Using DropDownList in EditTemplates of a GridView

Question

I am working on a GridView in Asp.Net. When initially a the Page Loads, my gridview look like: alt text http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/e45e5b66d4.jpg

When a user clicks, to edit a row, I am using edit templates to show 'Domain' in a DropDownList. But problem is , when the DropDownlist gets load with data, it lost the current value of the 'Domain'.
i.e If I want to edit 4th Row, its domain which is currently set to 'Computers' is getting changed to 'MBA' which is ofcourse the first element return by the DataSource. alt text http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/7d3f6ba9a5.jpg

I want to display the current value ('computers') as the selected value in DropDownList. But I am unable to get the value of Domain, which is being edited.

Brian Mains · Answer 1 · 2010-03-08T17:07:20.450

2

You can bind the SelectedValue property of the dropdown as in:

SelectedValue='<%# Eval("Domain") %>'

However, if you bind a value that doesn't exist, an exception will be thrown. So you may need to handle in code depending on your scenario.

EDIT: if the value doesn't exist, the unfortunate remaining solution will be tap into the gridview's RowDataBound and get the reference to the drop down, and do:

MyBoundObject obj = (MyBoundObject)e.Row.DataItem;
DropDownList ddl = (DropDownList)e.Row.Cells[<index>].FindControl("ddl1");
ListItem item = ddl.Items.FindByValue(obj.Domain);
if (item != null) item.Selected = true;

Here, only if the list item exists it is selected. If that doesn't select the item, try ddl.SelectedValue = item.Value.

HTH.

edited Mar 08 '10 at 17:07

answered Mar 08 '10 at 15:26

Brian Mains

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Yes, I tried it, but got an exception, that current value does'nt exist in the list. What to do. – Vaibhav Jain Mar 08 '10 at 15:27
Handle it in code is the only other solution. Will edit above. – Brian Mains Mar 08 '10 at 17:01

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '10 at 15:49

2

to solve exception use AppendDataBoundItems="true".

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCategory" runat="server" SelectedValue='<%# Eval("Domain") %>' 
        DataSourceID="datasource"
            DataTextField="text" DataValueField="value" AppendDataBoundItems="true">
            <asp:ListItem Text="Select..." Value=""></asp:ListItem>
        </asp:DropDownList>

answered Mar 08 '10 at 15:49

Saar

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@Saar Thanks, It worked for me, but I have to take DomainId as the SelectedValue.:) – Vaibhav Jain Mar 08 '10 at 16:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 08 '10 at 16:18

0

This may help you:

Listen to the event RowEditing, get the Dropdownlist of the specific row using the .FindControl() Method and perform an explicit .DataBind() on the DDL.

answered Mar 08 '10 at 16:18

citronas

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Using DropDownList in EditTemplates of a GridView

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