asked on

formatting repeater data in markup

hi there,
hope someone can help here, im trying to use a repeater although Im not sure the correct way to format the data within the markup. Simple example below. My repeater that creates a hyperlink for each record I have from the database. The repeater creates a list of links with the url address and the text link being the same.

<asp:Repeater ID="test" runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<li><a href="<%# Container.DataItem %>" /><%# Container.DataItem %>
</a> </li>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

This is fine normally but I want to change the format of the data for the url address.

to create html like this

<ul>
<li><a href="hello_there">hello there</a>
<li><a href="hello_again">hello again</a>
<li><a href="hello_today">hello today</a>
<li><a href="hello_to">hello to</a>
</ul>

im not sure whether I should be formatting the data in the code behind file or within the markup file?

Is it possible for the below:

<li><a href="<%# Replace(" ","_",Container.DataItem) %>" /><%# Container.DataItem %>
</a> </li>

or can I format the dataitem in the code behind file?

Many thanks,

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Sammy

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

jimbona27

ASKER

im getting an error referring to this is not possible because of the repeater protection level? any thoughts? thanks

jimbona27

ASKER

the error refers to the markup where I have added the onitembound event attribute within the repeater markup

Sammy

Can you post the code?
cs and aspx please

jimbona27

ASKER

thanks, will do when I can..

jimbona27

ASKER

ok backup now,
markup code:

<ul>
<asp:Repeater ID="test" OnDataBinding="test_ItemDataBound" runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<li><a href="/<%# Container.DataItem %>/" />
<%# Container.DataItem %>
</a></li>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
</ul>

code behind:

protected void test_ItemDataBound(object sender, DataListItemEventArgs e)
{
Response.Write("s");
}

jimbona27

ASKER

i get an error referring to the markup repeater line:
no overload for test_itemdatabound matches delegate system.eventhandler.

jimbona27

ASKER

got it working now although im stuck with the following:

if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item)
{
/// replace spaces with underscores..
}

using the following markup I get an error referring to the name does not exist...

<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "name") %>

jimbona27

ASKER

ok...............
got around it,
using

is this an okay way of doing it or is the on data bind event a better approach?

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
DataRow dr;

// Define the columns of the table.
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("name", typeof(String)));
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("url", typeof(String)));

// execute query
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection conn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection();
conn.ConnectionString = @"...";
conn.Open();
OleDbDataReader reader = null;
OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("SELECT top 10 * FROM type", conn);
reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

int counter = 0;
string test= string.Empty;

// populate datatable with DB info
while (reader.Read())
{
test= (string)reader["Name"];
dr = dt.NewRow();
dr[0] = test;
dr[1] = test.Replace(" ", "-");
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
counter++;
}

// bind data
DataList1.DataSource = dt;
DataList1.DataBind();

markup...

<asp:DataList ID="DataList1" runat="server">
<ItemTemplate>
<li><a href="x/<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "url") %>/" />
<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "name") %></a></li>
</ItemTemplate></asp:DataList>