ASP.NET 4 Unleashed

Supporting Simplified Databinding

The databinding expressions used in the previous two sections might seem a little odd. For example, we used the following databinding expression to refer to the Title property:

<%# Container.Title %>

When you use a databinding expression with one of the standard ASP.NET controls, such as the GridView control, you typically use a databinding expression that looks like this:

<%# Eval("Title") %>

Why the difference? The standard ASP.NET controls support a simplified databinding syntax. If you want to support this simplified syntax in your custom controls, you must implement the IDataItemContainer interface.

The IDataItemContainer includes the following three properties, which you are required to implement:

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