Jun 2

Written by: Steve Gray
6/2/2010 12:25 PM 

That was a mouthful…

The task here is to load an ASP DataList control from XML. I threw in the DataTable part because it adds a little complexity, you can’t directly load XML into a DataTable using .ReadXML, you’ll get

DataTable does not support schema inference from Xml

So, the trick is to us the same method on the DataSet, then get the DataTable from the DataSet.

As a bonus, I’ve thrown in the ASP.NET code to show the DataList being populated. You’ll thank me later.

Imports System.Data
Partial Class eCards_eCards
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        If Not IsPostBack Then
            Dim oDT As New DataTable
            oDT = loadData()
            lstCards.DataSource = oDT
            lstCards.DataBind()
        End If
    End Sub
    
    Function loadData() As DataTable
        Dim oDT As New DataTable
        Dim oDS As New DataSet
        oDS.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("/eCards/eCard.xml"))
        oDT = oDS.Tables(0)
        Return oDT
    End Function
End Class

 

                    <asp:DataList RepeatColumns="3" ID="lstCards" runat="server" RepeatDirection="Horizontal"
                        datakeyfield = "image">
                        <ItemTemplate>
                            <table cellspacing="20px">
                                <tr>
                                    <td style="padding: 0px 0px 00px 25px;"><asp:ImageButton ID="imgThumb" runat="server" CommandArgument='<%# Bind("image") %>' ImageUrl='<%# Bind("imageThumb") %>' /> </td>
                                </tr>
                                <tr>
                                    <td style="padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px; text-align:center"><asp:LinkButton ID="lnkCard" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("label") %>'></asp:LinkButton></td>
                                </tr>
                            </table>
                        </ItemTemplate>
                    </asp:DataList>