Calling Data From GridView - asp.net

Question

I have a GridView with a bunch of DynamicFields like so;
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" DataSourceID="GridDataSource">
<Columns>
<asp:DynamicField HeaderText="Date Submitted" DataField="DATE_CREATED" />
<asp:DynamicField HeaderText="Assigned To" DataField="ASSIGNED_TO" />
<asp:DynamicField HeaderText="Active Account" DataField="Active_Account" />
<asp:DynamicField HeaderText="Client ID" DataField="CLIENT_ID" />
<asp:DynamicField HeaderText="Client Type" DataField="CLIENT_Type" />
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="GridDataSource" OnSelected="TotalRows" runat="server"
EnableDelete="true">
<WhereParameters>
<asp:DynamicControlParameter ControlID="FilterRepeater" />
</WhereParameters>
</asp:EntityDataSource>
Now it displays fine, the right data comes to screen but when I try to access that data using a row number I'm always finding blank cells. For example I tried the following to check every cell but to no avail;
Dim x As Integer = 0
Dim y As Integer = 0
While x < GridView1.Rows.Count
While y < GridView1.Rows(x).Cells.Count
If Not (GridView1.Rows(x).Cells(y).Text = "") Then
MsgBox(String.Format("{0},{1},{2}", x.ToString, y.ToString,
GridView1.Rows(x).Cells(y).Text))
End If
y = y + 1
End While
x = x + 1
y = 0
End While
No message box displayed so all the cells are empty strings. But I can clearly see they're populated on screen! What am I doing wrong?
UPDATE
After Pilgerstorfer Franz suggestion that I look for Textbox elements I used the following code which basically looks at all the cells in the table and try's to pull data out of them and if it's not blank then display a msgbox (also informs me of any new controls I haven't accounted for);
If GridView1.Rows(0).RowType = DataControlRowType.DataRow Then
For r = 0 To GridView1.Rows.Count - 1
For c = 0 To (GridView1.Rows(r).Cells.Count - 1)
Dim cell = GridView1.Rows(r).Cells(c)
For b = 0 To cell.Controls.Count - 1
If (cell.Controls(b).GetType() Is GetType(TextBox)) Then
Dim td = CType(cell.Controls(b), TextBox)
Text = td.Text.Trim
ElseIf (cell.Controls(b).GetType() Is GetType(LiteralControl)) Then
Dim td = CType(cell.Controls(b), LiteralControl)
Text = td.Text.Trim
ElseIf (cell.Controls(b).GetType() Is GetType(DynamicControl)) Then
Dim td = CType(cell.Controls(b), DynamicControl)
Text = td.Table.Columns.Item(c).DisplayName()
Else
MsgBox(String.Format("New Control of type: {0}", cell.Controls(b).GetType().FullName))
End If
If Not Text = "" Then
MsgBox(String.Format("{0},{1},{2}", c.ToString, b.ToString, Text))
End If
Next
Next
Next
End If
Unfortunately most cells just contained DynamicControl and since I was putting the DisplayName into Text I was just getting the column header every time. So how do I get the text value property out of a DynamicControl?
Additional Info
I'm further confused by this problem because since this is a project that I'm updating there is initial code two lines of which are;
Dim UserID = Convert.ToInt32(GridView1.DataKeys(e.RowIndex).Value)
Dim clientType As String = GridView1.DataKeys(e.RowIndex).Item(1).ToString
These successfully bring back UserID and ClientType. Now I don't really understand DataKeys but I tried using;
Dim clientType As String = GridView1.DataKeys(e.RowIndex).Item(Num).ToString
where Num increases by one every time expecting it to bring back the rest of the row data, but I simply got an index was out of range error.
ANOTHER UPDATE!!
Here is another bit of the ASPX page but I'n not entirely certain what it does. Pilgerstorfer Franz created some code to look for the textboxes created by the dynamicControl. Now I'm wondering if this code here causes other types of controls to be used rather than Textboxes. Thoughts?
<asp:FilterRepeater ID="FilterRepeater" runat="server" Visible="false">
<ItemTemplate>
<h2><asp:Label ID="lblDisplay" runat="server" Text='<%#
Eval("DisplayName") %>' AssociatedControlID="DynamicFilter$DropDownList1" /></h2>
<asp:DynamicFilter runat="server" ID="DynamicFilter"
OnSelectedIndexChanged="OnFilterSelectedIndexChanged" />
</ItemTemplate>
<FooterTemplate><br /><br /></FooterTemplate>
</asp:FilterRepeater>

Answer 1

According to my assumptions (see comments) I did a small demo...
<asp:DynamicDataManager ID="DynamicDataManager1" runat="server">
<DataControls>
<asp:DataControlReference ControlID="GridView1" />
</DataControls>
</asp:DynamicDataManager>
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
DataKeyNames="ContactID" DataSourceID="EntityDataSource1" AllowPaging="true"
OnRowUpdating="GridView1_RowUpdating">
<Columns>
<asp:DynamicField DataField="ContactID" ReadOnly="true" HeaderText="ContactID" />
<asp:DynamicField DataField="Title" HeaderText="Title" />
<asp:DynamicField DataField="FirstName" HeaderText="FirstName" />
<asp:DynamicField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="LastName" />
<asp:CommandField ShowEditButton="True" />
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:EntityDataSource ID="EntityDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="name=dbTestIT34_EFEntities"
DefaultContainerName="dbTestIT34_EFEntities" EnableFlattening="False" EnableUpdate="True"
EntitySetName="Contacts" EntityTypeFilter="Contact">
</asp:EntityDataSource>
And according to my data storage I did handle the rowUpdating event. Unfortunatelly accessing any control within a dynamic control is not easy. So I did a very quick and dirty hack...
protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
GridView1.EnableDynamicData(typeof(Contact));
EntityDataSource1.ContextType = typeof(dbTestIT34_EFEntities);
}
protected void GridView1_RowUpdating(object sender, GridViewUpdateEventArgs e)
{
int row = 0;
int firstNameColumn = 2;
while (row < GridView1.Rows.Count)
{
// sorry, a little bit confusing ...
// as dynamic control generates other controls dynamically,
// this was the very first thing that worked for me!
TextBox t = GridView1.Rows[row].Cells[firstNameColumn].Controls[0].Controls[0].Controls[0] as TextBox;
if (t != null)
Debug.WriteLine(t.Text);
row++;
}
}
Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Iterating through the controls never worked for me so in the end I gave up and just queried the DB again... Eh it works.