Enabling users to update webpage text content

SouthendSupporter · July 15th, 2009, 07:56 AM

Hi,
I want to give my users the ability to update certain aeas of their web pages themselves.

I present each area using a formview which displays just one field from a database table which contains a row for each page and fields for each text area.

My issue is that when text is typed into the textbox to update the field (and therefor the web page) carriage returns are ignored. i.e. this message would come out as a single block of text with no paragraphs

Is there a way to achieve what I want with a single field, or have I got to specify a field for each paragraph of text I want to provide them with?

Also, In the page that does the database updating I have the code:

Code:

Partial Class Management_AddEditEvents
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        If Request.QueryString.Get("Id") IsNot Nothing Then
            DetailsView1.DefaultMode = DetailsViewMode.Edit
        End If
    End Sub
    Private Sub EndEditing()
        Response.Redirect("Events.aspx")
    End Sub
End Class

I expected the sub Enditing () to take me back to the Events.aspx page after the update has been carried out (as per page Chap 12 p422) but it doesn't :(

Imar · July 15th, 2009, 09:52 AM

Hi there,

In order for the line breaks to work, you need to replace them with HTML tags, like this

Dim output As String = Whatever You need to do to assign the string with breaks here
output = output.Replace(ControlChars.NewLine, " ")

With regards to EndEditing: it does exactly what you think. However, in order for the Sub to work you need to call it somewhere. Don't know where you need it, but calling it like this:

EndEditing()

Should do the trick.

Hope this helps,

Imar

SouthendSupporter · July 15th, 2009, 01:42 PM

Thanks Imar,
using your response and info from p419 of the book I was able to inset the commands in the text before it was stored in the database and it displays perfectly in the website.
The downside is that the user then sees the commands in the text box he is updating.

For a better look and feel I experimented with replacing the linebreak controls with the when loading the formview so that it displays correctly but the are not held in the database.
ie by putting similar code in a
Protected Sub FormView1_DataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles FormView1.DataBound or Databinding Sub

Unfortunatley, I cannot figurre out how to reference the field in the Formview Itemtemplate in the same way as I did when editing it where I used e.newvalues("LeftColumn") successfully.
As I am only displayiong data via the control I only have an <ItemTemplate>

Imar · July 15th, 2009, 01:55 PM

Hi Geoff,

Your solution is, IMH, the better one and was actually what I had in mind. By changing the code when you display it, you keep the database clean from HTML-specific content which makes it easier to reuse that content (for example, in an e-mail).

You can call the Replace function in your template when you're binding. Something like this:

<asp:Label .... Text = '<%# Eval("SomeField").ToString().Replace(ControlChars. NewLine, ") ' ... />

This calls ToString on the field to convert it to a string. The Replace is called on the result which eventually results in a properly displayed value.

You may need to convert your fields / columns to templates first in order to get to conrols like a Label.

Hope this helps,

Imar

SouthendSupporter · July 15th, 2009, 06:36 PM

Imar -- REALLY useful, works a treat!
Many thanks.

Imar · July 16th, 2009, 03:41 PM

You're welcome....

Imar