I am trying to create nested repeaters dynamically using ITemplate. This repeater is like that I am passing List<Control> and it generates repeater. Issue is that when I databound outer repeater. Only the last nested repeater shows. Following is screen shot. 
Markup
<%@ Page Language='C#' AutoEventWireup='true' CodeFile='Default.aspx.cs' Inherits='Restricted_Default' %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd'> <html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'> <head runat='server'> <title></title> </head> <body> <form id='form1' runat='server'> <div> <table style='border:solid 1px black;'> <tr> <td> <asp:PlaceHolder ID='phControls' runat='server' /> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </form> </body> </html> Code Behind
using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Web; using System.Web.UI; using System.Web.UI.WebControls; using System.Data; public partial class Restricted_Default : System.Web.UI.Page { protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { CreateNestedRepeater(); } private void CreateNestedRepeater() { Repeater childRpt = new Repeater(); List repeatingRuleControls = new List(); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); RepeatingRuleTemplate repeatingRuleTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Item, repeatingRuleControls); childRpt.HeaderTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Header, repeatingRuleControls); childRpt.ItemTemplate = repeatingRuleTemplate; childRpt.FooterTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Footer, null); childRpt.DataSource = new DataRow[4]; Repeater parentRpt = new Repeater(); repeatingRuleControls = new List(); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); repeatingRuleControls.Add(new TextBox()); repeatingRuleControls.Add(childRpt); RepeatingRuleTemplate parentrepeatingRuleTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Item, repeatingRuleControls); parentRpt.HeaderTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Header, repeatingRuleControls); parentRpt.ItemTemplate = parentrepeatingRuleTemplate; parentRpt.FooterTemplate = new RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType.Footer, null); parentRpt.DataSource = new DataRow[4]; parentRpt.DataBind(); phControls.Controls.Add(parentRpt); } public class RepeatingRuleTemplate : ITemplate { ListItemType templateType; List innerControls; public RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType type, List controls) { templateType = type; innerControls = controls; } public void InstantiateIn(Control container) { PlaceHolder ph = new PlaceHolder(); switch (templateType) { case ListItemType.Header: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); foreach (Control control in innerControls) { Label label = new Label(); label.Text = control.ID; ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); ph.Controls.Add(label); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); } ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); break; case ListItemType.Item: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); foreach (Control control in innerControls) { if (control.GetType() != typeof(Repeater)) { ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); TextBox textBox = new TextBox(); textBox.ID = control.ID; ph.Controls.Add(textBox); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); } else { ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); ph.Controls.Add(control as Repeater); //(control as Repeater).DataSource = new DataRow[4]; // (control as Repeater).DataBind(); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); } } ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); //ph.DataBinding += new EventHandler(Item_DataBinding); break; case ListItemType.Footer: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('')); break; } container.Controls.Add(ph); } public List Controls { get { return innerControls; } } } }
Ok guys I figured it out …. Thanks to everyone though. I was doing a mistake. The template class was wrong.I fixed it and now it is working like Charm Follwoing is the class
public RepeatingRuleTemplate(ListItemType type, List<Control> controls) { templateType = type; innerControls = controls; } public void InstantiateIn(Control container) { PlaceHolder ph = new PlaceHolder(); switch (templateType) { case ListItemType.Header: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<table border=\'0\'>')); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<tr>')); foreach (Control control in innerControls) { Label label = new Label(); label.Text = control.ID; ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<td>')); ph.Controls.Add(label); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</td>')); } ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</tr>')); break; case ListItemType.Item: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<tr>')); foreach (Control control in innerControls) { //ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<td>')); //ph.Controls.Add(control as TextBox); //ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</td>')); if (control.GetType() != typeof(Repeater)) { ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<td>')); TextBox textBox = new TextBox(); textBox.ID = control.ID; ph.Controls.Add(textBox); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</td>')); } else { ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('<td>')); Repeater rpt = new Repeater(); rpt.DataSource = (control as Repeater).DataSource; rpt.ItemTemplate = (control as Repeater).ItemTemplate; rpt.HeaderTemplate = (control as Repeater).HeaderTemplate; rpt.FooterTemplate = (control as Repeater).FooterTemplate; rpt.DataBind(); ph.Controls.Add(rpt); //(control as Repeater).DataSource = new DataRow[4]; // (control as Repeater).DataBind(); ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</td>')); } } ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</tr>')); //ph.DataBinding += new EventHandler(Item_DataBinding); break; case ListItemType.Footer: ph.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl('</table>')); break; } container.Controls.Add(ph); } public List<Control> Controls { get { return innerControls; } } }