For a data bound control it is common scenario where we provide data text field
and data value field
( in simple controls like Dropdownlist
) but more fields in controls like Gridview
. Generally the datasource is of type IEnumerable
.
How does the control internally process these values or rather how do they get the value from the data source without knowing what kind of datasource they are dealing with.
Can someone explain with code how the controls evaluate these fields from the data source.
I never knew i could find this information so easily and LLyod was in fact wrong on using reflection to find data from a datasource. None of the data controls use it when i inspected through Reflector
;(
link that solved the problem
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366540.aspx
how you do it is below
protected override void PerformDataBinding(IEnumerable retrievedData)
{
base.PerformDataBinding(retrievedData);
// Verify data exists.
if (retrievedData != null)
{
string dataStr = String.Empty;
foreach (object dataItem in retrievedData)
{
if (DataTextField.Length > 0)
{
dataStr = DataBinder.GetPropertyValue(dataItem,
DataTextField, null);
}
else
{
PropertyDescriptorCollection props =
TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(dataItem);
if (props.Count >= 1)
{
if (null != props[0].GetValue(dataItem))
{
dataStr = props[0].GetValue(dataItem).ToString();
}
}
}
}
}
}
If the above code seem Greek and Latin , you will have to have a course on asp.net controls development to understand what is being done.