Hiding controls conditionally in formview

[FarleySoftware]

I'm working with a client who has a FormView on an ASP.NET (VB) page, displaying a single record pulled from SQL using a SQLDataSource on the page.

Some of the data are address or phone fields that may be blank. If they're blank, there should be no white space/blank lines, and any accompanying labels must be hidden.

Example:
123 Any Town

Somewhere, NY 10101
Phone: 212-555-1212
Toll-Free:

Should look like:
123 Any Town
Somewhere, NY 10101
Phone: 212-555-1212

("Phone:" appears in a label)

Two questions:

1. Is a databound FormView the best choice of control in this situation?

2. What's the best way to hide controls, without leaving white space? (thinking use of a panel would do the trick if that's not overkill, but wasn't sure ofhow exactly to refer to the controls within ItemTemplate of a formview)

Thanks in advance.

Farley Software Solutions

http://www.bryantfarley.com

 

[jbenson001]

You can use a table and hide any rows from the codebehind.

 

[FarleySoftware]

A table within the FormView control ... or just plain ol' table instead of FormView? The latter is easier to me, but I wasn't sure if it was most efficient of my choices.

Farley Software Solutions

http://www.bryantfarley.com

 

[jbenson001]

I ment to suggest using a table instead of the FormView

 

[FarleySoftware]

Ok, here's how it ended up working out ...

For the address portion, I created a function in the codebehind to format the address:

    Function BuildAddress(ByVal swAddress1 As String, ByVal swAddress2 As String, _
        ByVal swAddress3 As String, ByVal swCity As String, ByVal swState As String, _
        ByVal swPostal As String, ByVal swCountry As String) As String

        Dim stb As New StringBuilder

        With stb
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swAddress1) Then
                .Append(swAddress1)
                .Append("<BR>")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swAddress2) Then
                .Append(swAddress2)
                .Append("<BR>")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swAddress3) Then
                .Append(swAddress3)
                .Append("<BR>")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swCity) Then
                .Append(swCity)
                .Append("&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swState) Then
                .Append(swState)
                .Append("&nbsp;")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swPostal) Then
                .Append(swPostal)
                .Append("<BR>")
            End If
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(swCountry) Then
                .Append(swCountry)
                .Append("<BR>")
            End If
        End With

        Return stb.ToString
    End Function

I then inserted an ASP.NET Literal control and set its value to the function above:

    <asp:Literal 
        ID="litAddress" 
        runat="server" 
        Text='<%# BuildAddress(Eval("swAddress1"), Eval("swAddress2"), Eval("swAddress3"), Eval("swCity"), Eval("swState"), Eval("swPostal"),Eval("swCountry") ) %>' />

The section with phone numbers was already set up in a series of table rows within the FormView control. So after thinking of three or four ways to address it the hard way, I finally thought of the simplest way:

    <tr id="rowswPhone" runat="server" visible='<%# Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Eval("swPhone")) %>'>

Farley Software Solutions

http://www.bryantfarley.com