HOW TO USE REPEATER

N THIS ARTICLE, I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO USE REPEATER IN ASP.NET PAGE.

Here is an example of Repeater:

I store the user in table "Client_NetroStar" in SQL Server.  There are five fields in the table:

• ID
• Login
• FirstName
• LastName
• DateAdded

1. FIRST STEP - INSERT THE REPEATER CONTROL ON PAGE.

Repeater control allows you to create templates. For example you can use a template to customize the layout of the individual rows.

• HeaderTemplate - template for elements that you want to render once before your ItemTemplate section.
• ItemTemplate - template for elements that are rendered once per row of data.
• AlternatingItemTemplate - template for elements that are rendered every other row of data. This allows you to alternate background colors, for example.
• SeparatorTemplate - template for elements to render between each row, such as line breaks.
• FooterTemplate - template for elements that you want to render once after your ItemTemplate section.

Here is the part of the “ClientNetroStar.aspx” page that contains Repeater:

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1. <asp:Repeater ID="rptList" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="rptList_ItemDataBound">  
2. <HeaderTemplate>  
3. <table>  
4. <tr>  
5. <th>  
6. <asp:Label ID="Label14" Text="Login" runat="server"></asp:Label>  
7. </th>  
8. <th>  
9. <asp:Label ID="Label1" Text="First Name" runat="server"></asp:Label>  
10. </th>  
11. <th>  
12. <asp:Label ID="Label2" Text="Last Name" runat="server"></asp:Label>  
13. </th>  
14. <th>  
15. <asp:Label ID="Label3" Text="Date Added" runat="server"></asp:Label>  
16. </th>  
17. <th>  
18. <asp:Label ID="Label6" Text="Delete" runat="server"></asp:Label>  
19. </th>  
20. </tr>  
21. </HeaderTemplate>  
22. <ItemTemplate>  
23. <tr>  
24. <td>  
25. <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnLogin" Text='<<%# Eval("Login") %>' runat="server"  
26. OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>  
27. </asp:LinkButton>  
28. </td>  
29. <td>  
30. <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnFirstName" Text='<<%# Eval("FirstName").ToString() %>'  
31. runat="server"  
32. OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>  
33. </asp:LinkButton>  
34. </td>  
35. <td>  
36. <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButton2" Text='<<%# Eval("LastName").ToString() %>'  
37. runat="server"  
38. OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>  
39. </asp:LinkButton>  
40. </td>  
41. <td>  
42. <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButton1" Text='<<%# Eval("DateAdded") %>' runat="server"  
43. OnClick="lnkClient_Click" CommandArgument='<<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>  
44. </asp:LinkButton>  
45. </td>  
46. <td>  
47. <asp:LinkButton ID="lbnDelete" Text="delete" runat="server"  
48. OnClick="lbnDelete_Click" CommandArgument='<<%# Eval("ID").ToString() %>'>  
49. </asp:LinkButton>  
50. </td>  
51. </tr>  
52. </ItemTemplate>  
53. <FooterTemplate>  
54. </table>  
55. </FooterTemplate>  
56. </asp:Repeater>  

The Repeater has an attribute ID= "rptList". It is used in  Code Behind (ClientNetroStar.aspx.cs) . Repeater uses the HeaderTemplate to insert <table> .  Then it uses the ItemTemplate to display a LinkButton control that has our data in it. I'll come back to this in the next  step.

The FooterTemplate is not necessary, but I put it in </table>.

2. SECOND STEP - GET THE DATA TO REPEATER.

Here is the Page_Load event in the Code Behind file.

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1. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)  
2. {  
3. SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection("Server=xxxxxxx;UID=xxxx;PWD=xxxxx;Database=NetroStar\Server");  
4. string sSQL = "Select * from Client_NetroStar";  
5. SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sSQL, con);  
6. con.Open();  
7. SqlDataReader dtrClient = cmd.ExecuteReader();  
8. rptList.DataSource = dtrClient;  
9. rptList.DataBind();  
10. con.Close();  
11. }  

The first five lines open a database connection and retrieve the contents of the Client_NetroStar table. The last two lines bind our Repeater control to the DataReader.