Simple Question

vbboyd · February 17th, 2012, 09:11 PM

If you have a details grid and you want to track information on sales leads, and customers and one of the data fields needs to be a text area, rather than a text box, what do you code in design view to make the input/display area a text area instead of a textbox?

Thanks Imar

PS How does setting this up as an Item Template differ from just the regular default field? Still a just a bit fuzzy on Item Templates.

irProject · February 18th, 2012, 12:56 AM

Hi there
in the source view, create a TemplateField:

HTML Code:

<asp:DetailsView ID="x" runat="server" AutoGenerateRows="False" DataKeyNames="ID" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
    <Fields>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="ID" HeaderText="ID" InsertVisible="False" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="ID" />

       <%-- rest fields ... --%>

        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Special Field">
            <ItemTemplate>
                <asp:TextBox TextMode="MultiLine" Text='<%# Eval("SpecialField") %>' runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
            </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:TemplateField>

    </Fields>
</asp:DetailsView>

Imar · February 18th, 2012, 09:40 AM

Quote:

PS How does setting this up as an Item Template differ from just the regular default field? Still a just a bit fuzzy on Item Templates.

Out of the box, a regular field generates controls appropriate for the type. E.g. a TextBox for a string property.

By converting it to a TemplateField (as shown by irProject) you let ASP.NET you want to define the content yourself. You can then set up whatever controls or other content you need, and use data binding to get data in and out of your control.

Hope this helps,

Imar