Question

I have a sqldatasource with a very simple select statement that should always return one row. I have textboxes on a page that i want to fill with that data from the datasource. how could i do this for textboxes? If there is no data in the database then i want the textboxes to remain empty. How can I accomplish this?

<asp:Panel ID = "Panel2" runat="server" DefaultButton = "save" >
                        <fieldset style="width: 524px"><legend>Rouse InterChange Details</legend>
                        <asp:FormView runat="server" ID="MyFormView" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource3" DefaultMode="Edit">
                        <ItemTemplate >
                        <table>
                            <tr>
                                <td align="right">Interchange ID:</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="txtIntID" runat="server" size="1" MaxLength = "2" Text='<%# Bind("Interchange_Id") %>'></asp:TextBox>
                                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator8" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "txtIntID" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide an Interchange ID."> </asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                                             <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="ValidatorCalloutExtender11" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator8" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">
                                             </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                                <td align="right">Sender ID:</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="txtsender" runat="server" MaxLength = "15" ></asp:TextBox>
                                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator9" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "txtsender" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide a Sender ID."> </asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                                     <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="vce12" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator9" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">
                                     </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                                <td align="right">Interchange Standard ID:</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="ISI" runat="server" size="1" MaxLength = "1" ></asp:TextBox>
                                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator10" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "ISI" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide an Interchange Standard ID."> </asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                                     <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="ValidatorCalloutExtender12" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator10" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">
                                     </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                                <td align="right">Version:</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="Verstxt" runat="server" size="5" MaxLength = "5" ></asp:TextBox>
                                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator11" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "Verstxt" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide a Version."> </asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                                     <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="ValidatorCalloutExtender13" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator11" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">
                                     </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                                <td align="right">Functional ID:</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="FuncID" runat="server" size="1" MaxLength = "2" ></asp:TextBox>
                                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator12" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "FuncID" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide a Functional ID."> </asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                                     <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="ValidatorCalloutExtender14" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator12" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">
                                     </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr style="display:none">
                                <td align="right">Group Control #</td>
                                <td align="left">
                                    <asp:TextBox ID="txtGroupcontrol" runat="server" size="6" MaxLength = "9" ></asp:TextBox>

                                </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:FormView>
                        <asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource3" runat="server" 
                        ConnectionString="connectionstring" 
                        SelectCommand="select * from table1 "></asp:SqlDataSource>
                        </fieldset></asp:Panel>   

Answer 1

You should consider using a FormView control to do this. Using the binding controls is much easier and cleaner than trying to cram all of your code into the code-behind of the page. I also feel that it makes the page much easier to maintain, since you don’t have all of the C#/VB code to manage as well.

<asp:FormView runat="server" ID="MyFormView" DataSourceID="MySqlDataSource" DefaultMode="Edit">
    <EditItemTemplate>
        <table>
            <tr>
                <td align="right">Interchange ID:</td>
                <td align="left">
                    <asp:TextBox ID="txtIntID" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("InterchangeID") %>' size="1" MaxLength = "2"></asp:TextBox>
                    <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator8" ValidationGroup = "rouse"  Display ="None" ControlToValidate = "txtIntID" runat="server" ErrorMessage="You Must Provide an Interchange ID."></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                    <ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender ID="ValidatorCalloutExtender11" TargetControlID="RequiredFieldValidator8" HighlightCssClass="validatorCalloutHighlight" runat="server">                                             </ajaxToolkit:ValidatorCalloutExtender>
                </td>
            </tr>

        <!-- rest of your table here -->
        </table>
    </EditItemTemplate>
</asp:FormView>
<asp:SqlDataSource runat="server" ID="MySqlDataSource" 
    SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM MyTable" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:MyConnectionString %>" >
</asp:SqlDataSource>

See these links for more information:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.formview.aspx
• http://quickstarts.asp.net/QuickStartv20/aspnet/doc/ctrlref/data/formview.aspx