Introduction

In Part 1 of this article series we have discussed how to Display Data with FormView Control. Now in this article we will discuss how to use Paging in FormView Control.

Paging with FormView Control

We can enable users to navigate through a set of data items by enabling paging. We can allow the FormView control to automatically render the paging interface or we can use a PagerTemplate to customize the paging interface. The page given below automatically will render an additional row that contains buttons for navigating between data items.

FormViw2.1.gif

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">

</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">

<style type="text/css">
 html
 {
background-color:silver;
}
#content
 {
margin:auto;
width:400px;
padding:10px;
background-color:white;
font:14px Georgia,Serif;
}
a
 {
color:blue;
}
</style>

<title></title>
</head>
<body>
 <form id="form1" runat="server">

<div id="content">

<asp:FormView
 id="frmBooks"
 DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1"
 AllowPaging="true"
 Runat="server">
 <ItemTemplate>
 <b><u><%# Eval("TITLE")%></u></b>
 <br />
 <b>Serial Number:</b>
 <%# Eval("ID")%>
 <br />
 <b>Author:</b>
 <%# Eval("AUTHOR")%>
 <br />
 <b>Price:</b>
 <%# Eval("PRICE")%>
 </ItemTemplate>
 </asp:FormView>

<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server"
ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1 %>"
 ProviderName="<%$ ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1.ProviderName %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT [ID], [TITLE], [AUTHOR], [PRICE] FROM [BOOK_LIST]">
 </asp:SqlDataSource>

</div>
 </form>
</body>
</html>

In above code, FormView included an AllowPaging property that is assigned the value True. Adding this property generates the paging interface automatically. Unlike the DetailsView and GridView controls, the FormView control does not support AJAX.

We can customize the appearance of the automatically rendered paging interface with the PagerSettings property, which exposes the PagerSettings class. The PagerSettings class supports the following properties:

  • FirstPageImageUrl: Enables us to display an image for the first page link.
  • FirstPageText: Enables us to specify the text for the first page link.
  • LastPageImageUrl: Enables us to display an image for the last page link.
  • LastPageText: Enables us to specify the text for the last page link.
  • Mode: Enables us to select a display mode for the pager user interface. Possible values are NextPrevious, NextPreviousFirstLast, Numeric, and NumericFirstLast.
  • NextPageImageUrl: Enables us to specify the text for the next page link.
  • NextPageText: Enables us to specify the text for the next page link.
  • PageButtonCount: Enables us to specify the number of page number links to display.
  • Position: Enables us to specify the position of the paging user interface. Possible values are Bottom, Top, TopAndBottom.
  • PreviousPageImageUrl: Enables us to display an image for the previous page link.
  • PreviousPageText: Enables us to specify the text for the previous page link.
  • Visible: Enables us to hide the paging user interface.

If we need to customize the appearance of the paging interface completely, then we can create a PagerTemplate. The page given below uses the PagerTemplate to create a custom paging interface. The PagerTemplate displays the current page number. It also contains buttons for navigating to the previous and next page.

FormViw2.gif

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">

</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">

<style type="text/css">
 html
 {
background-color:silver;
}
#content
 {
margins:auto;
width:400px;
padding:10px;
background-color:white;
font:14px Georgia,Serif;
}
.frmBooks
 {
width:100%;
}
</style>

<title></title>
</head>
<body>
 <form id="form1" runat="server">

<div id="content">
<asp:FormView
 id="frmBooks"
 DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1"
 AllowPaging="true"
 CssClass="frmBooks"
 Runat="server">
 <ItemTemplate>
 <b><u><%# Eval("Title") %></u></b>
 <br />
 <b>Serial Number:</b>
 <%# Eval("ID")%>
 <br />
 <b>Author:</b>
 <%# Eval("AUTHOR")%>
 <br />
 <b>Price:</b>
 <%# Eval("PRICE")%>
 <br />
 </ItemTemplate>
 <PagerTemplate>
 <hr />
 <div style="float:left">
 Page: <%# frmBooks.PageIndex + 1%>
 </div>

<div style="float:right;white-space:nowrap">
 <asp:LinkButton
 id="lnkPrevious"
 Text="Previous"
 CommandName="Page"
 CommandArgument="Prev"
 Runat="server" />
 <asp:LinkButton
 id="lnkNext"
 Text="Next"
 CommandName="Page"
 CommandArgument="Next"
 Runat="server" />
 </div>
 </PagerTemplate>
 </asp:FormView>

<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server"
ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1 %>"
 ProviderName="<%$ ConnectionStrings:DatabaseConnectionString1.ProviderName %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT [ID], [TITLE], [AUTHOR], [PRICE] FROM [BOOK_LIST]">
 </asp:SqlDataSource>

</div>
 </form>
</body>
</html>

In above code, each button contained in the PagerTemplate has both a CommandName and CommandArgument property. The CommandName is set to the value Page. The CommandArgument specifies a particular type of paging operation.

We can use the following values for the CommandArgument property:

  • First Navigates to the first page
  • Last Navigates to the last page
  • Prev Navigates to the previous page
  • Next Navigates to the next page
  • Number Navigates to a particular page number

But we have only used Next and Previous in above example.

Note: Continue in Next Part.

HAVE A GREAT CODING!