Property binding to web controls in asp.net with linq and reflection - asp.net

Question

I'd like to "bind" properties from a DTO to corresponding controls, for example checkboxlists or textboxes. This is so that I can use a dto (passed through the querystring) to set the initial state of the control, and then have the control set it's value to the dto when it comes time to leave the page. I could do this with two mapping functions (control->DTO, DTO->Control) but instead I'm using Linq and Reflection to maintain a list of property<->control relationships.
I've never done this before and I suspect there may be a better way ... how would you maintain a property<->control relationship?
Here is the code I've used:
Public Class ObjectPropertyMapper
''' <summary>Provides a binding of a control to one or more properties in a DTO.</summary>
Private Class ControlBinding
''' <summary>A reference to the control which will be bound.</summary>
Public Property Control As Control
''' <summary>The property(ies) which the control will be bound to.</summary>
Public Property Props As New List(Of PropertyInfo)
Public Sub New(ctrl As Control, props As IEnumerable(Of PropertyInfo))
Me.Control = ctrl
Me.Props.AddRange(props)
End Sub
End Class
''' <summary>A list of all the control to dto bindings for this page.</summary>
Private Property ControlBindings As New List(Of ControlBinding)
''' <summary>Returns the property info from a linq expression.</summary>
Private Function GetPropertyFromExpression(Of T)(linqExpression As System.Linq.Expressions.Expression(Of Func(Of T))) As PropertyInfo
If TypeOf linqExpression.Body Is MemberExpression Then
Return DirectCast(linqExpression.Body, MemberExpression).Member
Else
Dim op = (CType(linqExpression.Body, UnaryExpression).Operand)
Return DirectCast(op, MemberExpression).Member
End If
End Function
''' <summary>Binds a control to a single property of the DTO.
''' Usage: BindControlToProperty(cblFundTypes, Function() Me.SearchParams.FundTypeIDs) ... </summary>
Protected Overloads Sub BindControlToProperty(Of T)(ctrl As Control, linqExpression As System.Linq.Expressions.Expression(Of Func(Of T)))
' This works by passing through a linq expression, which in turn has a reference to the property.
' We can therefore extract the property from the linq expression, allowing us to store a reference to the property against the reference to the control
Dim prop As PropertyInfo = GetPropertyFromExpression(linqExpression)
ControlBindings.Add(New ControlBinding(ctrl, {prop}))
End Sub
End Class
And the consumer:
Public Class MyPage
Public Sub OnLoad
BindControlToProperty(myCheckBoxList, Function() MyDTO.IntListProperty)
End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

The only alternate method I found was projecting properties onto an anonymous type, as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/1984190/767599
An example would be:
Public Class exampleDTO
Public Property MyProp1 As String
Public Property MyProp2 As String
End Class
Public Function GetVariableName(Of T)(obj As t) As String
Dim properties As System.Reflection.PropertyInfo() = obj.GetType.GetProperties
If properties.Length = 1 Then
Return properties(0).Name
Else : Throw New Exception
End If
End Function
Public Sub BindToControl(Of T)(ctrl As Control, prop As T)
Response.Write(GetVariableName(prop))
End Sub
Public Sub Main
Dim c As New Control
Dim dto As New exampleDTO
BindToControl(c, (New With {dto.MyProp1}))
End Sub
However I have no idea which solution is "better".