ListView in ASP.NET 3.5

Introduction

ASP.NET 3.5 introduces a new data binding control named the ListView. ASP.NET already has a lot data bind control; it should be more than 10. But the good news is, ListView can literally replace all other data binding controls in ASP.NET. ListView control makes data binding easier than previous controls. It has included styling with CSS, flexible pagination, and sorting, inserting, deleting, and updating features.

Download source files -4 kb

Complete ListView

In this article I will describe features in ListView step by step with related code review

1. Data binding
2. Data Pager
3. Sorting
4. Insert, Update and Delete

DataBinding

The ListView is template driven control which means that it will not render anything by default developer must completely specify the HTML he/she want to render in the form of templates. To show data in ListView control need to take a LayoutTemplate (to define top level of HTML for output rendering).To show data need to take ItemTemplate and AlternativeItemTemplate can be taking to show alternative row as with different CSS. Here is the example of Simple data binding with AlternativeItemTemplate.

//very simple databinding in ListView
<LayoutTemplate>
 <table border="0" cellpadding="1">
  <tr style="background-color:#E5E5FE">
   <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkId" runat="server">Id</asp:LinkButton></th>
   <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkName" runat="server">Name</asp:LinkButton></th>
   <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkType" runat="server">Type</asp:LinkButton></th>
   <th></th>
  </tr>
  <tr id="itemPlaceholder" runat="server"></tr>
 </table>
</LayoutTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
  <tr>
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblId"><%#Eval("ID") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblName"><%#Eval("FirstName")+" 
	"+Eval("LastName") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblType"><%#Eval("ContactType") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td></td>
  </tr>
</ItemTemplate>
<AlternatingItemTemplate>
  <tr style="background-color:#EFEFEF">
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblId"><%#Eval("ID") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblName"><%#Eval("FirstName")+" "+
	Eval("LastName") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td><asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblType"><%#Eval("ContactType") %></asp:Label></td>
   <td></td>
  </tr>
</AlternatingItemTemplate>

 Here Layout template is making header of the control, and ItemTemplate is showing data taking from table by Binding columns with Label controls, and AlternativeItemTemplate doing same as ItemTemplate just chaning css for alternative columns. 

DataPager

To add pagination in the listview need to add a asp:DataPager control, better to put this control inside LayoutTemplate at the end of the LayoutTemplate. DataPager control has many options to show pagination and these are useful too. Here I have just used simple one.

<asp:DataPager ID="ItemDataPager" runat="server" PageSize="5">
    <Fields>
         <asp:NumericPagerField ButtonCount="2" />
    </Fields>
</asp:DataPager>

Sorting

This is very easy to sort data in ListView. Sort functionality is defined in the CommandArgument property of the button that contains the columns to be sorted. It occurs when a button with its CommandName property set to Sort is clicked. And need to make a call for Sort method named onsorting="ListView1_Sorting".

// to allow sort if click on the header of the table make 
//table header controls clickable 
//and give commandname and commandargument
<tr style="background-color:#E5E5FE">
 <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkId" runat="server" 
	CommandName="Sort" CommandArgument="ID">Id</asp:LinkButton></th>
 <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkName" runat="server" 
	CommandName="Sort" CommandArgument="FirstName">Name</asp:LinkButton></th>
 <th align="left"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkType" runat="server" 
	CommandName="Sort" CommandArgument="ContactType">Type</asp:LinkButton></th>
 <th></th>
</tr>

 Insert, Update and Delete

To insert data into ListView need to add a tag in ListView named InsertItemTemplate. Add to add inserted code add code in ItemCommand. 

<InsertItemTemplate>
    <tr runat="server">
        <td></td>
        <td>
        <asp:TextBox ID="txtFname" runat="server" 
		Text='<%#Eval("FirstName") %>' Width="100px">First Name</asp:TextBox>
        <asp:TextBox ID="txtLname" runat="server" 
		Text='<%#Eval("LastName") %>' Width="100px">Last Name</asp:TextBox>
        </td>
        <td><asp:TextBox ID="txtCtype" runat="server" 
	Text='<%#Eval("ContactType") %>' Width="100px">Contact Type</asp:TextBox></td>
        <td><asp:Button ID="InsertButton" runat="server" 
		CommandName="Insert" Text="Insert" /></td>
    </tr>
</InsertItemTemplate>

 Code Behind 

if (e.CommandName == "Insert")
{
TextBox txtFname = (TextBox)e.Item.FindControl("txtFname");
TextBox txtLname = (TextBox)e.Item.FindControl("txtLname");
TextBox txtCtype = (TextBox)e.Item.FindControl("txtCtype");
string insertCommand = "Insert into [Contacts] ([FirstName],[LastName],[ContactType]) Values('" + txtFname.Text + "', '"
+ txtLname.Text + "', '" + txtCtype.Text + "');";
SqlDataSource1.InsertCommand = insertCommand;
}

In the same way codes for Update and Delete will be done using EditItemTemlpate. Please check attached codes to get complete code. 

Conclusion

In this article i have given detail work with lit view in ASP.NET 3.5. And Listview is new control in ASP.NET 3.5

Sample Project Source

Download source files -4 kb