Dear All,

I am working on an application and had a situation where I wanted to filter the gridview based on user input (in a textbox). Its not difficult when working with SQLDataSource/DataSets or ObjectDataSource/DataSets etc. I am using Custom Entity classes which are returned by a Data Access class.

What I have done to solve this situation is to create a method in DAL called RetrieveAll(string sortedBy, string Criteria) and have used SelectMethod of ObjectDataSource to point to this method. The Select Parameter gets its value from a control (textbox). Initally the textbox is of course empty and DAL sends all the records. Once you enter something in textbox and say click 'Filter', the textbox value is passed to the DAL through the Select Parameter into the DAL and it gets only filtered records.

I am interested to know whether there is another, possibly better, solution to this issue of filtering ObjectDataSource while using Custom Objects. Please reply to this post if there are solutions for this problem that you know of.

Many thanks to Imar for his suggestions on this topic and specially on urging me to post this issue over the internet :)

Tahir

hi tahir,

have u found any other solution to this problem, i m facing same problem. I have multiple controls in filter criteria (like textbox, drop down list etc).

so can u guide me please...

Thanks in advance...

I have stopped using ObjectDataSource! I found it easy to work without it as there are no design restrictions.

How did you pull that off?

I've done some custom control building using Visual Basic Express, but am pretty new to trying to do the same thing in VWD.

Thanks.

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Hi tna55,

It looks like the project I'm working on at the moment has similar needs, i.e. several search criteria, a button to execute the search and display the results.

I've been going around and around in search of a way on how to do this, but some help would be greatly appreciated. Is there a way you could post or email me how you got it working?
I'm going the DAL route, but I'm curious how you did it...

-- Hans

Hi Hans,

Take a look here:

http://imar.spaanjaars.com/QuickDocId.aspx?quickdoc=416

followed by parts two and three.

<shamelessPlug>
My book ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results uses similar concepts. In the BugBase application chapter, I discuss how to build a Criteria object to do some advanced filtering at the database level.
</shamelessPlug>

Cheers,

Imar

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