How to create a GridView from a class - asp.net

Question

I'm new to asp.net and have recently been working with creating a GridView from codebehind to make it more flexible so that I can eventually have it created based on user specifications.
Now I'm exploring classes, and I thought it would be cool to create a GridView class so that whenever I need to make a GridView I can just pass the class my specifications instead of having the same code re-written on each page's codebehind.
I'm not really seeing too many examples of how to accomplish this though. Have any of you done this? Does it even make sense for me to do this?
Here's how I'm currently making my GridView with codebehind. Any idea how I can change this to create the GridView with a class?
.aspx page:
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AllowSorting="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
EmptyDataText="There are no data records to display." AllowPaging="True"
CssClass="GridViewStyle" GridLines="None" Width="100%">
<Columns>
<asp:HyperLinkField DataNavigateUrlFields="EmployeeID"
DataNavigateUrlFormatString="EmployeeProfile.aspx?EmployeeID={0}"
DataTextField="EmployeeID"
DataTextFormatString= "<img src='Images/icons/document-search-result.png' alt='View'/> <u>View</u>" >
<ControlStyle CssClass="titleLinksB" />
<ItemStyle Wrap="False" />
</asp:HyperLinkField>
</Columns>
<RowStyle CssClass="RowStyle" />
<EmptyDataRowStyle CssClass="EmptyRowStyle" />
<PagerSettings Mode="NumericFirstLast" PageButtonCount="5" />
<PagerStyle CssClass="PagerStyle" />
<SelectedRowStyle CssClass="SelectedRowStyle" />
<HeaderStyle CssClass="HeaderStyle" />
<EditRowStyle CssClass="EditRowStyle" />
<AlternatingRowStyle CssClass="AltRowStyle" />
<SortedAscendingHeaderStyle CssClass="sortasc"></SortedAscendingHeaderStyle>
<SortedDescendingHeaderStyle CssClass="sortdesc"></SortedDescendingHeaderStyle>
</asp:GridView>
.aspx.vb Code-behind page:
Partial Class GridTest2
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
Sub Page_load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
CreateGridColumns()
BindGrid()
End If
End Sub
Public Property SortExpression As String
Get
If ViewState("SortExpression") Is Nothing Then
ViewState("SortExpression") = "LastName ASC"
End If
Return ViewState("SortExpression").ToString
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
ViewState("SortExpression") = value
End Set
End Property
Private Sub CreateGridColumns()
Dim curLastName As New BoundField
curLastName.HeaderText = "Last Name"
curLastName.DataField = "LastName"
curLastName.SortExpression = "LastName"
GridView1.Columns.Insert(0, curLastName)
Dim curFirstName As New BoundField
curFirstName.HeaderText = "First Name"
curFirstName.DataField = "FirstName"
curFirstName.SortExpression = "FirstName"
GridView1.Columns.Insert(1, curFirstName)
End Sub
Private Sub BindGrid()
Try
Dim tblData = New DataTable
Using sqlCon As New SqlClient.SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("dbConnectionString").ConnectionString.ToString())
Dim sql As String = "SELECT * FROM Employees"
Dim sqlCmd = New SqlClient.SqlCommand()
sqlCmd.CommandText = String.Format(sql, Me.SortExpression)
sqlCmd.Connection = sqlCon
Using objAdapter As New SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter(sqlCmd)
objAdapter.Fill(tblData)
End Using
End Using
GridView1.DataSource = tblData
GridView1.DataBind()
GridView1.HeaderRow.CssClass = "HeaderStyle"
Catch ex As Exception
' TODO: log error '
Throw
End Try
End Sub
Private Sub GridView1_PageIndexChanging(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewPageEventArgs) Handles GridView1.PageIndexChanging
Me.GridView1.PageIndex = e.NewPageIndex
BindGrid()
End Sub
Protected Sub GridView1_RowDataBound1(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewRowEventArgs) Handles GridView1.RowDataBound
'Protected Sub GridView1_RowDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As GridViewRowEventArgs)
Dim gridView As GridView = DirectCast(sender, GridView)
Dim sortColumn As String, sortDirection As String
sortColumn = Me.SortExpression.Split(" "c)(0)
sortDirection = Me.SortExpression.Split(" "c)(1)
If e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.Header Then
Dim cellIndex As Integer = -1
For Each field As DataControlField In gridView.Columns
If field.SortExpression = sortColumn Then
cellIndex = gridView.Columns.IndexOf(field)
End If
Next
If cellIndex > -1 Then
' this is a header row, set the sort style
e.Row.Cells(cellIndex).CssClass = If(sortDirection = "ASC", "sortasc", "sortdesc")
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub GridView1_Sorting(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewSortEventArgs) Handles GridView1.Sorting
Dim currentSortColumn, currentSortDirection As String
currentSortColumn = Me.SortExpression.Split(" "c)(0)
currentSortDirection = Me.SortExpression.Split(" "c)(1)
If e.SortExpression.Equals(currentSortColumn) Then
' switch sort direction '
Select Case currentSortDirection.ToUpper
Case "ASC"
Me.SortExpression = currentSortColumn & " DESC"
Case "DESC"
Me.SortExpression = currentSortColumn & " ASC"
End Select
Else
Me.SortExpression = e.SortExpression & " ASC"
End If
BindGrid()
End Sub
End Class
Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

If i understand correctly you are trying to make Custom Gridview class. you can follow below links for your help. All you need to do is make a class which inherits Gridview class so that you override default functionality to make it more generic.
Extending the GridView Control
Custom Gridview with paging and filtering
Creating Custom Gridview Control