Need dynamic Gridview header text from Parent control's data

Question

Here is the scenario I'm trying to implement.

I have a list of Product objects, each of which has a list Price objects. I'm trying to display this data by using a DataList, where each element of the DataList is a GridView for a Product, displaying the Prices for that Product.

I have everything working great, except for one strange requirement: I need to show the Product name in the header of the first column of each Gridview.

There are numerous questions on SO about dynamically changing the HeaderText of a GridView, but this situation seems a little different since I need to set it to a databound value of a parent control.

My first attempt was to set the GridView Column[0] header text in the ItemCreated event of the DataList. This didn't work because they would all disappear after postback.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Maybe there is an easier way-- but you can work your up to get the DataItem for the parent.

<asp:DataList runat="server" DataSource="<%#TheProducts %>">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:GridView DataSource='<%#((Product)Container.DataItem).Prices %>' runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false">
            <Columns>
               <asp:TemplateField>
                    <ItemTemplate><%#((Product)((DataListItem)(((GridViewRow)Container).Parent).DataItemContainer).DataItem).Name%></ItemTemplate>
                </asp:TemplateField>
                <asp:TemplateField>
                    <ItemTemplate><%#Container.DataItem %></ItemTemplate>
                </asp:TemplateField>
            </Columns>
        </asp:GridView>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>

Code behind would look like this:

protected List<Product> TheProducts
{
    get { return new List<Product>
                     {
                         new Product{Name="A", Prices = new List<int>{1,2,4}},
                         new Product{Name="B", Prices = new List<int>{5,6,7}}
                     }; 
    }
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if(!this.IsPostBack)
        this.DataBind();
}

and Product class might look like this:

public class Product
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    private List<int> _prices = null;
    public List<int> Prices
    {
        set { this._prices = value; }
        get
        {
            if(_prices == null)
                this.Prices = new List<int>();
            return _prices;
        }
    }
}