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creating a threaded datagrid

this is more of a conceptual question at first that will probably get to practical examples later. what i'm trying to do is very much like what you see on a message board application, where you have categories with topics underneath and threads inside each topic. i want to create a simple navigation for this that is something like a treeview, but i'd rather not create an xml file for the menu. i'm hoping there is a way to use a nested datagrid of sorts so that i can take a table with information like

ID Name ParentID
1 abc 0
2 def 0
3 bfr 1
4 ghy 1
5 ius 2

and turn it into

abc
> bfr
> ghy
def
> ius

if this table structure is not the most efficient for what i want to do, what would be? and how would i go about making a nested datagrid of this type? if i can get to the point of the top level categories remaining in their own rows with the subcategories taking up another row, i can probably figure out a way to indent them on my own, however, i'd like it to also be collapsible, again like a treeview. if a treeview is what i should use, how do i bind it to a datatable?

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TornadoV

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craskin

ASKER

that looks great. i'll try that.

craskin

ASKER

ok, so i've followed that example and i have

Private Sub FillCategories(ByVal parent As TreeNode)
Dim dsCategories As DataSet = objCicada.GetCategories()

For Each row As DataRow In dsCategories.Tables(0).Rows
Dim node As New TreeNode
node.Text = row("CategoryName").ToString
node.Value = row("CategoryID").ToString
node.PopulateOnDemand = True
node.SelectAction = TreeNodeSelectAction.SelectExpand
parent.ChildNodes.Add(node)
Next
End Sub

Private Sub FillTopics(ByVal parent As TreeNode)
Dim dsTopics As DataSet = objCicada.GetSubCategories(parent.Value)

For Each row As DataRow In dsTopics.Tables(0).Rows
Dim node As New TreeNode
node.Text = row("CategoryName").ToString
node.Value = row("CategoryID").ToString
node.PopulateOnDemand = False
node.SelectAction = TreeNodeSelectAction.SelectExpand
parent.ChildNodes.Add(node)
Next
End Sub

Protected Sub TreeView1_TreeNodePopulate(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As TreeNodeEventArgs)
Select Case e.Node.Depth
Case 0
FillCategories(e.Node)
Case 1
FillTopics(e.Node)
End Select

End Sub

and the control looks like

<asp:TreeView ID="TreeView1" OnTreeNodePopulate="TreeView1_TreeNodePopulate" runat="server"/>

but it doesn't render anything. i feel like i'm missing something from the treeview control to actuall fire it, but i dunno what that would be as i've never worked with a treeview before.

craskin

ASKER

nevermind, i found it. it needed a node to start with, which is odd. so now it has a -1 level node with the 0 level categories underneath.

TornadoV

You're right, treeview control needs a startup node, it's usually the root node. I also found extremely useful not to populate the entire treeview, especially if you have more than two levels of hierarchial data and populate only those treenodes that user clicks on, 'just-in-time'.