Asp.net: Restoring Client-side Selecteditem Of Dropdownlist On Server-side

So I have a dropDownList on my page that contains hundreds of items. The user can filter this DDL by typing some text into a textbox. The DDL then gets filtered accordingly (all it

Solution 1:

When user presses a button get current value of dropdown using jQuery and set it in hidden field on page , give hidden field runat="server" so that when it posts back you will get value that was selected. For example

    <asp:DropDownList class="myList"></asp:DropDownList>
    <asp:Button class="btn"/> 
    <inputtype="hidden" id="hdnSelectedI" runat="server" class="hiddenControl"> 

    $(document).ready(function(){

    $(".btn").click(function(){

      var selectedItem = $(".myList").val();
      $(".hiddenControl").val(selectedItem);  

    });

});

I have used clas name selector as ids in aspnet are auto generated. On server side get value of hdnSelectedItem.Value , and from that pull from list of items/db maintained on server.