Chapter 4. Adding Buttons and Hyperlinks to the DataGrid Web Control

IN THIS CHAPTER

• A Quick Review of the DataGrid Column Controls

• Adding Button Columns to the DataGrid Web Control

• Adding HyperLinkColumns to the DataGrid Web Control

• On the Web

By this point, you should be comfortable using the data Web controls to display data from various sources. If you still feel a bit lost when it comes to displaying data through a data Web control, I'd strongly encourage you to reread the first three chapters and to take the time to read the resources in the "On the Web" sections accompanying each chapter. A great place to start online is the "An Extensive Examination of the DataGrid Web Control" article series, which can be found at http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/040502-1.aspx.

Now that you're comfortable using the data Web controls for displaying data, we'll spend the next few chapters examining how to change the data Web controls in response to a user's actions. For example, in this chapter we'll see how to add buttons to a DataGrid that fire some server-side code.

As this and the next few chapters will show, the data Web controls can do much more than simply display data. As we look at various ways to make the data Web controls more interactive, note how little code is needed. If you have ever had to provide similar functionality in a classic ASP page, you will be amazed at the overall reduction of code and the much improved separation of code and content that the ASP.NET data Web controls provide.