Help with Binding TList EntityGridView

Hey guys,

 I am new to nettiers and I would like to knwo the way how to manually bind the TList<Entity> to EntityGridView, I got sorting exception when trying to use this. I saw a post said that TList could not work with EntityGridView, and just wondering that is there any fixed for that. I used TList and Entity gridview so often in my application and I don't want to change entitygridview to standard gridview caused I have to manually write functions for custom paging e.g Records per pages, sorting and selectindex_changed.

 Thank you very much

 EntityGridView will work with DataSourceControls right now only. Use objectdatasource instead that'll use TList as underline datasource.

<asp:objectdatasource
          id="ObjectDataSource1"
          runat="server"
          selectmethod="YourMethodThatReturnsTlist"
          typename="NetTiers.DAL" />

Then in your code-behind, use like following:
GridView.DataSourceId = ObjectDataSource1;
GridView.DataBind();

Thank for your reply Mike, however what i would like to know is how to bind the TList to objectdatasource at runtime. For example, I have a contact list and search form, I would like to do the search based on criterias e.g. first name, last name, dob. My method  will get those fields and return a TList<Contact>. How can I bind that to my EntityGridView?

For example I got the function

protected ecopilot.Entities.TList<ecopilot.Domain.Contacts> GetSearchResults()
{
   return TList<ecopilot.Domain.Contacts>;
}

   ObjectDataSource1.SelectMethod = "GetSearchResults";
   ObjectDataSource1.TypeName = "ecopilot.Entities.Contacts";
  GridView1.DataSourceID = "ObjectDataSource1";
  GridView1.DataBind();

I got exception but don't know how to fix this

ObjectDataSource 'ObjectDataSource1' could not find a non-generic method 'GetSearchResults' that has no parameters.

 ObjectDataSource1.TypeName = "ecopilot.Entities.Contacts"; Line 47: GridView1.DataSourceID = "ObjectDataSource1"; Line 48: GridView1.DataBind();

Could you please help

I see what you're trying to achive, and think you still can get around with typed datasource along with SqlParameter and its' filter expessions

  <data:ProductsDataSource ID="ProductsDataSource" runat="server" SelectMethod="Find">
      <Parameters>
    <data:SqlParameter Name="Parameters">
     <Filters>
      <data:ProductsFilter  Column="CategoryID" ControlID="__Page" PropertyName="CategoryID" />
     </Filters>
    </data:SqlParameter>
    <data:CustomParameter Name="OrderByClause" Value="" ConvertEmptyStringToNull="false" />
      </Parameters>
  </data:ProductsDataSource>

Here is how to get ObjectDataSource to work (like you describe, except the objectdagtasource declared on page):

    <asp:ObjectDataSource runat="server" ID="ObjectDataSource"
        TypeName="MyDal.CustomersSearch"
        SelectMethod="GetCustomersByContactName"
        EnablePaging="false" SortParameterName="SortBy"
        >
        <SelectParameters>
            <asp:ControlParameter ControlID="__Page" Name="ContactName" PropertyName="WhereClause" />
            <asp:Parameter Name="SortBy" Direction="input" />
        </SelectParameters>
    </asp:ObjectDataSource>

code-behind:

    void cmdSearch_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (txtContactName.Text != string.Empty)
        {
            WhereClause = txtContactName.Text;
            GridView1.DataBind();
        }
    }

    public string WhereClause
    {
        get
        {
            if (ViewState["_whereClause"] != null)
            {
                return (string)ViewState["_whereClause"];
            }
            return string.Empty;
        }
        set
        {
            ViewState["_whereClause"] = value;
        }
    }

namespace MyDal
{
    public class CustomersSearch
    {
        public TList<Customers> GetCustomersByContactName(string ContactName, string SortBy)
        {
            CustomersParameterBuilder searchQuery = new CustomersParameterBuilder();
            searchQuery.Append(CustomersColumn.ContactName, string.Format("{0}*", ContactName));
            TList<Customers> tlist= DataRepository.CustomersProvider.Find(searchQuery.GetParameters());
            tlist.Sort(SortBy);
            return tlist;
        }
    }
}

see if helps