The material in Part I is geared toward the developer who is relatively new to the DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater controls. Perhaps you have used the DataGrid before, but aren't familiar with the DataList or Repeater. Or perhaps your experience with these controls has been to just cut and paste examples from the Web. In either case, the material in this first part will serve as a good start and should be closely read before moving on to Part II.
On the other hand, if you've used the DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater controls many times, you might only need to quickly browse over the material in Part I, although I'd encourage readers of all levels to fully understand the concepts presented in Chapter 2.
Specifically, Part I serves as an introduction to these three useful Web controls. Part I is comprised of three chapters. The first chapter, "An Introduction to the DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater," discusses for the uses of these controls, the similarities and differences among them, and when you could expect to use these controls in real-world scenarios.
The second chapter, "Binding Data to the Data Controls," examines how one binds data to the control, and what kind of data can be bound to a data Web control. Finally, the third chapter, "Customizing the HTML Output," looks at how to tweak the HTML output by these controls to customize the appearance of the control in the user's browser.
By the end of this part, you will have mastered the fundamental concepts of the data Web controls and be comfortable using these controls to display data in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
