Possible to use the same webform for viewing and editing?

Question

User-1641185037 posted

I have a module in my application that allows the user to view and edit customer data. When the user first visits the page, I display a list of customers in my grid. When the user clicks on a customer, he sees the customer form (ViewCustomer.aspx) which shows him all the data in non-editable mode. If he clicks on the edit or add button, he goes to another form (EditCustomer.aspx) which allows him to add and edit records.

 I'm wondering if it is possible for me to combine both pages (EditCustomer.aspx and ViewCustomer.aspx) into one. This way, when my user wants me to modify the layout of the form, I only have to do the change in one page. But I do have many dropdownlists in my EditCustomer.aspx. E.g. I have a field that stores the customer's organisation - in EditCustomer.aspx it is a dropdownlist that stores the organisation's ID, while in ViewCustomer.aspx it is a textbox that displays the organisation's name.

Is it possible to convert textboxes to dropdownlists, and vice versa, or do I need to dynamically generate the controls on every page_load event?

Is it considered a good practice to things this way or is there a better way to do things that I am unaware of?

Thank you.

Answer 1

User-503940700 posted

Hi,

You can either use Panels and turn them on/off as you go on editing individual customer details. Also, if using ASP.NET 2.0, you can use the GridView/FormView combination. In ASP.NET 1.1, you can create editable girds using EditItemTemplate for in place editing on a single page.

Hope this helps,

Vivek

Answer 2

User-1641185037 posted

I am using ASP.NET 2.0. If I use the formview control, with templates for both viewing and editing data, how do I handle a large form that has several tabs? Do I need to have a formview control for each tab? I intend to use a multiview control and a 3rd party tabstrip control to handle my tabs and I'm wondering if this is the best way to implement it. Thank you.

 

 

Answer 3

User-503940700 posted

You can have a single FormView with custom defined template to edit data in any format you want. Check this link for details on Formview:

msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/fyf1dk77.aspx

You can even use the multiview control, it acutally depends on what is more convenient to you in the long run, there is no best practice as such.

Hope this helps,

Vivek

Answer 4

User1564875471 posted

you can put each part in a usercontrol and load it dynamicaly

so 1 user control for edit

and 1 for view

......

then

 

page.LoadControl(Virtualpath Of UC)

i recommended you to see how the following opensource portal 

 http://www.dotnetnuke.com/

and search for module development