Summary

In this chapter, we looked at two real-world examples that involved using command buttons external to the data Web controls. These external command buttons affect the data Web control in some way.

We first looked at creating filtering buttons. Filtering buttons are command buttons that show only a subset of the data Web control's total data. Although we looked at adding command buttons to a DataGrid, the same logic could be applied in adding such filter buttons to DataLists or Repeaters.

We also examined using external Web controls to perform batch updates. Editing the DataGrid or DataList involves editing one item in a DataGrid row at a time. There are scenarios, however, where we'd like to let users edit all the rows of the DataGrid or DataList at once, and then allow them to click on an Update All button and have all the results saved. Such functionality can be provided by the use of templates, an external command button, and code to iterate through the updated values.

This chapter ends Part II of this book. In Part II, we looked at how to add command buttons, both within and external to the data Web controls. In the examples we worked through, these command buttons provided varying functions, from listing the details about a particular row, to adjusting the data displayed in the data Web control. In Part III, we'll look at how to extend the topics covered in Part II to provide more common functionality the sorting, paging, and editing of a DataGrid's contents.