Question

I was told to use a Repeater control in what I am doing which is a “Data Entry” screen with ASP.NET controls -a standard “address” like form. In cases, the fields on the form will repeated twice, once for the original values, one for the changed values. I have not used this control before but it seems like I have to bind to a database. Instead, I have an Entity object that has been obtained via a Repository. Can I bind to an object like this?

[DataContract()]
    public class RON
    {
        [DataMember]
        public string Id { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string Comments { get; set; }

Then, I have my ASP.NET fields which I used the following with CSS to get the fields to line up. Can I put this in an ItemTemplate?

 <div class="row1">
    <div class="label">  
       ID: 
    </div>  
    <div class="value">
       <asp:Label ID="lblId" runat="server" />
    </div>

Answer 1

You will likely want to do something in your PageLoad such as:

List<SomeBusinessObj> MyEntityCollection = Repository.Load();

You then can bind your entity object collection to the repeater control using the DataSource property of the repeater control.

rptrMyRepeater.DataSource = MyEntityCollection;

Then by calling DataBind on that control, your collection will become bound to that control.

rptrMyRepeater.DataBind();

Then all you need to do is use the Repeater’s databound event to apply your custom properties to the repeater’s controls.

protected void rptrExample_OnItemDataBound(object Sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs Args)
{
 if (Args.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item || Args.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem)
 {
  SomeBusinessObj Obj = (SomeBusinessObj)Args.Item.DataItem;

  Label LabelControl = (Label)Args.Item.FindControl("lblSomeLabel");
  LabelControl.Text = Obj.CustomProperty;
 }
}

The ItemDataBound event will be called for each row item, so each time it is called you will be working on the that row item’s controls and databound object.

---

An alternative approach would be to directly databind within markup, not using the OnItemDataBound event.

<asp:Label Text='<%# ((MyObjects.SomeBusinessObj)Container.DataItem).CustomProperty %>' runat="server" />

The direct cast avoids the call into DataBinder.Eval, and the overhead of reflection.