ASP.NET AJAX PageMethods

I would like to call a server side method from javascript, and have read that this is where PageMethods comes into the picture.

I would like to call my method when a Virtual Earth map onLoad event has fired.

I have problems with PageMethods as the method called serverside has to be shared and therefore i cannot reference my controls.

Is there other options ?

You can't access page controls in a page method, because a page method request doesn't transmit ViewState or run through the page life-cycle to create the controls.

If you really need to reference the controls, you canuse an UpdatePanel and __doPostBack to trigger a partial postback (which does allow you to reference the controls).

You can also pass clientside state through parameters if needed.