Question

I have this page with a GridView control inside that’s bound to database. GridView has a command row for insert, delete and updating. The problem is that, since my database table is initially empty, I see an empty grid. I don’t even see the command row in order to be able to insert anything into it.
I managed to solve this by checking for GridView row count and changing its display to InsertTemplate. But I’m wondering if there’s a standard way of doing this, may it already has such functionality?
The same problem with DetailView.
Thanks

Answer 1

You can use the EmptyDataTemplate to handle inserting a new item if the grid’s data source is initially empty.

Define your grid in the ASPX as follows:

<asp:GridView runat="server" ID="grid" AutoGenerateColumns="false" 
     OnRowCommand="grid_RowCommand">
    <Columns>
        <asp:ButtonField ButtonType="Link" CommandName="Add" Text="Add" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Id" HeaderText="Id" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="FirstName" HeaderText="First Name" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="Last Name" />
    </Columns>
    <EmptyDataTemplate>
        <asp:TextBox ID="CustomerFirstName" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><br />
        <asp:TextBox ID="CustomerLastName" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><br />
        <asp:Button ID="Save" Text="Save" runat="server" CommandName="EmptyAdd" 
            UseSubmitBehavior="False" />
    </EmptyDataTemplate>
</asp:GridView>

A collection of Customer objects is used as the datasource for the grid.

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Bind the grid to a data source (empty for this example).

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   var customers = new List<Customer> {};
    grid.DataSource = customers;
    grid.DataBind();
}

You can then handle the Add and EmptyAdd command in the grid_RowCommand event handler.

protected void grid_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.CommandName == "EmptyInsert")
    {
    }
    if (e.CommandName == "Insert")
    {
    }
}