Question

I am creating a web application in ASP.net/VB.NET and I have an issue with the GridView control.
Currently, I have the GridView populated with data from the DB and I’ve also coded the update button to allow the user to edit any necessary information through a form that pops up.

What I’d like to do, if possible, is add a button to the two right columns(I already put one in the Dock Out Time column) which will be invisible if the column is set or will set the current time to the column. Setting the time for those two columns is already handled through the update form, but my supervisor asked me to try and see if this was possible.

Those two Time columns are TemplateFields(since I format the display time from what is actually in the DB) and I added an asp button in the ItemTemplate for that Set Button in the picture.

Is this even possible to do and if so, how would I access this button in the code behind so I can add functionality(setting the time and hiding it if the column is not null)If it’s not really possible to have two items like this in a TemplateField I can just make 2 extra columns for these buttons but I think this would look much cleaner.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Yes this is possible, check this answer:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/11077709/1268570

Basically you need to handle the RowCommand event from the grid and identify each button with a command, optionally you can add arguments to each button when you bind, for example:

<asp:GridView runat="server" OnRowCommand="grdProducts_RowCommand" 
    ID="grdProducts">
    <Columns>
        <asp:TemplateField ShowHeader="False">
            <ItemTemplate>
                <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButton1" runat="server" CausesValidation="false" 
                    CommandName="myLink" CommandArgument='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container, "RowIndex") %>' Text="Button"></asp:LinkButton>
            </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:TemplateField>
        <asp:CommandField ShowEditButton="True" />
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>

In code behind:

    protected void grdProducts_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
    {
        switch (e.CommandName)
        {
            case "myLink":
                this.lblMessage.Text = e.CommandName + " " + e.CommandArgument + " " + DateTime.Now.ToString();

                // referenece to the current row
                var row = this.grdProducts.Rows[int.Parse(e.CommandArgument.ToString())];
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    }

After you update your grid in the RowCommand event, you should repopulate the grid data to render the changes