How to: Customize ASP.NET Dynamic Data Default Field Templates

  • Article

You can customize how the default field templates display, edit, and insert data by modifying their properties.

For more information about default field templates, see ASP.NET Dynamic Data Default Field Templates.

Note

Changes that are made to a default field template will apply to all pages and controls where the template is used throughout the Web application.

The following procedure shows how to add a background color to Text_Edit.ascx, one of the field templates provided in a Dynamic Data project by default.

To customize a default field template

  1. In Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition open the ASP.NET Dynamic Data Web site.

  2. In the DynamicData/FieldTemplate folder, open the default field template you want to modifyand switch to Source view.

  3. Modify the code to customize the field template

    For example, you can add the following code snippet to modify the Text_Edit.ascx field template

    <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" BackColor="Yellow" Text='<%# FieldValueEditString %>'></asp:TextBox>

    This code snippet adds a background color property to the markup and sets it to yellow. The modified Text_Edit.ascx code will be similar to the following code example.

    Note

    You can use a .css file to set the BackColor.

Example

The following code example shows the modified Text_Edit.ascx field template. This modified field template changes the background color of the text box that displays String, Decimal, Double, and Int32 data types to yellow when a table is in edit mode. This modification affects any row on the website that is in edit mode

See a video that shows this feature: Watch.

<%@ Control Language="VB" Inherits="System.Web.DynamicData.FieldTemplateUserControl" %>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" BackColor="Yellow" Text='<%# FieldValueEditString %>'></asp:TextBox>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator runat="server" ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:RegularExpressionValidator runat="server" ID="RegularExpressionValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:DynamicValidator runat="server" ID="DynamicValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" />

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.DynamicData.FieldTemplateUserControl"%>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" BackColor="Yellow" Text='<%# FieldValueEditString %>'></asp:TextBox>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator runat="server" ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:RegularExpressionValidator runat="server" ID="RegularExpressionValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:DynamicValidator runat="server" ID="DynamicValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" />

Compiling the Code

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition Service Pack 1.  

  • The AdventureWorksLT sample database. For information about how to download and install the SQL Server sample database, see Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database on the CodePlex site. Make sure that you install the correct version of the sample database for the version of SQL Server that you are running (Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008).

  • A Dynamic Data Web site. This enables you to create a data context for the database and the class that contains the data field to customize and the methods to override. In addition, it creates the environment in which to use the page described before. For more information, see Walkthrough: Creating a New ASP.NET Dynamic Data Web Site Using Scaffolding

See Also

Tasks

How to: Customize Data Field Display in the Data Model

Concepts

ASP.NET Dynamic Data Default Field Templates

Change History

Date

History

Reason

July 2008

Added topic.

SP1 feature change.