Bind ASP.NET DropDownList DataTextField to method?

Question

Is there anyway to have items in an ASP.NET DropDownList have either their Text or Value bound to a method on the source rather than a property?

Answer 1

The only way to do it is to handle the Databinding event of the DropDownList, call the method and set the values in the DropDownList item yourself.

Answer 2

This is my solution:

<asp:DropDownList ID="dropDownList" runat="server" DataSourceID="dataSource" DataValueField="DataValueField" DataTextField="DataTextField" />
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="dataSource" runat="server" SelectMethod="SelectForDataSource" TypeName="CategoryDao" />

public IEnumerable<object> SelectForDataSource()
{
    return _repository.Search().Select(x => new{
        DataValueField = x.CategoryId, 
        DataTextField = x.ToString() // Here is the trick!
    }).Cast<object>();
}

Answer 3

Here's 2 examples for binding a dropdown in ASP.net from a class

Your aspx page

    <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownListJour1" runat="server">
    </asp:DropDownList>
    <br />
    <asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownListJour2" runat="server">
    </asp:DropDownList>

Your aspx.cs page

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
    //Exemple with value different same as text (dropdown)
    DropDownListJour1.DataSource = jour.ListSameValueText();            
    DropDownListJour1.DataBind();

    //Exemple with value different of text (dropdown)
    DropDownListJour2.DataSource = jour.ListDifferentValueText();
    DropDownListJour2.DataValueField = "Key";
    DropDownListJour2.DataTextField = "Value";
    DropDownListJour2.DataBind();     
    }

Your jour.cs class (jour.cs)

public class jour
{

    public static string[] ListSameValueText()
    {
        string[] myarray = {"a","b","c","d","e"} ;
        return myarray;
    }

    public static Dictionary<int, string> ListDifferentValueText()
    {
        var joursem2 = new Dictionary<int, string>();
        joursem2.Add(1, "Lundi");
        joursem2.Add(2, "Mardi");
        joursem2.Add(3, "Mercredi");
        joursem2.Add(4, "Jeudi");
        joursem2.Add(5, "Vendredi");
        return joursem2;
    }
}

Answer 4

Sometimes I need to use Navigation Properties as DataTextField, like ("User.Address.Description"), so I decided to create a simple control that derives from DropDownList. I also implemented an ItemDataBound Event that can help as well.

public class RTIDropDownList : DropDownList
{
    public delegate void ItemDataBoundDelegate( ListItem item, object dataRow );
    [Description( "ItemDataBound Event" )]
    public event ItemDataBoundDelegate ItemDataBound;

    protected override void PerformDataBinding( IEnumerable dataSource )
    {
        if ( dataSource != null )
        {
            if ( !AppendDataBoundItems )
                this.Items.Clear();

            IEnumerator e = dataSource.GetEnumerator();

            while ( e.MoveNext() )
            {
                object row = e.Current;

                var item = new ListItem( DataBinder.Eval( row, DataTextField, DataTextFormatString ).ToString(), DataBinder.Eval( row, DataValueField ).ToString() );

                this.Items.Add( item );

                if ( ItemDataBound != null ) // 
                    ItemDataBound( item, row );
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Declaratively:

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlType" runat="server" Width="250px" AppendDataBoundItems="true" DataSourceID="dsTypeList" DataTextField="Description" DataValueField="ID">
    <asp:ListItem Value="0">All Categories</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList><br />
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="dsTypeList" runat="server" DataObjectTypeName="MyType" SelectMethod="GetList" TypeName="MyTypeManager">
</asp:ObjectDataSource>

The above binds to a method that returns a generic list, but you could also bind to a method that returns a DataReader. You could also create your dataSource in code.