When I first came across GridView I was unimpressed, there were a few things it did not do that a DataGrid did, and I immediately reverted back to the DataGrid.
Over the last few days I have been working on the GridView again, and have found it a great tool. And most of what I have below applies to DatraGrid, and DetailView too.
There are a few things that you should look at before giving up on it. The HTMLEncoding is the main thing I missed, which allows you to have html formatting in you data fields, and are displayed with them. Still have not figured out the difference between the two, and by heaven the help is one step away from useless. “This is used by programmers….” And same with the on events does not help to tell us it is used, not what raises it.
However the main reason for my post is the ItemTemplate. I found out it is easy to add them in design view and then click on the GridView select the little right arrow click Edit Fields then click convert into a Template Field for the fields you want to manipulate your way (initially I got this from: http://www.wherecanibuyit.co.uk/ASP/fully_editable_gridview.html) .
Once this is done in the code you can manipulate the code the way you like, including calling a sub routing. To do so just convert the Eval or Bind to the routine you want, and it is called with the parameters you pass, normally the DataField
A few lessons I learn regarding database manipulation when doing this were. Be wary of the database name, sometimes you need to specify the full name in the queries. Build you query in the query build and check that they work. Also I am not sure why but fields with spaces in the cause trouble. The Select query places “[“ and “]” around them and this works for select but the update and insert give problems, and any data field with html in it will not save unless you change your web config. Both these I am looking for alternative solutions (may require some code)
Of course all of this was inspired by a few fresh brews of quality coffee…
Over the last few days I have been working on the GridView again, and have found it a great tool. And most of what I have below applies to DatraGrid, and DetailView too.
There are a few things that you should look at before giving up on it. The HTMLEncoding is the main thing I missed, which allows you to have html formatting in you data fields, and are displayed with them. Still have not figured out the difference between the two, and by heaven the help is one step away from useless. “This is used by programmers….” And same with the on events does not help to tell us it is used, not what raises it.
However the main reason for my post is the ItemTemplate. I found out it is easy to add them in design view and then click on the GridView select the little right arrow click Edit Fields then click convert into a Template Field for the fields you want to manipulate your way (initially I got this from: http://www.wherecanibuyit.co.uk/ASP/fully_editable_gridview.html) .
Once this is done in the code you can manipulate the code the way you like, including calling a sub routing. To do so just convert the Eval or Bind to the routine you want, and it is called with the parameters you pass, normally the DataField
A few lessons I learn regarding database manipulation when doing this were. Be wary of the database name, sometimes you need to specify the full name in the queries. Build you query in the query build and check that they work. Also I am not sure why but fields with spaces in the cause trouble. The Select query places “[“ and “]” around them and this works for select but the update and insert give problems, and any data field with html in it will not save unless you change your web config. Both these I am looking for alternative solutions (may require some code)
Of course all of this was inspired by a few fresh brews of quality coffee…
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