Hello,

This may be a silly question, but I've been trying to figure out how to perform a simple query and display in ASP.NET using a HTML page and a Code Behind file.

To clarify what I mean, in Classic ASP, I would have achieved this in the following way.


<% set myRs = objConn.Execute("SELECT * FROM table WHERE something='blah'") %>

Name: <%=myRs("myColumn1")%>
Street: <%=myRs("myColumn2")%>


Now, in ASP.NET I've been reading about all these fancy DataGrid's, DataBinder's, ASP:Repeater's, etc. But I can't seem to find anything to allow me to perform the most basic of tasks being to print out column by column in specific places on a page, rather than as a self contained table, etc.

You can use the label or literal controls:

<asp:label runat="server" id="lblName" />
<asp:literal runat="server" id="litStreet" />

Then in the code behind, you assign the control's text property with the desired values:

lblName.Text = value;
litStreet.Text = value;

You'll want to learn about the DataReader and DataSet/DataTable classes for getting data.

-Peter

Thanks for your help Peter.

Just wondering if anyone could shed any light on how I'd loop through a couple of records using an ASP:Label or ASP:Literal.

In Classic ASP I would write something like
Can I do something similar with an ASP:Repeater? Eg

It's even easier than that. (This will be from memory so pardon the syntax mistakes.)

<asp:repeater id="repeater1">
   <itemtemplate>
      <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "fieldname") %>
   </itemtemplate>
</asp:repeater>

You can put whatever HTML you want in the item template. There is also a header and footer template as well as as a separator template (so you don't have to do any logic to determine if there are more items like we did in classic ASP). Inside of the item template, you use the data binding code to bring in values.

Take a look at tehe MSDN docs for more specifics on the repeater.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib....repeater.aspx

-Peter

Eekk... DataBinder! I guess I can't use ASP:Label or ASP:Literal inside an ASP:Repeater then? I suppose that would make sense since the "ID" is hard coded to a specific name.

I'm sure ASP.NET is much more friendly than Classic ASP... although at the moment I'm struggling to see why. :)

I do like having code separation though, and compiled source code.

Thanks again for your help Peter.

You most certainly can use just about any server control in a repeating control (Repeater, DataGrid, etc).

<asp:repeater id="repeater1">
   <itemtemplate>
      <asp:label runat="server" text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "fieldname") %>' />
   </itemtemplate>
</asp:repeater>

But in the end, the label just renders a <span> tag while the literal just renders the raw text, so using a label or literal in a repeating template is usually overkill.

If you want to be able to access some element in a repeating template from the code behind, then you must use a server control. I won't bother to show you how to do this quite yet, as it's a bit more complex.

Migrating from ASP to ASP.NET is a big step. You have to change a lot of thinking about how to go about things. There are LOTS of posts to answer about ASP -> ASP.NET so poke around this forum and you should be able to find lots of help.

-Peter

Eekk... can you believe that I've now mastered the art of looping through database records using ASP:Repeater and Item Templates but can't figure out something as simple as displaying 1 record only?


I have a form in an application I'm building which allows users to modify their submission. I want to pass the results from a database into the value of the form textboxes.

In classic ASP, this is what I would have done.

<form>
<input type="text" name="Name" size="50" value="<%=myRs("Name")%>">
<input type="text" name="Email" size="25" value="<%=myRs("Email")%>">
<input type="text" name="Address" size="30" value="<%=myRs("Address")%>">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Now I'm guessing that obviously I just need to replace the <%=myRs("Name")%> with the .Net equivalent <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Name") %> although, I don't understand what I need to change in the codebehind because the code I have is for data binding to an ASP:Repeater control.

Usually I do this by just working with the single record, and manually assigning the values from it to the controls:

txtName.Text = myRs("Name")

basically something like that.

Add your controls to the page design surface so they will show up in the codebehind, then you can manipulate them as desired.

-Peter