Chapter 9. Displaying Data with Server Controls
Let me see what you've got…ah, yes…it's fabulous!
If you've spent any time building web applications (and I assume that many of you have), you've learned one of the biggest parts of this is displaying lists and tabular data.
Let me set this chapter up a bit before I dig into these topics so you can be clear on what you're about to investigate. I was a little torn when deciding on the structure of this book and what to write about first. I was really dealing with a chicken-and-egg kind of quandary.
See, there is no need for displaying data if there is no data, and data doesn't really do you any good if you can't display it. So I had to decide "Do I write about manipulating and retrieving data first?" or "Do I write about how to display the data first?" Here is the big reason behind my thinking and what is at the core of my decision.
Talking about data display first helps keep all the server controls together in Part II of this book. If I had handled data manipulation first, the book's continuity would have been compromised and server controls wouldn't have been together or progressed in a logical fashion. But this left me with another problem that really turned out not to be a problem at all. This meant that you have to do some work to ignore the data portions of this chapter. I promise I will focus on these with great depth in the next chapter.
The reason why this isn't a problem is because you were smart enough to buy this wonderful publication. (This proves your superior intelligence, common sense, royal descent, and striking good looks.) Someone of your outstanding character, beauty, and intellect can certainly control the temptation and craving to understand the data aspects first and patiently wait for those explanations until later. So you, in your infinite wisdom, have made my decision for me.
In most examples, I am going to use the Northwind database. (Not the blasted Northwind database, that's as bad a starting the book with "Hello World.") Yes, the Northwind database; and I'll tell you why. Because Microsoft distributes this database with everything, including Microsoft Kitchen Sink XP. Chances are you have it in one form or another somewhere. So remember, continue to ignore everything about retrieving data and focus on the server controls.
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