Background 
In my quest, I had searched several sites that gave some or incomplete information on how to 
setup a DataGrid properly to handle Click events. After many hours of banging my head and 
finally getting it to work, I vowed to document it all and share the code to try to prevent 
some other poor soul from having to go through what I did. 

Using the code 
The idea behind getting this to work is to create an OnClick event for that row that mimics 
hitting an ASP.NET WebForm button; in my example it's the Select button. If you're not familiar
 with how ASP.NET's web form controls work, when you click on them, they fire a JavaScript 
function called __doPostBack(eventTarget, eventArgument). The control clicked passes its ID 
along to the JavaScript function and the function starts the postback process. Now it becomes 
difficult because these IDs are generated on the fly when the page is viewed, but at least in 
a predictable manner. While not difficult to setup, there are several small things you need to 
do to make everything fit together. 

In my example, I mimic a Select button. So for this I had to add a Select button column to my 
DataGrid. However, it doesn't need to be visible so this column can just be hidden. If this 
column isn't added, the Click event won't detect properly and the event listener won't know 
how to trigger the proper listener. Next the OnClick event can be added to the DataGrid row. 
The ItemCreated event for the DataGrid is used to add the necessary JavaScript to each row. 
The only line that is necessary is the OnClick attribute; the first line changes the cursor to 
a hand cursor and changes the color of the row background, while the second line removes the 
color change on mouse out. I split up alternating items and items because I had my DataGrid 
set up for alternating colors for visibility. If you aren't playing with the colors, you can 
combine the if statements as you see in the second piece of code. 

private void dgRequests_ItemCreated(object sender,  
         System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs e) 
//For Datagrig's with alternating colors 
{ 
    if(e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem) 
    { 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseover",  
               "this.style.backgroundColor='beige';this.style.cursor='hand'"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseout", "this.style.backgroundColor='#99B3FF';"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onclick", "javascript:__doPostBack" +  
               "('_ctl0$DataGrid1$_ctl" +  
               ((Convert.ToInt32(e.Item.ItemIndex.ToString()))+2) +  
               "$_ctl0','')"); 
    } 
    if(e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item) 
    { 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseover",  
               "this.style.backgroundColor='beige';this.style.cursor='hand'"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseout", "this.style.backgroundColor='#D9E2FF';"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onclick", "javascript:__doPostBack" +  
               "('_ctl0$DataGrid1$_ctl" +  
               ((Convert.ToInt32(e.Item.ItemIndex.ToString()))+2) +  
               "$_ctl0','')"); 
    } 
} 
private void dgRequests_ItemCreated(object sender,  
                  System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs e) 
//For a single color Datagrid 
{ 
    if(e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem ||  
       e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item) 
    { 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseover",  
               "this.style.backgroundColor='beige';this.style.cursor='hand'"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onmouseout",  
               "this.style.backgroundColor='#99B3FF';"); 
        e.Item.Attributes.Add("onclick", "javascript:__doPostBack" +  
               "('_ctl0$DataGrid1$_ctl" +  
               ((Convert.ToInt32(e.Item.ItemIndex.ToString()))+2) +  
               "$_ctl0','')"); 
    } 
} 
 
 
 
 

If you have problems with the post back function lining up, you can unhide the Select column 
and look at the runtime source to see if the row postback functions match the Select button. 

The rest of the code is handled in the same manner as a Select button event; set up the 
SelecteIndexChanged function and create the event listener. The whole thing is rather simple 
to set up and can be done for any of the button columns you want, saving you from the perils 
of user navigation issues! 

Conclusion 
When I started looking into this I wasn't familiar with the __doPostBack function that ASP.NET 
uses, so for me it was an interesting project. It's a simple way to improve your UI, and hey,
 a happy user = peace and quiet! *Pulls out towel and sticks thumb out* Till next time!