asp.net repeater control not showing up with table, datasource defined in code behind

Question

I have a repeater control I am using to populate a table. The control works when I populate the repeater with an ObjectDataSource defined in the aspx code and move the header and footers outside the template; HOWEVER, it does not work when I try to bind the repeater datasource to a DataTable in the code behind.

Here's my aspx code:

   <asp:Panel ID="panelViewApps" runat="server">
          <asp:Repeater ID="repeaterViewApplications" runat="server">
          <HeaderTemplate>
            <table class="items">
                <tr>
                <td><div align="center"><font color="#666666" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Date</font></div></td>
                <td><div align="center"><font color="#666666" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Number</font></div></td>
                <td><div align="center"><font color="#666666" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Name</font></div></td>
                </tr>
          </HeaderTemplate>

          <ItemTemplate>
               <tr>
               <td><div align="center"><font color="#666666" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
                    <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Application_Date") %></font></div></td>
               <td> something else </td>
               <td> something else </td>
               </tr>  
          </ItemTemplate>

          <FooterTemplate>
            </table>
          </FooterTemplate>
        </asp:Repeater>
   </asp:Panel>

My code behind:

panelViewApps.Visible = true;     
tblApplicationsTableAdapter app_adapter = new tblApplicationsTableAdapter();
DataTable apps = app_adapter.GetApps("some subset");
repeaterViewApplications.DataSource = apps;
repeaterViewApplications.DataBind();

I also tried it with that last command as Page.Databind()

The adapter method returns the right stuff (as evidenced by the fact that this works when I populate entirely via aspx. The control doesn't show up at all in this case. I've changed variable names - hopefully I haven't introduced irrelevant errors in the process of trying to relate the problem. Note that the code behind is inside a button click and not the load_page() method. (The button click method is being invoked correctly.) Not even the header of the table shows up. When I "view source" on the page, I see the place holder for the panelViewApps - but no table (even an empty table).

Can anyone see what I'm missing?

Answer 1

I have found my own solution. It turns out I need to wrap the DataTable in a DataView.

panelViewApps.Visible = true;     
tblApplicationsTableAdapter app_adapter = new tblApplicationsTableAdapter();
DataTable apps = app_adapter.GetApps("some subset");
//need to use a DataView instead of the DataTable directly
DataView apps_view = new DataView(apps);
repeaterViewApplications.DataSource = apps_view;
repeaterViewApplications.DataBind();