New EntityDropDownList and BoundEntityDropDownField controls

I've been using the following controls for a while now and thought it about time I made them into templates - so find a suitable patch attached!

EntityDropDownList - Derives from a DropDownList, but adds a few extra features such as the ability to add a null item (adds a child ListItem), make it readonly(converts it to a label), make the control required (uses a RequiredFieldValidator) and it supports type ahead (javascript).

example use:

<data:EntityDropDownList runat="server" ID="myfieldDDL" DataSourceID="productsDataSource" DataTextField="ProductName" DataValueField="ProductID"
AppendNullItem="true"
NullItemText="<select a value>"
Required="true"
ReadOnly="false"
FriendlyName="My drop down field"
ErrorText="*"
RequiredErrorMessage="This drop down is required"
CaseSensitiveKeySort="true"
/>
 

BoundEntityDropDownField - As above but derived from BoundField so that it can be used within a grid (EntityGridView). It caches the data so that it is only read once for all the bound rows.

example use:

<data:EntityGridView runat="server" ID="gridView" DataSourceID="productsDataSource"
    DataKeyNames="ProductID"
    AutoGenerateColumns="false"
    AutoGenerateEditButton="true"
    AllowPaging="true"
    AllowSorting="true">
    <Columns>
            <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductID" HeaderText="Product ID" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="ProductID" />
            <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductName" HeaderText="Product Name" SortExpression="ProductName" />
            <data:BoundEntityDropDownField DataField="SupplierID" HeaderText="Supplier" SortExpression="SupplierID"
DataSourceID="suppliersDataSource"
DataTextField="CompanyName"
DataValueField="SupplierID"
AppendNullItem="true" />
            <data:BoundEntityDropDownField DataField="CategoryID" HeaderText="Category" SortExpression="CategoryID" DataSourceID="categoriesDataSource" DataTextField="CategoryName" DataValueField="CategoryID" AppendNullItem="true" />
    </Columns>
    </data:EntityGridView>
   
    <data:ProductsDataSource runat="server" ID="productsDataSource" sort="ProductName" EnableSorting="true" EnablePaging="true" SelectMethod="GetPaged" />
    <data:CategoriesDataSource runat="server" ID="categoriesDataSource" Sort="CategoryName" />
    <data:SuppliersDataSource runat="server" ID="suppliersDataSource" Sort="CompanyName" />

hth

swin
 

swin,

 That is awesome! I have applied the patch on your behalf (rev. 490)
 

Yep, thats excellent, thanks swin

Thanks guys.

Hey Mike, good job on adding them to the web admin so quickly.

Cheers

swin 

It's because it doesn't appear in the base ASP.Net DropDownList.

I don't know why it doesn't appear - I guess Microsoft might know!

hth

swin 

The DesignerSerializationVisibility attribute is used to suppress the visibility in design-time. The question is why

        [Browsable(false)]
        [DesignerSerializationVisibility(0)]
        [Themeable(false)]
        [DefaultValue("")]
        [Bindable(true, 1)]
        public virtual string SelectedValue { get; set; }

It would be great if this stuff was added to the documentation wiki

Done!, although help on the wiki is always welcome

swin