EmptyDataTemplate and EmptyDataText not working in GridView

Question

I can't seem to get either EmptyDataTemplate or EmptyDataText of a GridView to work.

I'm fetching the GridView contents in de codebehind and attaching them with using DataBind(). I've tried having them as null and as an empty List, and in both cases the text I put into EmptyDataTemplate or EmptyDataText is not displayed.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT (Code snippet)

This is my GridView:

<asp:GridView ID="grid" runat="server" EmptyDataText="EMPTY">
</asp:GridView>

And I've tried these two for binding the data:

grid.DataSource = new List<object>();
grid.DataBind();

grid.DataSource = null;
grid.DataBind();

Answer 1

The EmptyDataTemplate will override any EmptyDataText, so it could be that you've defined the template incorrectly somehow, which is keeping you from seeing the EmptyDataText.

If you're binding an empty list to the GridView, it should display the EmptyDataText, so long as you don't have a conflicting EmptyDataTemplate, e.g.

<%-- GridTest.ascx --%>
<asp:GridView ID="Grid" runat="server" EmptyDataText="No Data!" />

// GridTest.ascx.cs
Grid.DataSource = new List<object>();
Grid.DataBind();

Are you doing something different than this?

Answer 2

This problem is caused by using the so-called CSS-Friendly Control Adapters. With them enabled (and they seem to be enabled by default), EmptyDataTemplate and EmptyDataText don't work as expected.

To disable the adapters, go to the App_Browsers folder, and in the CSSFriendlyAdapters.browser file, comment out the following section (or the section related to the control you're using):

<adapter controlType="System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridView"
               adapterType="CSSFriendly.GridViewAdapter" />

The big problem is the styles will go away.