Question

I want to print a table dynamically based on an array I have, using the RadGrid. The problem is that I am new to telerik and to ASP.NET.

What I would do in PHP is:

<?php 
$data = stuff;
?>
<table>
   <?php foreach($data as $dataOne): ?>
      <tr><td><?php echo $dataOne; ?></td></tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</table>

Now I want to do the same in ASP.NET using RadGrid.

Thanks.

EDIT:

The data is returned as an XML with “Objects”, each has several fields, including names and numbers. I want the table to show all of it. I can parse the XML to several arrays (each array holds one column), or to objects, or to anything else. I need to know how to then put it in to the RadGrid.

Answer 1

Equivalent code in ASP.NET:

var data = getDataFromDB(); 

telerikGrid.DataSource=data;
telerikGrid.DataBind();

And you’ll have your gridview defined as so on the aspx page:

<telerik:radgridview id="telerikGrid" runat="server" />

UPDATE:

I will give you an example using custom business Objects since you say you can parse the XML and create objects.

Having a class structure like below:

public class Employee
{
    public string EmployeeName {get;set;}
    //... And more properties
    Public Child[] Children {get;set;}
}

public class Child
{
   public string Name {get;set;}
   //and more properties
}

And assuming you parse the XML to construct an Employee[] that you want to display on your grid in a manner similar to this:

-------------------------------
| Employee Name  |   Children |
+-----------------------------+
|  John          |   Peter    |
|                |   Charles  |
+----------------+------------+
| Michael        |   Anna     |
+-----------------------------+

Your markup should look like this:

<telerik:radgridview id="telerikGrid" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="telerikGrid_ItemDataBound">
 <MasterTableView AutoGenerateColumns="false">
      <Columns>
       <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="EmployeeName" HeaderText="EmployeeName">
       </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
       <telerik:GridTemplateColumn>
            <ItemTemplate>
                <telerik:radgridview runat="server" id="gridEmpChildren">
                   <MasterTableView AutoGenerateColumns="false">
                      <Columns>
                          <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="Name"                                       HeaderText="Children">
       </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
                      </Columns>
                   </MasterTableView>
                </telerik:radgridview>
            </ItemTemplate>
       <telerik:GridTemplateColumn>
 </MasterTableView>
</telerik:radgridview>

You add a handler to ItemDataBound event and implement it as so (pay attention to the markup above, which defines this handler):

protected void telerikGrid_ItemDataBound(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e) 
{ 
    if (e.Item is GridDataItem) 
    { 
        GridDataItem item = (GridDataItem)e.Item; 
        RadGridView childrenGrid = (RadGridView)item.FindControl("gridEmpChildren"); 
        childrenGrid.DataSource= item["Children"];//See class Employee
        childrenGrid.DataBind();
    } 
 } 

Now, a full sample implementation that would render the grid as displayed on my example above is the below:

 //Sample data
 Employee[] employees = new Employee[] {
    new Employee{
            EmployeeName="John",
            Children= new Child[]{
                    new Child{Name="Peter"},
                    new Child{Name="Charles"}
                    }
        }
        ,new Employee{
            EmployeeName="Michael",
            Children=new Child[]{
                    new Child{Name="Anna"}
                    } 
        }
};

telerikGrid.DataSource=employees;
telerik.DataBind(); 

Note: None of the code has been tested, cut me some slack if it doesn’t work straight away. It is definitely close to this.