Question

I have the following column in a GridView, and my problem is that it only renders the text ‘Download’, not a URL.

<asp:HyperLinkField DataNavigateUrlFields='ArchiveLocation' Text='Download' DataNavigateUrlFormatString='{0}' /> 

When I bind a DataTable with one row to the grid, the ArchiveLocation in that row contains the value:

‘~/Common/Forms/ExportStream.aspx?path=C:\Development\Chase\Exports\ChaseExport-090312073930.zip’.

Answer 1

Use the NavigateUrl only if you want the same URL for all records.

It appears that the HyperLinkField renders text only if there is a colon in the field’s value. Remove the colon and you will see hyper links. I don’t know why yet.

Apparently, the OnDataBindField method calls CrossSiteScriptingValidation.IsDangerousUrl which considers ‘:’ dangerous on your behalf:

internal static bool IsDangerousUrl(string s) {     if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(s))     {         return false;     }     s = s.Trim();     int length = s.Length;     if (((((length > 4) && ((s[0] == 'h') || (s[0] == 'H'))) && ((s[1] == 't') || (s[1] == 'T'))) && (((s[2] == 't') || (s[2] == 'T')) && ((s[3] == 'p') || (s[3] == 'P')))) && ((s[4] == ':') || (((length > 5) && ((s[4] == 's') || (s[4] == 'S'))) && (s[5] == ':'))))     {         return false;     }     if (s.IndexOf(':') == -1)     {         return false;     }     return true; }