Writing Custom Controls

Chapter 6

Advanced Data Reporting

The DataGrid control not only is the most versatile reporting tool you have in ASP.NET, but also is likely the only tool you will want to use when building professional reports. In the previous chapters, I reviewed the basic set of features and functionalities supplied by the control. Although the DataGrid control is useful in many circumstances, you still need to write a lot of code (mostly smart and tricky code) to build complex solutions.

The DataGrid control deliberately mimics the interface and behavior of a Microsoft Excel worksheet, so programmers like you expect it to provide the same level of functionality. Microsoft was just whetting your appetite when it developed the control s object model, however, because you can actually do so much more with it than is immediately apparent from scanning its supported methods and events. In this chapter, you will learn a bunch of practical solutions and tips that take advantage of the object model. So far, we ve only just touched on the concepts that we will explore in the following pages: item selection and information drill-down.