Generating Radio buttons from DB infomation.

[Eagle_f90]

I am trying to find the best way to dynamicly generate raido buttons from information in a DB. What I want to do is make a line that Has two buttons for each entry in the DB. Kinda like:

DB Line 1 <button1> <button2>
DB Line 2 <button1> <button2>

and so on.

I found a tutorial online at http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread256420.html# which tells you how to use a placeholder and do it dynamicly but it kinda seemed a bit much. Does that turotial really give the best way or does anyone have suggestions on doing it better?

[nelo]

I would do it using a Repeater control. The advantage is that most of the work would be defined in the markup. You would put the radio button related markup in the item template. You also have flexibility over how it is rendererd. You can bind your the repeater to a suitable data source and press F5! Take a look at the documentation

All the best!

[Eagle_f90]

I was originaly trying to get it done in a repeater item but could not figure out how to make the ID for the each row of radio buttons different (so row one buttons was one group, row two group two, etc). Do you know how I would do that?

[nelo]

Well the grouping is independent of the ID. There is a property called GroupName which you could set differently for each row.

[Eagle_f90]

Well the grouping is independent of the ID. There is a property called GroupName which you could set differently for each row.

Right but HOW?

[Cimperiali]

a small example to give you some ideas...

Imports System.Data
Partial Class UploadAFile
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    'on the page I have a 
    '<div runat="server" id="myRadios"  ></div>

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        'If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
        'generate a dt for test purpouse
        Dim dt As New DataTable("TestTable")

        'with columns "Name", "Text", "AlternateText", "Checked"
        Dim clName As New DataColumn("Name", GetType(String))

        dt.Columns.Add(clName)

        Dim clText As New DataColumn("Text", GetType(String))
        dt.Columns.Add(clText)

        Dim clAlternateText As New DataColumn("AlternateText", GetType(String))
        dt.Columns.Add(clAlternateText)

        Dim clChecked As New DataColumn("Checked", GetType(Boolean))
        dt.Columns.Add(clChecked)

        'Generate some rows of data
        For counter As Integer = 1 To 5
            Dim dr As DataRow = dt.NewRow()
            dr("Name") = "ctl" & counter.ToString("00")
            dr("Text") = "btn_A_" & counter.ToString("00")
            dr("AlternateText") = "btn_B_" & counter.ToString("00")
            dr("Checked") = False
            dt.Rows.Add(dr)
        Next

        'generate radios
        'on the page I have a 
        '<div runat="server" id="myRadios"  ></div>
        GenerateRadios(Me.myRadios, dt)
        'generate the two buttons stuff
        GenerateButtons(myRadios, dt)
        'End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub GenerateRadios(ByVal container As Control, ByVal dt As DataTable)

        'to add radiobuttons
        'if you have a datatable
        'that comes from a table
        'with (at least) 3 fields
        '1)for id of radio
        '2)for text of radio
        '3)for a checked/unchecked option

        For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(dr("Name").ToString) Then
                Dim rd As New RadioButton()
                rd.ID = dr("Name").ToString
                rd.Text = dr("Text").ToString
                rd.Checked = CBool(dr("Checked"))
                rd.GroupName = "SameGruop"
                container.Controls.Add(rd)
                container.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<br />"))
            End If
        Next


    End Sub
    Private Sub GenerateButtons(ByVal container As Control, ByVal dt As DataTable)
        'to add two buttons for each datatable row
        For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(dr("Name").ToString) Then
                Dim btnOne As New Button()
                Dim btnTwo As New Button()
                btnOne.ID = dr("Name").ToString & "one"
                btnTwo.ID = dr("Name").ToString & "two"
                btnOne.Text = dr("Text").ToString
                btnTwo.Text = dr("AlternateText").ToString
                'do you need any serverside code to be executed
                'on submit?
                AddHandler btnOne.Click, AddressOf DynamicBtnOnClick
                AddHandler btnTwo.Click, AddressOf DynamicBtnOnClick
                container.Controls.Add(btnOne)
                container.Controls.Add(btnTwo)
                container.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<br />"))
            End If
        Next
    End Sub
    Protected Sub DynamicBtnOnClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        'serverside onclick of buttons
        'put a breakpoint here and look at btn.ID value...
        Dim btn As Button = DirectCast(sender, Button)
        If Not btn Is Nothing Then
            Select Case btn.ID
                '....
            End Select
        End If
    End Sub

   
End Class

[Eagle_f90]

Thanks Cimperiali, your doing it all by code to and not even using a repeater. I had that example in the link I provided in the first post I guess that is the simplelest way to do it.