Repeater control with custom template and paging using LINQ

A repeater control in ASP.NET is a databound control. Repeater controls are used in scenarios where we need to display data that changes, however the template in which data is displayed remains the same and repeats several times.

For example, a repeater control can be used in case of displaying questions for an exam(where template is similar for all questions ie question and answer options), or a survey or user comments etc. In this article we are going to write a repeater control which fetches user comments data and displays in a repeater control. We are also going to take care of Paging for the repeater.

Note : This article assumes that the reader knows how to fetch data from SQL using LINQ. If not, please go through this article http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/scottlysle/L2SinCS06022008035847AM/L2SinCS.aspx. Getting started section will give an introduction on how to use LINQ with SQL

At the end of the article we are going to have a control which looks like this. There are six comments and the pagesize is set to 2

On page 1 :


On page 2 :


For this article we have a simple sql table called "Comments" which has two columns "User" and "Comment".

Create a new Web site using visual studio. Drag and drop the "Repeater" control from the DATA section of the toolbox on the designer page.


We are going to fetch data from the SQL using LINQ and bind it to the repeater control using the Datasource property.

The repeater control repeats the data in a particular template. This template can be programmed as per our requirement. by writing a class which implements ITemplate interface. Point # 3 explains this in detail.

• Page load : Above the page load we have two global variables. One contains the pagesize which can be set and one contains the count of the total data present in the comments table. At the page load we fire a LINQ query to get the count of the comments data and assign it to 'datacount' variable. We call the fetchData method once with the parameters as PageSize and 0 because we are going to fetch data of size = pagesize at first. The two parameters of fecthData method are explained in point 5 of this article
  
  public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
  {
  
  int pagesize = 2;
  int datacount;
  
  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
          commentdataDataContext cntxt = new commentdataDataContext();
          var temp = from comments in cntxt.comments
          select comments;
          datacount = temp.Count();
  
          if (!IsPostBack)
          {
                  fetchData(pagesize, 0);
          }
          else
          {
                  createPagingControl(datacount,pagesize);
          }

          }
  }
   

• Fetch data from SQL : Now we write a function fetchData that takes two parameters. Why these parameters are required is explained in point 5 in this article.
  
  public void fetchData(int take, int skip)
  {
  
          using (commentdataDataContext cntxt = new commentdataDataContext())
          {
                  var usrcmnts = from comments in cntxt.comments
                  .Take(take)
                  .Skip(skip)   
                  select new
                  {
                          user = comments.User,
                          comment = comments.comment1
                  };
                  Repeater1.ItemTemplate = new rptrTemplate();
                  PagedDataSource pgds = new PagedDataSource();
                  pgds.AllowCustomPaging = true;
                  pgds.AllowPaging = true;
                  pgds.DataSource = usrcmnts;
                  pgds.PageSize = pagesize;
                  Repeater1.DataSource = pgds;
                  Repeater1.DataBind();
          }
          createPagingControl(datacount, pagesize);
  }

  Here we have fetched data using LINQ from SQL inside usrcmnts. We create a new PagedDataSource and provide the datasource as usrcmnts. PAGED data source is selected as this would help us in handling paging for this repeater control.
   

• Repeater1.ItemTemplate = new rptrTemplate();
  So what is the above statement ? This statement creates a template in the repeater control which repeates itself. We can program it as follows. We write a class which implements ITemplate interface.
  
  public class rptrTemplate : ITemplate
  {
          public void InstantiateIn(Control container)
          {
                  Table tbl = new Table();
                  TableRow tr = new TableRow();
                  TableCell cl = new TableCell();
                  LiteralControl lc = new LiteralControl();
                  tbl.Width = 400;
                  tbl.Height = 100;
                  tbl.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.Solid;
                  cl.Controls.Add(lc);
                  tr.Cells.Add(cl);

                  tbl.Rows.Add(tr);
                  lc.DataBinding += new EventHandler(bindrptrdata);
                  container.Controls.Add(tbl);
          }
          public void bindrptrdata(object sender, EventArgs e)
          {
                  LiteralControl lc = (LiteralControl)sender;
                  RepeaterItem container = (RepeaterItem)lc.NamingContainer;
                  lc.Text = DataBinder.Eval(container.DataItem, "user").ToString() + " says : </BR></BR>" +
                  DataBinder.Eval(container.DataItem, "comment").ToString();
          }
  }
  
  Here our repeater will repeat data in a table which has a literal control in it. This literal control gets its data from bindrptrdata method.
   

• Creating Paging control : Now we are going to create a paging control which displays links "1 2 3…" depending on the number of comments and the page size. In this method, based on the pagesize and the total number of comments present, we create link buttons by the below given logic. Eg for page size 2 and number of comments 6, we create 3 link buttons.
  
  public void createPagingControl(int datacount, int pagesize)
  {
          decimal lnkbtns = (decimal)datacount / pagesize;
          for (int i = 0; i <Math.Ceiling(lnkbtns); i++)
          {
                  LinkButton lnk = new LinkButton();
                  lnk.Text = (i+1).ToString()+ " ";

                  lnk.Click += new EventHandler(handlePaging);
                  Repeater1.Controls.Add(lnk);
          }
  }
  public void handlePaging(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
          LinkButton lnk = (LinkButton)sender;
          int nextpage = int.Parse(lnk.Text);
          fetchData(nextpage * pagesize, (nextpage - 1) * pagesize);
  }
  
  The Math.Ceiling has been used if the datacount is not perfectly divisible by pagesize for example datacount=6 and pagesize=4. In this case we would need 2 pages.
  
  handlePaging method handles the data fetching when we click on links to change the page. This method calls fetchData with two parameters. Here we are going to see why we have used the TAKE and SKIP in linq queries.
   

• TAKE and SKIP : TAKE = 3 and SKIP = 1 : Now here, what the LINQ query will do is, it will retrieve first three rows from the table and skip the first one. So the result is 2nd and 3rd row.
  
  var usrcmnts = from comments in cntxt.comments
  .Take(3)
  .Skip(1)
  select new
  {
      user = comments.User,
      comment = comments.comment1
  };

This logic has been used for paging. On the link button click we are sending the appropriate parameters to display the data related to that page number.

For Example : If the page size is 2 and the total comment data is 6 (ie 3 pages in all). Suppose we are on page number 1. Now when I click on 2 ie next page of the paging control, we should be displayed 3rd and 4th row right ?

So we call the function as

    fetchData(nextpage * pagesize, (nextpage - 1) * pagesize); where nextpage=2 here
    this will call function as : fetchData(2*2,(2-1)*2) = fetchData(4,2)

Therefore the fetchData function has TAKE=4 and SKIP=2. So it displays 3rd and 4th row for the 2nd page where Pagesize 2. Similary, you can work out for page size 3 also.

The completed c# code file is attached here. Have a look though it.

Cheers !!