Accessing listview itemtemplate from codebehind

Question

I'm hoping to dynamically change the number of columns in my ItemTemplate of my ListView:

<asp:ListView runat="server" ID="ReportListView" DataSourceID="ReportListViewSDS">
 <LayoutTemplate>
   <table>
       <tr>
           <asp:PlaceHolder runat="server" ID="itemPlaceHolder" />
       </tr>
   </table>
 </LayoutTemplate>
 <ItemTemplate>
       <!-- need to dynamically create the number of columns in the code behind 
            based on the select statement in the SelectCommand -->
 </ItemTemplate>
</asp:ListView>

Then in the code behind I've got:

 Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

    ' Based on The Request.Form variables sent, the SQL command will 
    ' select x number of columns:
    ' SqlStatement = "SELECT " for each Request.Form values " FROM staff"
    '      example: "SELECT Fname, Lname, email, phone FROM staff"
    ' Run sql command.

    ' that all works, the question now is how do i change the ItemTemplate 
    ' so that it has the correct number of columns.  Something like this: (pseudo code)
    For each row found in sql command
       ReportListView.ItemTemplate.Add( "<tr>" )
       For each Request.Form as i
            ReportLIstView.ItemTemplate.Add( "<td>" & sqlresult(i) & "</td>" )
       Next
       ReportListView.ItemTemplate.Add( "</tr>" )
    Next
 End Sub

Maybe there's another way to go about it, but that's the only idea of got so far. asp.net newbie, any advise, very welcome! Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you're going to have to do this a little differently. Try something like this:

<table>
    <asp:ListView ID="ListView1" runat="server">
        <ItemTemplate>
            <tr>
               <asp:PlaceHolder Id="PlaceHolder1" runat="server" />
            </tr>
        </ItemTemplate>
    </asp:ListView>
</table>

The syntax might not be perfect, but try doing something like this in your code behind:

For Each listItem As ListViewDataItem In ListView1.Items
    Dim plc As PlaceHolder = DirectCast(listItem.FindControl("PlaceHolder1"), PlaceHolder)
    If plc IsNot Nothing Then
        For Each item As String In Request.Form
            plc.Controls.Add(New Literal(String.Format("<td>{0}</td>", item)))
        Next
    End If
Next