ASP.NET Repeater and Outputting Hierarchical Data

Question

I am currently using this http://blogs.sitepoint.com/hierarchical-data-database-2/ method of storing my data.

My current database rows look like this:

Name | nodeLeft | nodeRight | nodeLevel

Home | 1 | 6 | 1

ContentA | 2 | 5 | 2

ContentB | 3 | 4 | 2

About | 7 | 8 | 1

Now I am using a ASP.NET Repeater to output the data using lists and jsTree:

<asp:Repeater ID="rptContentSectionGetAll" runat="server">
        <HeaderTemplate>
            <div id="contentSectionTree">
                <ul>
                    <li id="contentSectionTreeRoot" rel="root"><a href="#">Root</a>
                        <ul>
        </HeaderTemplate>
        <ItemTemplate>
                            <li id='<%# Eval("ID") %>'>
                                <a href="#"><%# Eval("name") %></a>
                            </li>

        </ItemTemplate>
        <FooterTemplate>
                        </ul>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </div>
        </FooterTemplate>
 </asp:Repeater>

I need to replace what's in the ItemTemplate with all <li>'s and nested <ul>'s from the code behind.

This is my current code behind:

private DataTable RepeaterDataSource()
    {
        ContentSectionBAL cBAL = new ContentSectionBAL(); 
        DataTable dTable = new DataTable();
        try
        {
            dTable = cBAL.Load();

            int counter = 1;
            var htmlList = "";
            for (int i = 0; i < dTable.Rows.Count; i++)
            {
                htmlList = "<li rel='folder' id='" + dTable.Rows[i]["ID"] + "'>";
                htmlList += "<a href='#'>" + dTable.Rows[i]["name"] + "</a>";

                if (Convert.ToInt32(dTable.Rows[i]["nodeLevel"]) > counter)
                {
                    htmlList = "<ul>";
                    for (int j = 0; j < dTable.Rows.Count; j++)
                    {
                        if (Convert.ToInt32(dTable.Rows[i]["nodeLevel"]) > counter + 1)
                        {
                            htmlList += "<li rel='file' id='" + dTable.Rows[j]["ID"] + "'>";
                            htmlList += "<a href='#'>" + dTable.Rows[j]["name"] + "</a>";
                            htmlList += "</li>";
                        }
                    }
                    htmlList += "</ul>";
                }

                htmlList += "</li>";
                counter = counter + 1;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ee)
        {
            Session["message"] = ee.Message.ToString();
            Session["messageType"] = "error";
        }

        return dTable;
    }

Shortly after this function I bind it by doing:

private void BindRepeater()
    {
        rptContentSectionGetAll.DataSource = RepeaterDataSource();
        rptContentSectionGetAll.DataBind();
    }

All regular nodes with NO children outputs: <li>name</li> All nodes WITH children needs to output all of it's children in some sort of loop: <li><ul><li></li></ul><li>

Questions I have: 1. What is the proper way to loop through this type of data for proper output? 2. How do I successfully output it in a repeater? [ANSWER]

I know what I have won't work but my brain started frying thinking about it all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you require anything else let me know but this should be it.

Come on guys I need help with the conditionals or math to grab what i want in the correct order.

Answer 1

The answer is a combination of Chad and Chris's answers. I ended up dumping the repeater all together and used a series of conditionals and loops in a function to save html in a StringBuilder() and output into a Literal.

Thanks guys.