assigning itemtemplate, edititemtemplate programmatically

[Steve P]

This really is a question for Datalist, since that is what I am primarily
using; however it should apply to Datagrid as well.

I would like to be able to assign the itemtemplate and edititemtemplate
programmatically based on how the user would like the data layed out. I have
been able to achieve this by using creating a class that implements the
ITemplate interface, however I soon realized the drawback in that custom
classes do not save their viewstate by default. Therefore I have to retrieve
the data and assign the templates at every postback, which consumes resources
and doesn't take advantage of the Viewstate properties of the
datalist/datagrid. I tried adding my custom template class to the viewstate,
but the error was that the object had to be serializable. I looked at this
briefly but gave up due to time constraints.

Having said all this, *ideally* what I would like is to be able to do is
just have the html templates in separate files and then instantiate a class
based on the user's preferred layout and assign it to the datalist. I think
this is possible somehow but I don't have the time to research it right now.
If anyone has done something like this before or would like to try, that
would be great!!

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Steve P]

Okay, I found out that you can also use Page.LoadTemplate("<filename>.ascx")
to assign the templates programmatically:

DataList1.ItemTemplate = Page.LoadTemplate("itemtemplate1.ascx");

This allows you to store the templates in different files, and assign them
dynamically based on user input. However, there are still a few problems.
First, you can't seem to be able to set DataList1.ExtractTemplateRows = true
when doing this, because this causes the DataList to require that there be an
asp table and doesn't recognize that my itemtemplate1.ascx actually contains
a table. Second, and more importantly, postback is a major problem I've had
with dynamically loading templates. This goes for doing it using a custom
class that implements ITemplate and by using Page.LoadTemplate. It works
fine if there are no command buttons. But if you do use, for instance, an
Edit button (commandname=edit), then it will not work. The problem is that
on the containing page (e.g. mydatalist.aspx), you want the page_load method
to have the !IsPostBack requirement:

if (!IsPostBack) {
DataSub();
}

private void DataSub() {
DataList1.DataSource = getDataSource();
DataList1.ItemTemplate = Page.LoadTemplate("itemtemplate1.ascx");
DataList1.DataBind();
}

Unfortunately, if you have the !IsPostBack requirement, the page will not
load DataSub() again initially when you click the edit button, but also the
DataList1_EditCommand(...) method will never fire either!! The only way to
get it to fire is to remove the !IsPostBack requirement; then, for some
reason, the initial DataSub() will occur in page_load, and then the
editcommand event will fire afterwards, followed by anothere DataSub(), which
is totally inefficient:

DataList1_EditCommand(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
DataList1.EditItemIndex = e.Item.ItemIndex;
DataSub();
}

So, if you remove the DataSub() from the editcommand method, then DataSub
only occurs once, but only BEFORE the edititemindex has been assigned.

ARRRGHH!!!!

Does anyone have a proven method to dynamically assigning templates for the
datagrid/datalist??? If so please let me know!

Thanks

 

[Steve P]

Okay, found the solution to the problem about the edit button not firing.
You have to assign the datalist templates in the page_init method as in the
microsoft example at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...umnsdynamicallyindatalistwebservercontrol.asp.
However, now I have another problem in that the editcommand actually fires
twice instead of just once. If you copy the example code at the link above
this is what you will find, unless there is something I'm doing wrong I will
make a new post.

 

[Steve]

Found the solution. It was related to how Visual studio generates code
automatically to handle events. After I deleted this code ("#region Web Form
Designer generated code") the button fired only once.