Click on Expand/Collapse Handle Does Not Fire Server-Side ItemClick Event

PROBLEM

If I click on the Expand/Collapse button of the RadPanelItem the ItemClick never fires.

EXPLANATION

In general expanding and collapsing RadPanelItems is entirely a client-side functionality. It is implemented for scenarios when NavigateUrl property of the item is set. The expand/collapse handle enables a user to expand and collapse the item without navigating to the assigned page. It is intended by design that clicking the handle neither performs a postback of the page, nor triggers any of the RadPanelBar events.

WORKAROUND

Below you can find several workarounds to enable the server side ItemClick event when expanding/collapsing a RadPanelItem.

• Hide the expand/collapse handle using css:

.rpExpandHandle {
    display: none !important;
}

• Fire RadPanelItem's click event when expand/collapse handle is clicked:

function OnClientLoad(sender) {
    var $ = $telerik.$
    $('span.rpExpandHandle').on('mouseup', function (e) {
        // if clicked with left mouse button 
        if (e.which == 1) {
            var itemText = $(this).parent().find(".rpText").text();
            var panelBar = $find("<%= RadPanelBar1.ClientID %>");

            var panelItem = panelBar.findItemByText(itemText);
            panelItem.click();
        }
    })
}

<telerik:RadPanelBar runat="server" ID="RadPanelBar1"
    OnItemClick="RadPanelBar1_ItemClick"
    OnClientLoad="OnClientLoad">
    <Items>
        <telerik:RadPanelItem Text="Item1">
            <Items>
                <telerik:RadPanelItem Text="Item1">
                </telerik:RadPanelItem>
                <telerik:RadPanelItem Text="Item2">
                </telerik:RadPanelItem>
            </Items>
        </telerik:RadPanelItem>
        <telerik:RadPanelItem Text="Item2">
        </telerik:RadPanelItem>
        <telerik:RadPanelItem Text="Item3">
        </telerik:RadPanelItem>
    </Items>
</telerik:RadPanelBar>

Since a postback is needed for this approach to work, the PanelBar is subscribed to the OnItemClick server-side event.