Pls Help: Datagrid the solution?

[VB Programmer]

I have an ASP.NET form that allows people to answer survey questions. There
could be from 5 to an unlimited amt of questions, depending on which
questions the admin wants to users to answer (he sets it up previously).
The questions are in a db.

Is a datagrid the best way to display this data? What do you suggest?

After they enter the info I want to be able to save it back to the db.

Any helpful links/examples?

Thanks.

 

[Karl]

The grid is a good candidate for this sort of work. Let's assume your data
has a "QuestionId", and "Question" field, your datagrid would look something
like:
<aspataGrid id="grid" runat="server" DataKeyField="QuestionId"
AutoGenerateColumns="False">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundColumn DataField="Question" />
<asp:TemplateColumn>
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:textbox ID="txt" Runat="server" />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>
</Columns>
</aspataGrid>
<asp:Button ID="Save" Runat="server" />

with a save button at the bottom. In your save button click code, you would
loop through each item of the grid and pull out the QuestionID (note that's
the DataKeyField of the grid) and the answer (which will be in teh control
"txt"):

For i As Integer = 0 To grid.Items.Count - 1
Dim item As DataGridItem = grid.Items(i)
Dim questionId As Integer = CInt(grid.DataKeys(item.ItemIndex))
Dim answerBox As TextBox = CType(item.FindControl("txt"), TextBox)
If Not answerBox Is Nothing Then
Dim answer As String = answerBox.Text
'SAVEANSWER(questionId, Answer)
End If
Next


Now, if you need to support more than just a textbox (ie, if that's dynamic
with the question), it gets a little more complicated. Basically, we'd add
a "TypeID" column to our data, we'd remove the textbox from our grid and put
a placeholder instead. Then, in the ItemDataBound event we'd do something
like:

Private Sub Grid_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As
DataGridItemEventArgs) Handles grid.ItemDataBound
If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item OrElse e.Item.ItemType =
ListItemType.AlternatingItem Then
Dim plc As PlaceHolder = CType(e.Item.FindControl("plc"),
PlaceHolder)
If Not plc Is Nothing Then
Dim dr As DataRowView = CType(e.Item.DataItem, DataRowView)
Select Case CInt(dr("type"))
Case 1
Dim txt As New TextBox
txt.Text = CStr(dr("value"))
plc.Controls.Add(txt)
Case 2
Dim ddl As New DropDownList
plc.Controls.Add(ddl)
End Select
End If
End If
End Sub


Hope that helps.
Karl

 

[VB Programmer]

Karl for president! Thanks so much. I will try this out.

 

[VB Programmer]

AnswerBox.Text always returns "" even if there are values in it. Any ideas
why? Everything else seems ok.

 

[Karl]

You are rebinding your grid on postback.

Wherever you have your grid.DataSource = xxx and grid.Databind() commands,
wrap it in an if NOT Page.IsPostbackThen ... end if

karl

 

[VB Programmer]

Thanks so much Karl!!!!!!

You are rebinding your grid on postback.

Wherever you have your grid.DataSource = xxx and grid.Databind() commands,
wrap it in an if NOT Page.IsPostbackThen ... end if

karl

we'd