pagePosition = position;
}
}
void webClient_DownloadStringCompleted(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs e)
{
string myJsonString = e.Result;
List<PlayerDetails> dataSource = new List<PlayerDetails>();
//load into memory stream
using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(myJsonString)))
{
//parse into jsonser
var ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(PlayerDetails[]));
PlayerDetails[] obj = (PlayerDetails[])ser.ReadObject(ms);
foreach (PlayerDetails plyr in obj)
{
dataSource.Add(plyr);
}
playerList.ItemsSource = dataSource;
}
}
Whenever the URI string is built it's missing the parameters 'pageType' and 'pagePosition'
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

The class constructor will always get called before OnNavigatedTo. you should move that code from the constructor, and into OnNavigatedTo (or Loaded).
I'm guessing that you have that code in the constructor because you only want it to happen once per page load (i.e. not when the user navigates Back onto the page). If that's the case, you can check the NavigationMode.
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationEventArgs e)
{
if (e.NavigationMode == NavigationMode.New)
{
string type, position;
if (NavigationContext.QueryString.TryGetValue("type", out type))
{
pageType = type;
}
if (NavigationContext.QueryString.TryGetValue("pos", out position))
{
pagePosition = position;
}
this.webClient = new WebClient();
string header_auth = "application/json";
this.webClient.DownloadStringCompleted += new DownloadStringCompletedEventHandler(webClient_DownloadStringCompleted);
this.webClient.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Authorization] = header_auth;
Uri serviceUri = new Uri(#"http://www.example.com/api/API.php?type=" + pageType + "&position=" + pagePosition);
this.webClient.DownloadStringAsync(serviceUri);
}
}