QuickGrid sorting and pagination controls render as links

In ASP.NET Core 11, sortable QuickGrid column headers and Paginator controls render as links instead of buttons by default. Apps with CSS or tests that target the previous button markup might need updates.

Version introduced

.NET 11

Previous behavior

Previously, sortable column headers and paginator controls rendered as <button> elements with click handlers.

New behavior

Starting in ASP.NET Core 11, sortable column headers and paginator controls render as <a> elements with href attributes. Pagination and sort state is stored in the URL query string, which lets users share a sorted or paginated view and use browser back/forward navigation. The links also work under static server-side rendering (static SSR) without a JavaScript runtime.

Disabled paginator links use aria-disabled="true" instead of the disabled attribute, which doesn't apply to links.

Type of breaking change

This change is a behavioral change.

Reason for change

Links allow pagination and sorting to navigate by URL, including under static SSR where button click handlers aren't available. For more information, see ASP.NET Core Blazor `QuickGrid` component.

Recommended action

Update custom CSS selectors and UI tests that expect button markup. For example:

- button.col-title { ... }
+ button.col-title, a.col-title { ... }
- nav button { ... }
+ nav button, nav a { ... }
- nav button:disabled { ... }
+ nav button:disabled, nav a[aria-disabled="true"] { ... }

The built-in QuickGrid CSS supports both markup styles. For apps with multiple grids on the same page, assign unique query parameter names to avoid conflicts. For more information, see ASP.NET Core Blazor `QuickGrid` component.

To restore the previous button markup, set the AppContext switch to false before rendering the grid:

AppContext.SetSwitch(
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.QuickGrid.EnableUrlBasedQuickGridNavigationAndSorting",
    false);

The button markup requires an interactive render mode. The switch doesn't disable URL-state handling: QuickGrid still reads and writes pagination and sort state in the URL query string.

Affected APIs

None. No public API signatures changed. This change affects the HTML markup rendered by the QuickGrid and Paginator components.