Question

Nested XML binded to datalist using PagedDataSource

Asked by: DreamMaster

Hello experts,

I am building a website where I am incorporating an XML that holds information on cars. Normally it wouldn't be much of a problem, but the problem starts for me with the structure of the XML. The pictures of each car, are held in a different table of the xml. I'll show a simplified version for simpler reading.

The attaching of this XML is done as following:

    Public Sub BindList()
        dsOccasions.ReadXml(xmlURL)

        With pdsOccasions
            .DataSource = dsOccasions.Tables("occasion").DefaultView
            .AllowPaging = True
            .PageSize = pageSize
            .CurrentPageIndex = currentPage
        End With
        dlOccasions.DataSource = pdsOccasions
        dlOccasions.DataBind()

Not too hard either right?

Now I am binding this data to a datalist, and the only problem I am having so far, is getting the picture to show. I only want the first picture of each car really for this datalist.

    <asp:DataList ID="dlOccasions" runat="server" RepeatColumns="2" RepeatDirection="Horizontal">
        <ItemTemplate>
            <div class="auto">
                <div class="autofoto"><img src="<%#Container.DataItem("foto")%>" border="0" width="132" height="100" style="border: 1px solid #9a9a9a;" alt="<%#Container.DataItem("merk") %> <%#Container.DataItem("model") %> <%#Container.DataItem("uitvoering") %>" /></div>
                <div class="autodetails">
                    <span class="merk"><%#Container.DataItem("brand") %></span><br />
                    <span class="modeluitvoering"><%#Container.DataItem("model") %> <%#Container.DataItem("build")%></span><br />
                    <img src="/images/spacer.gif" border="0" width="1" height="5" /><br />
                    <span class="bullet"><%#Container.DataItem("buildyear")%></span><br />
                    <span class="bullet"><%#GetFuel(Container.DataItem("fuel"))%></span><br />
                    <span class="bullet"><%#GetSchakelmethode(Container.DataItem("transmission"))%></span><br />
                    <span class="bullet"><%#CLng(Container.DataItem("milage"))%> km</span>
                </div>
            </div>
        </ItemTemplate>
       
    </asp:DataList>

I can get everything to display, except for the foto, so ="<%#Container.DataItem("foto")%> doesn't work. Now I expected that, but can anyone help me get this to work? I am almost there and feel it should be quite easy, but just can't get my skull to work as it should.

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <occasions>
- <occasion>
  <brand>ALFA ROMEO</brand> 
- <fotos>
  <foto nr="1">http://URL/77PNNG.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="2">http://URL/77PNNG_2.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="3">http://URL/77PNNG_3.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="4">http://URL/77PNNG_4.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="5">http://URL/77PNNG_5.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="6">http://URL/77PNNG_6.jpg</foto> 
  <foto nr="7">http://URL/77PNNG_7.jpg</foto> 
  </fotos>
  </occasion>
  </occasions>

                                  
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Asked On
2008-09-02 at 03:31:19ID23695438
Tags

ASP.NET, VB.NET

,

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari

Topics

Programming for ASP.NET

,

.NET

,

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: TKOTCPosted on 2008-09-03 at 16:00:32ID: 22382866

The problem is that your XML has different tables in it. If you put a breakpoint on your DataSet I am sure that you would see there is a occasions table that stores brand information, a fotos table that stores the brand to foto relationship and a foto table that has the urls for the photos in it.

The easiest method (without too much coding) would be to add a repeater inside your DataList. Something like:

<asp:DataList ID="dlOccasions" runat="server" RepeatColumns="2" RepeatDirection="Horizontal">
       <ItemTemplate>
           <div class="auto">
               <div class="autofoto">


                   <asp:Repeater DataSource='<% GetFotos(Eval("ID")) %>' runat="server" id="whatever">
                       <ItemTemplate><img src='<%Eval("UrlField") %>' alt="something else"/></ItemTemplate>
                   </asp:Repeater>


               <div>
               <div class="autodetails">
                   <span class="merk"><%#Container.DataItem("brand") %></span><br />
                   <span class="modeluitvoering"><%#Container.DataItem("model") %> <%#Container.DataItem("build")%></span><br />
                   <img src="/images/spacer.gif" border="0" width="1" height="5" /><br />
                   <span class="bullet"><%#Container.DataItem("buildyear")%></span><br />
                   <span class="bullet"><%#GetFuel(Container.DataItem("fuel"))%></span><br />
                   <span class="bullet"><%#GetSchakelmethode(Container.DataItem("transmission"))%></span><br />
                   <span class="bullet"><%#CLng(Container.DataItem("milage"))%> km</span>
               </div>
           </div>
       </ItemTemplate>
       
   </asp:DataList>

Then Code behind

private function GetFotos(ByVal occasionID as int) as DataTable
   Dim returnTable as DataTable
  'get the link between the fotos table and the foto table and load the foto urls in the returnTable
  return returnTable  
end function

This should be enough to get the job done, if you cannot get it to work postback and I will create a sample instead of psudo code.

Cheers

 

by: DreamMasterPosted on 2008-09-04 at 03:15:50ID: 22385653

Only one problem with this, and that is the fact that I only want 1 of the foto's. It's for an overview of occasions, and in the overview I don't want to load all the fotos. Which is why I wouldn't want a repeater for that, just the first foto in my list.

I'm now looking at creating a simple import for the xml, that will grab everthing and put it into SQL Server, making it possible for me to create a dataset that will just grab all the occasions, and their first foto. I think that may just be an easier way, and quicker to boot. Cause I think loading the information from SQL Server will be hell of a lot faster than loading it from live XML.

Thanks, and any other thoughts are definately appreciated.

Regards,
Max.

 

by: TKOTCPosted on 2008-09-04 at 09:54:27ID: 22389769

Couple of things.
1) Redo your XML structure to add one foto to occasions, then have fotos simply as additional fotos. This will allow you to do what you want.
2) I would assume you are doing this in .NET 2.0, but if you wanted to you can upgrade to 3.5 and leverage LINQ. What this would allow you to do is write select queries against your XML file. This way you can run a union with a TOP clause in it.

For more LINQ to XML info I found this article which is pretty good - http://www.hookedonlinq.com/LINQtoXML5MinuteOverview.ashx

That or just google LINQ to XML

 

by: DreamMasterPosted on 2008-09-04 at 23:51:02ID: 22395853

I wish I could do either of the two, when I first laid eyes on the XML I immeditately saw the way the XML was layed out, was not very well. But this is generated by the car-company and I have no influence over it. The server this is going to run upon doesn't have .NET 3.5 installed on it, and the provider has no intention of doing this in the near future either. So yesterday I've been making an object that holds all the information on a car, added an extra table that will hold the fotos for each car bound by an occasionID then wrote an import script that will simply itterate through the xml file, get all occasions out, insert them 1 by 1 and put the fotos that belong to it, in its connected table.

From there I created a function that simply returns me a dataset with all the fields I need for my overview, including the first foto in the list. Works like a charm now. :)

So, in short, easiest way to do it when you cannot redo the XML, import it into a SQL Server database table with a table that holds the extra data, create a dataset that holds your data, and bind it to the datalist. Done!  :)

Thanks for your help though TKOTC, I wish I had more time to look into LINQ, cause I would love to use it in the near future, sounds very interesting to me.

Regards,
Max.

 

by: DreamMasterPosted on 2008-09-04 at 23:52:15ID: 31492288

Thanks TKOTC, I wasn't able to use it in the end, but at least you actually tried. :)

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