Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB

12.4. Updating and Inserting Data

Earlier in this chapter I discussed how to do simple updates with the GridView and the SqlDataSource controls. Although this built-in update behavior is fine in many circumstances, it is not always extensive enough to meet all your demands.

Fortunately, controls like FormView and DetailsView enable you to tweak their look and feel, giving you a lot more flexibility in the way your end users work with their data. In the next section you see how to use the DetailsView to give the user a much easier interface to insert and edit reviews in the database.

12.4.1. Using DetailsView to Insert and Update Data

Earlier in this chapter you learned how to set up a simple DetailsView control and fully rely on VWD and the control itself to render the relevant user interface in the browser. Obviously, this default behavior is often not enough. What if you wanted to influence the controls used in the interface? For example, what if you wanted to use a DropDownList instead of a simple TextBox for the genre? And what if you wanted to add one or more validation controls that you learned about in Chapter 9? Or what if you wanted to manage some of the data being sent to the database programmatically? All of this is possible with the DetailsView control, its template-based columns, and the numerous events that the control fires at various stages in its life cycle.

You'll see the template-based columns in the exercise for this section. First, however, you need to learn ...