Is there a way to data bind a single item without eg. a Repeater control?

Question

Hi,

Lets say I have a single object of type Car which I want to render as HTML:

class Car {
  public int Wheels { get; set; }
  public string Model { get; set; }
}

I don't want to use the ASP.NET Repeater or ListView controls to bind because it seems too verbose. I just have the one object. But I still want to be able to use the databinding syntax so I won't have to use Labels or Literals. Something like:

<div>
  Wheels: <%# (int)Eval("Wheels") %><br />
  Model: <%# (string)Eval("Model") %>
</div>

Does anybody know about a control out there that does just that?

And I am not ready to switch to ASP.NET MVC just yet...

Thanks in advance, Jacob

Answer 1

if the page is about a specific item (For exemple, Car.aspx?CarID=ABC123), I normally have a public property on the page called "CurrentCar"

public Car CurrentCar { get; set; }

And I can then have the following:

<div>
  Wheels: <%= CurrentCar.Wheels %><br />
  Model: <%= CurrentCar.Model %>
</div>

That allow you to have type safety. Just make sure to have a valid object assigned before the actual rendering.

Answer 2

You probably want the DetailsView class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.detailsview.aspx).

This displays a single record, using the databinding syntax you describe, and will give you an edit mode updating, like a DataGrid.

Answer 3

I would suggest you make car a protected property on the page, this will allow you to access it directly in the aspx page:

<div>
  Wheels: <%= Car.Wheels %>
  Wheels: <%= Car.Models %>
</div>

This approach is actually better for single item databinding scenarios as the "binding" is strongly typed.

Answer 4

Thanks for your answers,

Unfortunately, the DetailsView control doesn't satisfy my needs because it doesn't seem to support the template-style syntax that I am after. It, too, needs to be bound to a DataSource object of a kind.

I liked better the solution Maxim and Torkel suggested. I will try to go for that.

Answer 5

One drawback of the protected property solution is that you cannot use it to bind to properties of controls.

For example, the following would not work:

<asp:Label ID="Label1" Text="Probably a truck" Visible='<%# CurrentCart.Wheels > 4 %>' runat="server" />

Answer 6

Use a literal control

<div>
  <asp:Literal id="litContent" runat="server" />
</div>

In your code:

private void bind() 
{
  litContent.Text = String.Format("Wheels: {0}<br />Model: {1}", Car.Wheels, Car.Model);
}