ASP.NET 2.0 DataBoundControls, Part 2

In a previous post I wrote about how the data binding base classes in ASP.NET were not working for me. Today, I sat down and created what I needed.

The end result does what I want in that I can add data binding to my classes without having to derive from BaseDataBoundControl (or one of its subclasses). In the test example below, I've added the data connector and a single callback delegate and I have all the data binding worked out for me.

I created a sample control that includes all of the source code, you can download it here.

[ToolboxData("<{0}:TestControl runat=server></{0}:TESTCONTROL>")]
public class TestControl : WebControl
{
    public TestControl()
        : base(HtmlTextWriterTag.Div)
    {
        DataConnector = new DataSourceConnector(this);
        DataConnector.PerformDataBindingCallback += new EventHandler>(DataConnector_PerformDataBindingCallback);
    }

    DataSourceConnector m_connector;
    [DefaultValue(null)]
    [NotifyParentProperty(true)]
    [Category("Data")]
    [DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Content)]
    public DataSourceConnector DataConnector
    {
        get { return m_connector; }
        protected set { m_connector = value; }
    }

    private void DataConnector_PerformDataBindingCallback(object sender, EventArgs args)
    {
        if (args.Data != null)
        {
            Table tbl = new Table();
            TableRow row;
            TableCell cell;
            string dataStr = String.Empty;

            foreach (object dataItem in args.Data)
            {
                PropertyDescriptorCollection props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(dataItem);
                if (props.Count >= 1)
                {
                    if (null != props[0].GetValue(dataItem))
                    {
                        dataStr = props[0].GetValue(dataItem).ToString();
                    }
                }

                row = new TableRow();
                tbl.Rows.Add(row);
                cell = new TableCell();
                cell.Text = dataStr;
                row.Cells.Add(cell);
            }

            this.Controls.Add(tbl);
        }
    }
}