ASP.NET repeater alternate row highlighting without full blown <alternatingitemtemplate/>

Question

I'm trying to accomplish simply adding a css class to a div on alternate rows in my <itemtemplate/> without going to the overhead of including a full blown <alternatingitemtemplate/> which will force me to keep a lot of markup in sync in the future.

I've seen a solution such as http://blog.net-tutorials.com/2009/04/02/how-to-alternate-row-color-with-the-aspnet-repeater-control/ which I'm tempted to use but this still doesn't "smell" right to me.

Has anyone else got a more maintainable and straightforward solution? Ideally I'd like to be able to do something like:

<asp:repeater id="repeaterOptions" runat="server">
  <headertemplate>
   <div class="divtable">
    <h2>Other Options</h2>
  </headertemplate>
  <itemtemplate>
    <div class="item <%# IsAlternatingRow ? "dark" : "light" %>">

But I can't figure out how to implement IsAlternatingRow - even with extension methods.

Answer 1

There is no need to manage your own variable (either an incrementing counter or a boolean); you can see if the built-in ItemIndex property is divisible by two, and use that to set a css class:

class="<%# Container.ItemIndex % 2 == 0 ? "" : "alternate" %>"

This has the benefit of being completely based in your UI code (ascx or aspx file), and doesn't rely on JavaScript.

Answer 2

IsAlternatingRow can be a protected property and will get set in the ItemDataBound or ItemCreated event.

protected void rpt_ItemDataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    IsAlternatingRow = !IsAlternatingRow;
}

Answer 3

Apply the classes with JQuery.

$('.divtable > div:odd').addClass('dark');
$('.divtable > div:even').addClass('light');

Answer 4

You could use jQuery instead. This answer to a previous question may help: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287489/jquery-zebra-selector

Answer 5

C# class="<%# Container.ItemIndex % 2 == 0 ? "" : "alternate" %>"

VB class="<%# iif(Container.ItemIndex Mod 2 = 0,"","alternate") %>"

Answer 6

Little tweak: the empty class could be removed with something like:

  <%# Container.ItemIndex % 2 == 0 ?  "<tr>" : "<tr class='odd'>"  %>