How to add Controlls on runtime to a Gridview?

Question

First of all the ASPcode, the problemdescription below.

<asp:GridView ID="GridViewContacts" runat="server" ForeColor="#333333" DataKeyNames="L_ID_CONTACT" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" 
                OnPageIndexChanging="GridViewContacts_PageIndexChanging" PageSize="25" AutoGenerateColumns="False" OnRowCommand="GV_Contacts_RowCommand" >
                    <FooterStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
                    <RowStyle BackColor="#F7F6F3" ForeColor="#333333" />
                    <Columns>
                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Edit">
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButtonEdit" runat="server" CommandArgument="Edit" CommandName="Edit" Text="Edit">Edit</asp:LinkButton>
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>
                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="View">
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:LinkButton ID="LinkButtonView" runat="server" CommandArgument="View" CommandName="View" Text="View">View</asp:LinkButton>
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>
                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Name">
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:Label ID="L_Name" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("L_Name") %>'></asp:Label>
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>
                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Companydetails">
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:Label ID="L_Companydetails" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("L_Companydetails") %>'></asp:Label>
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>
                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="EMail">
                            <ItemTemplate>

                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>

                        <asp:TemplateField Visible="False" HeaderText="ID_CONTACT" >
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:Label Visible="false" ID="L_ID_CONTACT" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("L_ID_CONTACT") %>' />
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>                            
                    </Columns>                        
                    <%--  //Stylesettings here--%>
                </asp:GridView>

Okay, then in the CodeBehind I have a Select from my database, where i select the ID_Contact, the Name, the Companydetails, which can be 1 per Row only. On the RowCreated event I get the UserID of the actual User, and I select all E-Mails the user has, can be 0-10 per row. Now my problem is: How can i insert Linkbuttons with the onClick-event in the description into this part of my code? Like this:

                        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="EMail">
                            <ItemTemplate>
                                <asp:LinkButton[i] runat="server" onClick="SendEmail">
                                </asp:Linkbutton[i]> 
                                <asp:LinkButton[i] runat="server" onClick="SendEmail">
                                </asp:Linkbutton[i]>  
                            </ItemTemplate>
                        </asp:TemplateField>

So i want to add those controlls with code into THIS TemplateField. Is this possible ?

Thoughts i allready had: This.GridViewContacs.Controlls.AddAt(index,Linkbutton) But also no clue here how it should work.

Thanks in advance,

me

Answer 1

Easiest is to add a placeholder control to the ItemTemplate, as ItemTemplate has no ID.

<asp:TemplateField>
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="emails" runat="server"></asp:PlaceHolder>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField> 

and then in RowDataBound event

if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
{
    PlaceHolder emails = e.Row.FindControl("emails") as PlaceHolder;

    if (emails != null)
    {
        LinkButton lbEmail = new LinkButton();
        lbEmail.Text = "your text";
        lbEmail.Click += new EventHandler(SendEmail);

        emails.Controls.Add(lbEmail);
    }
}

Of course, the example is simplified. You can easily extend it to your needs.