Databound Dropdown

fullingdale · June 13th, 2008, 10:30 AM

We have a datagrid which is bound to a recordset and a template column containing a dropdown list of options (also bound to a recordset) and is rather similar to the example on the following page, with the exception that the dropdown is permanently visible.

http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/demos/dgExample15.aspx

What I need is to set the value of the dropdown, based on one of the columns in the main datagrid.

MAIN TABLE
Name
Subject
Date
CategoryID

CATEGORY TABLE
CategoryID
Description

So, you can see that the dropdown contains the data from the category table, but the default/selected value on each row should be based on the CategoryID from the main table.

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

Regards,

Sean

rlb · June 19th, 2008, 11:50 AM

Something like this?

Code:

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            uxMyDropDown.DataSource = GetTheData();
            uxMyDropDown.DataTextField = "Description";
            uxMyDropDown.DataValueField = "CategoryID";
            uxMyDropDown.DataBind();
            uxMyDropDown.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Select One ...", "0")); //if you like...
        }
    }

        public DataSet GetTheData()
        {
            SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("...");
            con.Open();
            DataSet theDataSet = new DataSet("marital");
            try
            {
                string sql = "SELECT * FROM CATEGORY_TABLE";
                SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, con);
                SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
                da.Fill(theDataSet);
                da.Dispose();
                cmd.Dispose();
                return theDataSet;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                return theDataSet;
            }
            con.Close();
            con.Dispose();
        }

fullingdale · June 20th, 2008, 02:33 AM

Not quite,

The main datagrid will have columns for the following:

(1) MAIN.Name
(2) MAIN.Subject
(3) MAIN.Date
(4) Dropdown Selection, containing:
(A) CATEGORY.Description

We need the value for (A) to be appropriately set.

Did you see the example that I included (http link), where they have the layout done similar to what we want, but when you click the "Edit" option in the example, the dropdowns all start with the item from index(0), rather than the value that matches what the current selection is.

Really, column (4) should display CATEGORY.Description, but be linked to value assigned to MAIN.CategoryID.

We could do this by having the CategoryID as a hidden column and looping through the grid to set the values to match and update the value with the dropdown.onchange(), but this seems like and awfully 'mickey mouse' way of doing things.

Hope this clarifies what we're trying to achieve here.

Regards,

Sean