Best Practice for Creating Data Tables Without Controls in ASP.net

Question

So, I am kinda new to ASP.net development still, and I already don't like the stock ASP.net controls for displaying my database query results in table format. (I.e. I would much rather handle the HTML myself and so would the designer!)

So my question is: What is the best and most secure practice for doing this without using ASP.net controls? So far my only idea involves populating my query result during the Page_Load event and then exposing a DataTable through a getter to the *.aspx page. From there I think I could just iterate with a foreach loop and craft my table as I see fit.

Answer 1

I believe you're looking for a <Repeater> control. It contains some functionality similar to the GridViews, but allows you hand-craft all of the HTML for the Header, Item, and Footers yourself. Simply call the databinding code as you would for a gridview, and change the ASPX page to suit your exact HTML needs.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163780.aspx

Answer 2

The successor to the repeater is the ListView, which will also help you handcraft your HTML.

Answer 3

If you're more interested in hand Coding your HTML, it might be worth looking at the ASP.NET MVC project. You get a little more control over things than standard WebForms.

As an aside, plugging data access code in the Page_Load is never a good idea. It ties your presentation too much to your data code. Have a look at either the MVC as suggested above which applies a standard design pattern to separate concerns, or do a google search for "ASP.NET nTier" or something similar. It might take a little longer to get a site up and running, but it will save you pain in the long run.

Answer 4

three options:

1. learn to use the existing controls like GridView; with proper CSS they can look quite nice, since they just generate HTML on the client side

2. generate your HTML using templates or StringBuilder and put it in a Literal control on your web page

3. buy a third-party library that has controls that you do like

number 1 is the 'best' option for asp.net in the long term because you will actually master the controls that everyone else uses; option 2 is tedious; option 3 is a quick fix and may be expensive