Question

I’m trying to populate a dropdown list inside a repeater, but I’m not being very successful.
I’m probably using the wrong EventArgs e.

Here’s my aspx code:

        <asp:Repeater runat="server" id="criteriaScore">
            <HeaderTemplate>
              <ul>         
                <li class="header"><span class="item">Kriterie</span><span class="value">Poeng</span><span class="description">Beskrivelse</span></li>
            </HeaderTemplate>
            <ItemTemplate>
                <li>
                    <span class="item"> <%# Eval("criteria") %>:</span>
                    <asp:DropDownList id="ddlRating" runat="server" autopostback="true" enableviewstate="false"></asp:DropDownList>
                    <span class="value score<%# Eval("lvl") %>" title="<%# Eval("description") %>"> </span>
                </li>
            </ItemTemplate>
            <FooterTemplate>
                </ul>  
            </FooterTemplate>
        </asp:Repeater>

And the code behind:

    protected void criteriaScore_ItemDataBound(object sender, DataListCommandEventArgs e)
    {
        DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList)e.Item.FindControl("ddlRating");

        for(int i=1; i > 5; i++)
        {
            ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(i.ToString(), i.ToString()));
        }
    }

Can someone please guide me down the right path? 🙂

Answer 1

Depsite the other answers on this question, the ItemDataBound event should not be used to bind control data, do that at the control level.

In your dropdownlist define the databinding event:

<asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlYourDDL"  OnDataBinding="ddlYourDDL_DataBinding">

Then implement the OnDataBinding event:

protected void ddlYourDDL_DataBinding(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList)(sender);
    for (int i = 1; i < 5; i++)
    {
         ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(i.ToString(), i.ToString()));
    }

    // Now that the items are all there, set the selected property
    ddl.SelectedValue = Eval("selectedfieldname").ToString();
 }

You should try and do all your databinding at the control level instead of searching for things and having your grid have to know about what it contains. Each control can take care of itself 😉 This way it is much easier to add and remove controls to your template and keep these changes isolated.