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The GridView, FormView, and DetailsView controls all contain built-in paging functionality. By setting a few properties, it’s possible to have any of these controls automatically include a paging interface. The ListView, however, does not include built-in paging functionality. Instead, Microsoft decoupled the paging logic from the ListView and moved it into a separate Web control – the DataPager. Paging Through Data with the ListView and DataPager Controls , an earlier article in this series, explored how to use the DataPager to implement a paging interface for the ListView. By default, the DataPager renders Buttons, LinkButtons, or ImageButtons in the paging interface for the Next, Previous, First, Last, and numeric page number buttons. When clicked, these buttons cause a postback, at which point the appropriate set of records are bound to the ListView. Unfortunately, search engines cannot crawl a site using postbacks; instead, they rely on links they find on your site. Consequently, a search engine will only index the first page of data displayed by a ListView, because it cannot reach the subsequent pages.

The ListView control is similar to the GridView control in many ways: both display a set of records, both support built-in sorting, paging, editing, and deleting functionality with minimal effort. The ListView differs from the GridView in two key ways: Rather than using fields, the ListView is rendered via templates, which offers the page developer much finer control over the emitted markup, and The ListView supports built-in inserting support The first installment in this series explored the ListView’s template-based rendering. This installment looks at how to use the ListView’s inserting functionality. In a nutshell, inserting data from the ListView requires two steps: defining the inserting interface via the InsertItemTemplate and specifying where the inserting interface should go via the InsertItemPosition property. Much like with editing data from within the ListView , the InsertItemTemplate can contain two-way databinding statements when using a data source control to get the inputs entered by the user from the ListView’s inserting interface into the parameters of the data source control. And like with the editing and deleting workflows, you can programmatically examine and modify the user’s submitted data before inserting the data, cancelling the operation altogether if needed. This article walks through the steps for creating a ListView that allows users to insert records.

The GridView and DetailsView controls offer built-in editing functionality that can be turned on with the tick of a checkbox. Without writing a line of declarative markup or server-side source code, the page developer gets a decent out of the box editing interface. Namely, each field in the GridView or DetailsView is rendered in its editing interface; BoundFields display a TextBox control while CheckBoxFields display an enabled checkbox. Moreover, a CommandField is added, which displays the Edit, Update, and Cancel buttons, as needed. While the ListView control provides editing support, it requires a bit more work from the page developer to get it going. The reason is because the ListView is defined by templates whereas the GridView and DetailsView are defined by fields. Many fields types, such as the BoundField, can generate their own editing interface, but with templates the page developer is on the hook for specifying the editing interface. Creating an editable ListView control entails defining the editing interface via the EditItemTemplate and adding the Edit, Update, and Cancel buttons in the appropriate spots. This article walks through creating an editable ListView control, with the finished results available for download at the end of the article. Read on to learn more! ( It is assumed that the reader is familiar with how to edit data using a data source control. If this is not the case, please first read Accessing and Updating Data in ASP.NET: Updating Basics . ) Read More >

The previous installments in this article series have demonstrated how to display, group, sort, and page through data using the ListView control. In addition to displaying data, the ListView control also provides support for inserting, updating, and deleting data. If the ListView uses a data source control (such as a SqlDataSource or ObjectDataSource) and that data source control is configured to support insert, updating, or deleting, then implementing such functionality in the ListView does not require writing a single line of code. Rather, adding inserting and updating support entails creating templates that define the inserting and updating user interfaces and Button controls that trigger the actual update or insert. Implementing deleting support requires simply adding a properly configured Delete button to the ItemTemplate. This installment and the next explore how to perform inserts, updates, and deletes using the ListView control. This installment focuses on deleting and shows how to perform simple, standard deletes as well as more advanced deleting scenarios. The demos explored here (as well as the demos from previous installments) are available for download at the end of the article. Read on to learn more! ( It is assumed that the reader is familiar with how to delete data using a data source control. If this is not the case, please first read Accessing and Updating Data in ASP.NET: Deleting Data . ) Read More >

The DataGridView is a powerful grid control included in the .NET Framework.  One function missing, however, is the ability to hide the current selection when the DataGridView control is not focused.  What the DataGridView class needs is a HideSelection property, similar to the ListView and TextBox.  But the .NET designers have not included this capability in the DataGridView class. (more…) ShareThis

Sometimes it can be challenging to read the Details view in a ListView , especially if the rows are long.  This article shows how to add shading to every second row to make a ListView easier to read. (more…) ShareThis