Thanks much! Its all making better sense now.

btw: I purchased Professional ASP.NET Server Controls (Building Custom Controls with C#: Wrox) over the weekend and it goes in depth
over all of the questions I raised as well as some I didn't even consider.  

I've read about half of the book already and its covered all of the questions that I had.  I recommend it for anyone who has the
same questions that I did.

Chris




On Tue, 28 May 2002, Feduke Cntr Charles R wrote:

> 
> Chris,
> 
>     Alright, I see what you're saying.  You'll have to make a private
> variable for the control to hold a dataset or a datatable (I'd recommend
> datatable unless you specifically need relationships).  You also need a way
> for the user to specify how the datatable (or dataset, sigh) is created; for
> example, in some of my controls I offer a SqlSelect parameter and a
> ConnectionString parameter (and we get the Sql statements from an XML file
> that specifies our database, so no I'm not working in reverse!).  So in my
> DataBind() method for my web controls, it creates a datatable and populates
> it using the SqlSelect against the connection specified with
> ConnectionString.  You'll probably want to implement a DataSource property
> or what not that the user can set, for example:
> 
> // this is all user code:
> System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection con = new
> System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString);
> System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand cmd = new
> System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlSelect, con);
> con.Open();
> // now our `fictional' control has a DataReader property for the DataSource
> // because using heavier controls would just waste cycles!
> fictional.DataSource 
> cmd.ExecuteReader(System.Data.CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);
> // now what's the use of the DataBind() method?  For this particular
> instance, nothing
> // because when the DataSource is set, what else is there to do?
> 
> // then in your control you can use the code I showed you the first time to
> iterate.
> 
> HTH,
> - Chuck
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Kersey [mailto:ckersey@m...]
> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 12:40 PM
> To: ASP+
> Subject: [aspx] RE: [Q2] Web User Control: databinding, getting AT the
> data...
> 
> 
> comments embedded below...
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Feduke Cntr Charles R" <FedukeCR@m...>
> To: "ASP+" <aspx@p...>
> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 5:43 AM
> Subject: [aspx] RE: Web User Control: databinding, getting the data...
> 
> 
> > Chris,
> >
> > If you're binding a data set then are your inheriting from Repeater,
> > DataList, or DataGrid?  If not, then you should; you can override or add a
> > new delegate to the event OnItemCreated and write your own logic there to
> > handle the display of items.
> 
> I'm inheriting from WebControl.  Let's just say that I'm trying to create
> *my own* datagrid control from scratch.  I know that the WebControl has a
> DataBind() method so inheriting from WebControl will at least give me that
> interface.  My question was/is, once I bind a dataset to this exposed
> method, how do I work with it inside of *my own* control.  i.e. once I bind
> a dataset to the inherited method DataBind(), is there a protected data
> member that I also inherited that I can then iterate thru?  That's the
> question I intended to convey.
> 
> So the following code snippet you supply makes sense, but I have to ask
> where does the "ds" in DataTable dt=(DataTable)ds.Tables["data"]; come from?
> Was that variable inherited from WebControl?  By default in Visual Studio 7,
> creating a new "Web Control Library" does not make System.Data an available
> Reference.  I'm guessing I have to add that manually...
> 
> Thanks again for your help.  I'm new to controls and .NET so getting my
> hands around the concepts is challenging for me.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> >
> > Otherwise, I think you're looking for something like the following:
> >
> > // get your dataset, ds, with a table named "data" in it
> > DataTable dt = (DataTable)ds.Tables["data"];
> > foreach (DataRow row in dt.Select())
> > {
> > output.Write(row["last_name"].ToString() +
> > ", " + row["first_name"].ToString() +
> > "<br>\n";
> > }
> >
> > FYI, if you want to remain lightweight I'd recommend using a
> > *DataReader rather than the complete DataSet/DataTable.  Unless you
> > specifically have a need for relationships, use a *DataReader (they are
> easy
> > to use!).
> >
> > HTH,
> > - Chuck
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chris Kersey [mailto:ckersey@m...]
> > Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 6:03 PM
> > To: ASP+
> > Subject: [aspx] Web User Control: databinding, getting the data...
> >
> >
> > I created a Web User control that is derived from the WebControl and  I
> want
> > to be able to render my control from multiple rows out of the database.
> > Question is, if I am able to bind my control to a dataset via the
> > WebControl's inherited Bind method and if so how do I get at the data that
> > was bound?
> >
> > I wanna do this...
> >
> >  protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter output)
> > {
> >     //I want to loop thru stuff.. foreach(string stuff in Dataset("eh"))
> >         output.Write(stuff + "<BR>");
> > }
> >
> > Thanks for any input you might have :)
> > Chris
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
>