How to add Repeater control dynamically from code behind?

Question

I have a method that creates table and then creates a repeater right after, the table gets rendered but the repeater just does not get rendered. The method below simply creates a table first, filling it with information then dynamically constructs a repeater which works fine, but then it just does not render the repeater onto the aspx page. I have tried using the stringbuilder to return it as a string but still doesn't work. here is the code below. Thanks

private void CreateUserExperienceTable(List<UserExperience> experiences)
    {
        foreach (UserExperience experience in experiences)
        {
            HtmlGenericControl Header = new HtmlGenericControl("h3");
            Header.InnerHtml = experience.Company;
            dvUserExperience.Controls.Add(Header);

            Table experienceTable = new Table();

            TableRow experienceRoleRow = new TableRow();
            TableRow experienceDescriptionRow = new TableRow();
            TableRow experiencePeriodFromRow = new TableRow();
            TableRow experiencePeriodToRow = new TableRow();

            TableCell experienceRoleTitleCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experienceRoleValueCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experienceDescriptionTitleCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experienceDescriptionValueCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experiencePeriodFromTitleCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experiencePeriodFromValueCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experiencePeriodToTitleCell = new TableCell();
            TableCell experiencePeriodToValueCell = new TableCell();

            experienceRoleTitleCell.Text = "Role:";
            experienceRoleValueCell.Text = experience.Role;
            experienceDescriptionTitleCell.Text = "Description:";
            experienceDescriptionValueCell.Text = experience.CompanyDescription;
            experiencePeriodFromTitleCell.Text = "Period From: ";
            experiencePeriodFromValueCell.Text = experience.PeriodFrom.ToString("yy-mm-dd");
            experiencePeriodToTitleCell.Text = "Period To:";
            experiencePeriodToValueCell.Text = experience.PeriodTo == null
                ? "Present"
                : experience.PeriodTo.ToString();

            experienceRoleRow.Cells.Add(experienceRoleTitleCell);
            experienceRoleRow.Cells.Add(experienceRoleValueCell);
            experienceDescriptionRow.Cells.Add(experienceDescriptionTitleCell);
            experienceDescriptionRow.Cells.Add(experienceDescriptionValueCell);
            experiencePeriodFromRow.Cells.Add(experiencePeriodFromTitleCell);
            experiencePeriodFromRow.Cells.Add(experiencePeriodFromValueCell);
            experiencePeriodToRow.Cells.Add(experiencePeriodToTitleCell);
            experiencePeriodToRow.Cells.Add(experiencePeriodToValueCell);

            experienceTable.Rows.Add(experienceRoleRow);
            experienceTable.Rows.Add(experienceDescriptionRow);
            experienceTable.Rows.Add(experiencePeriodFromRow);
            experienceTable.Rows.Add(experiencePeriodToRow);

            dvUserExperience.Controls.Add(experienceTable);

            String rptDuties = updatePageWithDuties(experience.Duties);
            //dvUserExperience.Controls.Add(rptDuties);
        }
    }

    private string updatePageWithDuties(List<ExperienceDuties> list)
    {
        Repeater rptDuties = new Repeater();
        rptDuties.DataSource = list;
        rptDuties.DataBind();

        foreach (RepeaterItem rptItem in rptDuties.Items)
        {
            if (rptItem.ItemIndex == 0)
            {
                RepeaterItem headerTemplate = new RepeaterItem(rptItem.ItemIndex, ListItemType.Header);
                HtmlGenericControl h4Tag = new HtmlGenericControl("h4");
                h4Tag.InnerHtml = "Duties";
                headerTemplate.Controls.Add(h4Tag);
            }

            RepeaterItem itemTemplate = new RepeaterItem(rptItem.ItemIndex, ListItemType.Item);
            Label dutyLabel = new Label();
            ExperienceDuties expDuties = ((IList<ExperienceDuties>)rptDuties.DataSource)[rptItem.ItemIndex];
            dutyLabel.Text = expDuties.Description;
            itemTemplate.Controls.Add(dutyLabel);

            RepeaterItem seperatorItem = new RepeaterItem(rptItem.ItemIndex, ListItemType.Separator);
            LiteralControl ltrHR = new LiteralControl();
            ltrHR.Text = "<hr />";
            seperatorItem.Controls.Add(ltrHR);
        }

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb);
        HtmlTextWriter writer = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);

        rptDuties.RenderControl(writer);
        return sb.ToString();
    }

Answer 1

You cannot render Repeater control as a string. Instead, you need to add the Repeater to dvUserExperience as a control.

private void CreateUserExperienceTable(List<UserExperience> experiences)
{
    foreach (UserExperience experience in experiences)
    {
        ...

        dvUserExperience.Controls.Add(experienceTable);

        // Add as a server control
        Repeater rptDuties = updatePageWithDuties(experience.Duties);
        dvUserExperience.Controls.Add(rptDuties);
    }
}

private Repeater updatePageWithDuties(List<ExperienceDuties> list)
{
    Repeater rptDuties = new Repeater();
    ...

    return rptDuties;
}

Updated:

You need to add controls to RepeaterItem which is rptItem.

See the arrows <===== in the following code.

private Repeater updatePageWithDuties(List<ExperienceDuties> list)
{
    Repeater rptDuties = new Repeater();
    rptDuties.DataSource = list;
    rptDuties.DataBind();

    foreach (RepeaterItem rptItem in rptDuties.Items)
    {
        if (rptItem.ItemIndex == 0)
        {
            var h4Tag = new HtmlGenericControl("h4");
            h4Tag.InnerHtml = "Duties";
            rptItem.Controls.Add(h4Tag);  <=====
        }

        var dutyLabel = new Label();
        ExperienceDuties expDuties = 
          ((IList<ExperienceDuties>) rptDuties.DataSource)[rptItem.ItemIndex];
        dutyLabel.Text = expDuties.Description;
        rptItem.Controls.Add(dutyLabel);   <=====

        var ltrHR = new LiteralControl();
        ltrHR.Text = "<hr />";
        rptItem.Controls.Add(ltrHR);  <=====
    }

    return rptDuties;
}