How to bind a Control to <ItemTemplate> in GridView? - asp.net

Question

Edit: My object is defined as below. I passed it into GridView1.
public class UserTestorViewModel
{
public string Username {get;set;}
public string Password {get;set;}
public Label SuiteName {get;set;}
}
I have GridView bound to a customized List<UserTestorViewModel>:
this.GridView1.DataSource = utViewModelList;
this.GridView1.DataBind();
and in the .aspx I have
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="LoginName">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="LoginName" runat= "server" Text= '<%# ((ViewModels.UserTestorViewModel)Container.DataItem).User.userName %> '></asp:Label>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
this works because ViewModels.UserTestorViewModel.User.userName is string, but
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="SuiteName">
<ItemTemplate>
<%# ((ViewModels.UserTestorViewModel)Container.DataItem).SuiteName %>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
because ViewModels.UserTestorViewModel.SuiteName is Label from System.Web.UI.WebControls
So how to bind a System.Web.UI.WebControls to <ItemTemplate> NOT the Text of the System.Web.UI.WebControls

Answer 1

You may place a Placeholder control in ItemTemplate and put your label control to it on the RowCreated event of the GridView:
protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
GridView1.RowCreated += new GridViewRowEventHandler(GridView1_RowCreated);
}
void GridView1_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
{
var dataItem = (KeyValuePair<int, Label>)e.Row.DataItem;
var nameLabelPlaceholder = e.Row.FindControl("NameLabelPlaceholder") as PlaceHolder;
if (nameLabelPlaceholder != null)
{
nameLabelPlaceholder.Controls.Add(dataItem.Value);
}
}
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
GridView1.DataSource = GetGridViewDataSource();
GridView1.DataBind();
}
}
private object GetGridViewDataSource()
{
return (from item in Enumerable.Range(1, 10)
select new KeyValuePair<int, Label>(item, new Label() { ID = string.Format("NameLabel_{0}", item), Text = string.Format("Item #{0}", item), ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red }))
.ToDictionary(kvp1 => kvp1.Key, kvp2 => kvp2.Value);
}
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false" DataKeyNames="Key">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField HeaderText="Id" DataField="Key" />
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Name">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:PlaceHolder runat="server" ID="NameLabelPlaceholder" />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>