Question

IS the AjaxControlToolkit.CalendarExtender control bindable?

In my eWorld.CalendarPopup you use the database to set holidays, and there are numerous graphical properties. It seems to me that:

1. the CalendarToolkit has no method to link itself to some database full of holidays
2. the only way to format the look at feel of the calendar is via CSS.

(1) Are these assumptions correct? Is the CalendarExtender thus considered a limited control?

(2) I take care of styling in the Render event handler, as in:

 writer.Write(@"<Style type='text/css'> 
 .ajax__calendar_container
 {
   padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
 }
 .ajax__calendar_header, .ajax__calendar_footer
 {
    font-size: " + (CalendarFontSize.IsEmpty ? "8pt" : CalendarFontSize.ToString()) + @";
                    font-family: " + (string.IsNullOrEmpty(CalendarFontName) ? "Verdana" : CalendarFontName) + @";
    font-weight: bold;
    background-color: #dcdcdc;
    border-width: 0px;
  }
  //...
  //...
</Style>"
);
base.Render(writer);

Answer 1

To answer your first question… the AjaxControlToolkit.CalendarExtender is not bindable, however, the control that it is extending can be. For example, if you add the AjaxControlToolkit.CalendarExtender to a TextBox control, you can bind the text box to a value in some database.

The AjaxControlToolkit.CalendarExtender only does what it was designed to do… extend existing controls by showing a calendar control where users can pick a date. However, it is not a calendar control…