Bind repeater list with enum - asp.net

Question

I have a requirement where when a user clicks on image a list should be shown with checkboxes and all the categories that is present in DB and user should be able to select the checkboxes. How can this be achieved using asp:repeater control? the caegory is a enum type and can have n number of values. In repeater i have added a checkbox and a label; the label should display the category text.

Answer 1

To start with, you should add the [Description] attribute to each value in your Enum. This allows you to set proper descriptive text for each value. This attribute is in System.ComponentModel, here's an example: -
public enum CalendarShowAsEnum
{
[Description("None")]
None = 10,
[Description("Busy")]
Busy = 20,
[Description("Out Of Office")]
OutOfOffice = 30,
[Description("On Holiday")]
OnHoliday = 40
}
You then need 2 functions: -
One function that takes an Enum type and a ListBox/DropDown as parameters, and adds an entry for each Enum into the list
A helper function that converts the enum into the descriptive title you gave them (example above)
The List function might look as follows (all this is taken from a project I worked on): -
public static void BindNamedEnumList(ListControl list,
Type enumerationType)
{
list.Items.Clear();
Array array = Enum.GetValues(enumerationType);
ListItem item;
string name;
var enumerator = array.GetEnumerator();
if (enumerator != null)
{
while (enumerator.MoveNext())
{
Enum value = enumerator.Current as Enum;
name = EnumHelper.GetEnumName(value);
item = new ListItem(name);
item.Value = Convert.ToInt32(value).ToString();
list.Items.Add(item);
}
}
}
This function takes a Type and a ListControl (which ListBox and DropDownList both inherit from). The Type is the .GetType() of the enum you want to add to the list. Note that it doesn't select any values and that it does depend on each enum value having a defined integer value. The latter part will help you with selecting individual items.
Note the loop calls EnumHelper.GetEnumName(value) - this is the helper function that uses the Description attribute I mentioned at the start. This function looks like: -
public static string GetEnumName(object value)
{
string retVal = string.Empty;
try
{
FieldInfo fieldInfo = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());
DescriptionAttribute[] attributes = (DescriptionAttribute[])fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
retVal = ((attributes.Length != 0) ? attributes[0].Description : value.ToString());
}
catch (System.NullReferenceException)
{
}
finally
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(retVal))
{
retVal = "Unknown";
}
}
return retVal;
}
It uses reflection, so you'll need to add an Imports for System.Reflection
To use the list function to bind a set of Enum values to the list, simply call
{HelperClass}.BindNamedEnumList(myListBox, typeof({MyEnumType})