Changing the display name of a field

Question

User-222364991 posted

Hi,

I'm using the april drop of the dynamic data preview stuff and am impressed with the good work done by the development team.

I've looked at the webcasts forums etc but can't find the answer to my question.

I would like to define my own fieldnames for displaying in listview, detailview, etc

e.g. In the Asset table I have a field called AssetTitle that I would like to display as Title.

I know that I can copy the list.aspx, detail.aspx, into custom page folders and turn autogenerate to false and define my own columns but I and have read about using "buddy" classes and wondered if there was some way to define the display names in a class rather than creating lots of copies of list.aspx, details.aspx etc.

Any help is appreciated

Sean

Answer 1

User-797310475 posted

 Hi Sean,

you can use System.ComponentModel.DisplayNameAttribute to achieve what you need.

Answer 2

User-222364991 posted

Thanks for your speedy reply.

Still having a few problems though (self generated no doubt)

I can get this to work if I change the Datacontext.designer.cs directly like below but that is less than ideal

1    [Column(Storage="_AssetTitle", DbType="NVarChar(255) NOT NULL", CanBeNull=false)]
2        [DisplayName("Title")]
3        public string AssetTitle
4    	{
5    		get
6    		{
7    			return this._AssetTitle;
8    		}
9    		set
10   		{
11   			if ((this._AssetTitle != value))
12   			{
13   				this.OnAssetTitleChanging(value);
14   				this.SendPropertyChanging();
15   				this._AssetTitle = value;
16   				this.SendPropertyChanged("AssetTitle");
17   				this.OnAssetTitleChanged();
18   			}
19   		}
20   	}

 

however when I change this in my partial class like below

1    public partial class Asset
2    {  
3            [DisplayName("Title")]
4            public string AssetTitle { get; set; }  
5    }

I get the error

The type 'Asset' already contains a definition for 'AssetTitle' 

so I tried this

1    using System;
2    using System.Collections.Generic;
3    using System.ComponentModel;
4    using System.Data;
5    using System.Data.Linq;
6    using System.Data.Linq.Mapping;
7    using System.Linq;
8    using System.Linq.Expressions;
9    using System.Reflection;
10   using System.Web.DynamicData;
11   
12   
13   
14   /// <summary>
15   /// Summary description for Asset
16   /// </summary>
17   
18   [MetadataClass(typeof(Asset_Metadata))]
19   partial class Asset
20   {
21   }
22   
23   public class Asset_Metadata
24   {
25       [DisplayName("Title")]
26       public string AssetTitle { get; set; }  
27   }

I then get the errors

  The type or namespace name 'MetadataClass' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) 

 The type or namespace name 'MetadataClassAttribute' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) 

 I guess I am missing something.

Do I need to download the MVC Toolkit as well as the Dynamic data stuff.

 

Any help much appreciated

Sean

Answer 3

User660823006 posted

18   [MetadataClass(typeof(Asset_Metadata))]
19   partial class Asset
20   {
21   }

on line 18 if should be [MetadataType(typeof(Asset_Metadata))]

Answer 4

User-1974009678 posted

Am having the same problem, code shown below:

 

1    public partial class testDataContext {
2    }
3    
4    [MetadataType(typeof(Content_Metadata))]
5    public partial class Content {
6    }
7    
8    public class Content_Metadata {
9        
10       
11       private object _c_title;
12       
13           
14       [DisplayName("title")]
15       [Description("Page title")]
16       public object c_title
17       {
18           get
19           {
20               return _c_title;
21           }
22           set
23           {
24               _c_title = value;
25           }
26       }

  

Answer 5

User-1974009678 posted

Forgot to say, that the Description bit does work, just not the displayname.  

Answer 6

User1641955678 posted

If you set the DisplayName on a field, that string should show up as the header of that column in the gridview (among other places).  Maybe you are looking for the string somehere else?

David

Answer 7

User-222364991 posted

Thanks

 I have solved my problem with a combination of changing MetadataClass to MetadataType and adding the following references to my partial class

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

using System.ComponentModel.Design;

 

so my code now looks like this

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Linq;
using System.Data.Linq.Mapping;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Web.DynamicData;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;


[MetadataType(typeof(Asset_Metadata))]
partial class Asset
{
}

public class Asset_Metadata
{
    [DisplayName("Title")]
    public string AssetTitle { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Subject")]
    public string AssetSubject { get; set; }
}

 Thanks again to Marcin, Scott and David

I was at the MSDN roadshow in Manchester yesterday and the Dynamic Data stuff was great and almost as cool as Hard rock memorabilia and silverlight airline demos[:D] and much more useful[:D][:D][:D] 

Answer 8

User1030110584 posted

I have a similar problem.  For a test project, I have a database with two tables.  I created a file called Metadata.cs in the App_Code folder of my project.  In that file I have the following content, the intent of which is to prevent the inclusion of the Resources table and to change the names displayed for the Resource_Types table and its columns:  

1    using System;
2    using System.Collections.Generic;
3    using System.ComponentModel;
4    using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
5    using System.Linq;
6    using System.Web;
7    using System.Web.DynamicData;
8    
9    /// <summary>
10   /// Contains the metadata for Dynamic Data to use when displaying the data
11   /// </summary>
12   
13   
14   /// Exclude the Resources table from the model
15   [ScaffoldTable(false)]
16   public partial class Resources
17   {
18   }
19   
20   //  Attach the Resource_TypesMetadata to the Resource_Types class
21   [MetadataType(typeof(Resource_TypesMetadata))]
22   public partial class Resource_Types
23   {
24   }
25   
26   [DisplayName("Resource Types")]
27   public class Resource_TypesMetadata
28   {
29       //  Override the display name
30       [DisplayName("Code")]
31       public object resource_type_code { get; set; }
32       //  Override the display name
33       [DisplayName("Description")]
34       public object resource_type_description { get; set; }
35   }

The problem I'm having is that although the Resources table is excluded, the names for the Resource_Types table and columns are not changed. 

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

- Mark

Answer 9

User-1005219520 posted

see this post

Answer 10

User745141034 posted

How to change the display name of a field in run-time,please?

I hope change the display name of a field through programing,how to do,please?

 

Answer 11

User-330204900 posted

H Zzdfc, have a look at this method of changing column and table names at runtime: Dynamic Data – Custom Metadata Providers

hope this helps [:D]