Hi,

I'm looking for a way to get values from the db without using the drag and drop stuff in VWD Express. Or rather, I like D'n'D, it's just that I want to get values into the page load event (code behind; VB) and I think this must be achieved in another way. Someone suggested using a data reader but I don't know how to do it.

I'm used to good old Asp and I'm not afraid of writing my own code, but it seems strange to me to write code for such easy things, instead of using built-in functionality.

Similarily, I'm looking for a good way to get just one value to a text label or so, and I understand this could be done using Eval. But how do I get a value for Eval (i.e. a value from a SqlDataSource or the like?) BTW, I think this should be achieved by dragging a field from one of the tables from the database explorer, instead of getting a gridview for this one element (which seems rather stupid to me).

Thanks in advance!

Pettrer, Sweden

Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.

__________________
Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.

Hi Pettrer,
Yes, a datareader is probably the way to go, but there are many options.

http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickst...ooverview3.src

You can do pretty much anything without D'n'D but its hard to beleive with the way things are going in .NET.

Eval is for list controls such as GridView, Repeater, etc.
Dragging a field on to a form will generate such a control.
To retreive just one value for a database you can use a ExecuteScalar()
Using a datasource(reader/dataset/etc) is also possible but probably quite resource heavy for one field.

======================================
They say, best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
======================================

Check out this page for a general ADO.NET stuff.
Its not the best but will give you some ideas to look into further.
http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickst...soverview.aspx

======================================
They say, best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
======================================

Hi,

I'll try this. Thank you som much for your help!

Pettrer

Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.

Hi again,

Thanks for your reply. However, I still can't get it to work, mostly because I don't know what goes where. I use code-behind, and maybe that's problematic here. First, I included the following at the top of the code-behind page to reduce the errors i first got:

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Then, VWD told me the connectionstring thing was obsolete and it surely made the app crash on me. I have defined a connectionstring called ekodbConnectionString, but when I tried your code I was told to update to the following:

Dim conn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationMa nager.AppSettings(ekodbConnectionString As String))

which didn't work either. I then tried to declare it in the main page like this

<asp:SqlDataSource ID="nastavnr" runat="server"
     ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:ekodbConnectionString %>"
     ProviderName="<%$ ConnectionStrings:ekodbConnectionString.ProviderNa me %>"
     SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM customers">
    </asp:SqlDataSource>

and then it still said the name was undeclared.

This is what I have now in Page_load, after several hours of googling and trying:

Dim conn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationMa nager.AppSettings(ekodbConnectionString) As String)
Dim cmd As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("SELECT id from customers", conn)
conn.Open()
Dim id As String = cmd.ExecuteScalar
conn.Close()

Could you please help me out?

Also, how should I get the id into the main page? Like this:

<%=id%>

?


Many thanks in advance,

Pettrer

Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.

Hi there,

Where did you define your connection string? Under appSettings, or under the connectionStrings node?

In ASP.NET 2, there is now a special connectionStrings node that allows you to set up your connection strings, so you have easy access to them.

Search Google for connectionStrings and ASP.NET to see what I mean...

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004

Dear Imar,

Not since I tried to code in Prolog(!) many years ago have I been so glad to see a simple "1" on my page! Thank you so much for your help. Just a question re your last post - you write that this node is something new and good for Asp.Net 2.0. Still, the book (Beginning Asp.Net 2.0) suggests using the webconfig setting, and it's also the default of VWD. So why shouldn't we use them?

For anyone reading this post and having the same problem as I did, here's what definitely worked for me:

In web.config:
<configuration>
    <appSettings/>
    <connectionStrings>
  <add name="ekodbConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=&quot;C:\Docu ments and Settings\Pettrer\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\WebSites\eko\App_Data\ekodb.mdf&quot;;Integra ted Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;User Instance=True"
   providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
 </connectionStrings>
(etc.)

In Default2.aspx.vb:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim conn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationMa nager.ConnectionStrings("ekodbConnectionString").C onnectionString)
        Dim cmd As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("SELECT * from customers", conn)
        conn.Open()
        Dim id As String = cmd.ExecuteScalar
        conn.Close()
        Label1.Text = id
    End Sub

In Default2.aspx (in the body section):
        <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Style="z-index: 101; left: 320px; position: absolute;
            top: 100px" Text="Label"></asp:Label>

This yields the result of Label1's displayed text being 1. Actually, It's also easy to manipulate the id value in the Page Load, so I set:

Label1.Text = id + 1 (In reality, the SELECT statement will be something else; I simplified it here for testing purposes.)

I hope this explanation brought something back to rest of the community! Remember that you might need to adjust the code's wrapping to get it to work.

Pettrer

Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.

Are you talking about the special <connectionStrings> setting? If so, then we all mean the same thing. In ASP.NET 1.x you had to store your connection string under the appSettings node. Now, with ASP.NET 2, there is a special <connectionStrings> setting that is used to store connection strings exclusively. The good thing about this section is that you can store additional information, like the type of the provider being used. It's indeed the location where VWD stores a new connection string

However, the code samples that you posted were all trying to use the AppSettings key (which has a reference to <appSettings> in the web.config file) for the connection string, which is something you shouldn't do.

If any book or article is suggesting you must use <appSettings> for connection strings, they are wrong.
Of course it will work, just like you can use that section to store other settings, but the <connectionStrings> node has been designed for it specifically.

HtH,

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004

Thanks again. I believe the book was correct then anyway, as it is indeed inside the conectionstrings tags now.

I think I learn a lot of Asp.Net every day, but doing the actual coding is still much harder than I thought, as there are so many options.

Pettrer

Coding is indeed a nine-to-five job; nine pm to five am.