when I add that the grid view becomes all gray with the text:
Error Cretaing Control- GridView1
System.Web.UI.Webcontrols.DataControlFieldCollecti on must have items of type 'System.Web.UI.WebControld.DaraControlField'. 'a' is of type 'System.Web.UI.HtmlConrols.HtmlAnchor'.

Sorry, forgot to say that explicitly: you need to use that inside a TemplateColumn, just as you did with HyperLink1:

<asp:TemplateField>
  <ItemTemplate>
    <a id="A1" href='<%# ~/downloadPDF.aspx?fullname=" + Eval("FullName") %>' runat="server">Download</a>
  </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

Imar
---------------------------------------
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
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

Imar,
I get the following error:
The 'href' property had a malformed URL: '~/downloadPDF.aspx?fullname=C:\TEMP\pdf\001-XXXXX\001-001XX\001-00100_REV_A.pdf' is not a valid virtual path..

But it works when I use 'name' instead of 'FullName' !!!!!!

Here is the template field:
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="TempLateDownload">
                    <ItemTemplate>
                        <a id="A1" href='<%# "~/downloadPDF.aspx?fullname=" + Eval("fullName") %>' runat="server">Download</a>

                    </ItemTemplate>
                </asp:TemplateField>

I had to add (") before ~/downloadPDF.aspx?... to make it work. It does not appear in your code:
<a id="A1" href='<%# ~/downloadPDF.aspx?fullname=" + Eval("FullName") %>' runat="server">Download</a>

In regards to the last error your getting, I wouldnt pass directory information through your links.

Its bad practice security wise. You should use releative pathing so you link.

You will want to use a relative path, and server.mappath() if you want to search using absolute pathing.

Your malformed URL problem, comes from the fact you have backslashes in your url I believe, without testing it first.

Your urls should be directory/directory/file.pdf not c:\dir\files.pdf

That is unless im reading this wrong. Are you trying to navigate the user into the right folder, or use your code to list all the files in a folder?

After a user enters a 'Part Numer', I want to display a list of files(pdf's) found on a certain folder. From there I want the user to be able to click on a link and open the file or view it..like you do on the posting in your website.

The initial code I posted:

<a href='<%# "SomeUrl.aspx?Path=" + Eval("FullName") %>' runat="server">Download</a>

works fine. Things broke down when I added the example of the ItemTemplate and reused some of the stuff that you posted. I could be mistaken in my judgement, but since you posted this in a professional forum, I was sort of hoping you'd be able to figure out minor "I am typing this in a textarea with no compile time checking" errors in my post yourself.

Anyway, <a> is a simpe tag which doesn't use ~ syntax. So this:

<a id="A1" href='<%# "/downloadPDF.aspx?fullname=" + Eval("FullName") %>' runat="server">Download</a>

should work instead provided you paste this code in the ItemTemplate I posted earlier.

This should give you results like:

http://YourServer/downloadPDF.aspx?f...h\SomeFile.ext

And I agree with click: it's not really a good idea to pass full path info around in the querystring.....

Cheers,

Imar
---------------------------------------
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
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

Thank you Imar,
I never worked with ASP and started using ASP.NET only few months ago. This is only my second 'small' project: i don't think i'll be able to spot too many "errors". For right now, people like yourself and others are my only resources which I appreciate very much.
I removed the ~ and the hyperlink is 'alive'.
But now i have another problem...although the querystring parameter is passed correctly, i am not able to open a pdf file (either I save it or open from the dialog box)
I am getting an Adobe Reader error message where the file name shown is a little different from the file name passed by the querystring:
if fullName is: C:\TEMP\pdf\001-XXXXX\001-001XX\001-00100_REV_A.pdf
The adobe box shows:C__TEMP_pdf_001-XXXXX_001-001XX\001-00100_REV_A[1].pdf
Any idea?

This is the code i have for "downloadPDF.aspx:

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

        Dim fileName As String
        If Request.QueryString.Get("FullName") IsNot Nothing Then

            fileName = Request.QueryString.Item(0).ToString
            Response.ContentType = "application/x-unknown"
            Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" & fileName)

        End If

        Me.TextBox1.Text = filename

    End Sub

and actually the "File Downlaod" dialog box shows...
********
Do you want to open or save this file?
Name: ...df_001-XXXXX_001-001XX_001-00100_REV_A.pdf
Type: Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document, 836 bytes
From: localhost
**********
somehow the file name changed!!!!!!!

Hi click,

Thank you for your suggestion. The link is 'alive' with back or forward slash...I guess it doesn't matter.
I am not using relative path right now because i am just 'playing' with this. I want to see if i am able to make it work before I add it to my project. On the other hand, what I'd like, is to read files in folders that are not on the webserver(intranet actually).
I tried to connect to another server, but I was able to do it only from the application on my machine. When I moved the project files to the intranet server and used the browser I was not able to access a server that was different from the intranet server.
Maybe I should open another question regarding this problem????

I changed the code of "downloadPDF.aspx" to this and it's working:

 Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

        Dim fileName As String
        If Request.QueryString.Get("FullName") IsNot Nothing Then

            fileName = Request.QueryString.Item(0).ToString
            Response.Clear()
            ' Response.ContentType = "application/x-unknown"
            Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
            Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" & Right(fileName, 10) + """")
            Response.Flush()
            Response.WriteFile(fileName)

        End If

        Me.TextBox1.Text = filename

        'If (myFile.ContainsFile) Then
        'Response.BinaryWrite(myFile.FileData)
        'Else
        'Response.WriteFile(Path.Combine(AppConfiguration. UploadsFolder, myFile.FileUrl))
        'End If


    End Sub