ASP.Net Toolbox (Data Controls): Part 2 in VB.NET

Introduction

Here is Part 1

Toolbox is very-very important building block of .NET Framework. Toolbox is an area where all the controls existed. It helps the developer to develop any application very quickly, only drag the control from the toolbox and drop it on the form. To change its properties we have to select the control and make the properties changes from Properties window. We can do it manually by writing code-behind. There are over 100 controls available in ASP.NET 4.0. I am listing here all the controls available in ASP.NET 4.0 and writing some lines on each of them.

2. Data Controls

Data Control section includes the controls which mostly let us to connect from external databases. Means in this section we are going introduce about all controls which have ability to leads the databases on web page. There are mainly two types of control we will find here that is DataSource Control and Data Control. For example DataSource Controls includes controls like EntityDataSource, LinqDataSource, ObjectDataSource, SiteMapDataSource, SqlDataSource, XmlDataSource and Data Control includes recent all excluding pointer as listed below.

• Pointer: It is just a pointer. If we drag any other control on form it causes to create that control on form but pointer does not create any control on form. In other word we can say, we select it for to ignore any other selected control.

• AccessDataSource: This control is used to connect the Microsoft Access Databases. We can say this control is derived from SqlDataSource, which has complete connection string like credentials, path etc but AccessDataSource has only its MDB database path.

• Chart: This control is used to create professional looking data visualization charts. It is mostly used in windows based applications. We have 35 types of chart in .Net 4.0 with fully 3D support.

• DataList: This control is used to list the data from database and it looks like table on web form. We can select or edit any data Selection or edition of any row is possible here.

• DataPager: This control is generally used with ListView control. As we ListView control is data driven so we have to create ListView on web page first and provide some data to it and now add DataPager control onto the page to enhance web page functionality.

• DetailsView: This control is used to display, edit, insert, or delete a single record at a time from its associated data source; it displays only a single data record at a time, even if its data source exposes multiple records.

• EntityDataSource: This control is used to create, read, update, and delete data like other data sources. It works like editable grids or say form with lots of user controlled techniques like sorting, filtering etc.

• FormView: This control is similar to DetailsView control, which gives us the ability to work with a single record from a data source. Main difference between both controls is that DetailsView control uses a tabular layout where each field of the record is displayed as a row. In FormView control we can create template containing any other control.

• GridView: This control is used to displays data from data source in a table. In table column represents a field and row represents a record. We can select, edit or sort the data items here.

• LinqDataSource: This control is used to connect wide variety of data sources that includes database data, data-source classes, and in-memory collections. It also let us to specify database like retrieval tasks like selecting, filtering, grouping, and ordering against all types of data sources. We also use this control for updating, deleting, and inserting database tables.

• ListView: This control is used to display the data from database. It is similar to GridView, Repeater and DataList, which also help us to display data. List view control is template driven control.

• ObjectDataSource: This control is introduced in ASP.Net 2.0, which helps us to connect with database using very less coding. In this control we use TypeName property instead of using ConnectionString property in another data source controls. It supports properties such as SelectMethod, UpdateMethod, InsertMethod, and DeleteMethod etc.

• QueryExtender: This control is used to filer data from database without using WHERE clause. As we know database filtering requires WHERE clause in command.

• Repeater: This control is used to display a repeated list of items that are bounded to the control. It may be bound to a database like XML file, or another.

• SiteMapDataSource: This control is used to retrieve navigation data from a site map provider that is from any data source using DataSourceID and then passes the data to a control that displays that data such as the TreeView and Menu controls. This is very informative for website visitors to find any link in huge list of links.

• SqlDataSource: This control is used to control or access data located in a relational database, including different database service providers like Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases, as well as OLE DB and ODBC data sources.

• XmlDataSource: This control is used to display XML data from XML database. It usually used to display or read only XML data. User can edit, delete and update XML data using XmlDataSource control only through some code.

Note1: Keep visiting to my articles, you will find different articles on different controls separately in coming days.

Note2: Continue in next part.

HAVE A GREAT CODING!