How to use HtmlEncode with TemplateFields, Data Binding, and a GridView

Question

I have a GridView bound to an ObjectDataSource. I've got it supporting editing as well, which works just fine. However, I'd like to safely HtmlEncode text that is displayed as we do allow special characters in certain fields. This is a cinch to do with standard BoundFields, as I just set HtmlEncode to true.

But in order to setup validation controls, one needs to use TemplateFields instead. How do I easily add HtmlEncoding to output this way? This is an ASP.NET 2.0 project, so I'm using the newer data binding shortcuts (e.g. Eval and Bind).

What I'd like to do is something like the following:

<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Description">
    <EditItemTemplate>
        <asp:TextBox ID="TextBoxDescription" runat="server"
                     Text='<%# System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(Bind("Description")) %>'
                     ValidationGroup="EditItemGrid"
                     MaxLength="30" />
        <asp:Validator ... />
    </EditItemTemplate>
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:Label ID="LabelDescription" runat="server"
                   Text='<%# System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(Eval("Description")) %>' />
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>

However, when I try it this way, I get the following error:

CS0103: The name 'Bind' does not exist in the current context

Answer 1

This is now possible to do using the new HTML encoding databinding syntax introduced in ASP.NET 4.

You can simply use:

<%#: Eval("MyField") %>

Or

<%#: Bind("MyField") %>

Note the colon after the pound/hash sign It's as simple as that.