How to bind an XmlDocument to a DropDownList?

[Bob]

Is there a way to bind an XmlDocument object (or XmlNodeList) directly to a
DropDownList in the code behind? I know it can probably be done using
DataBinder to specify the items in the aspx but I need to do this in code
behind C# code. I'm looking for a way to bind it without having to convert
the Xml into DataTable or ArrayList etc first.

Bob

[Craig Deelsnyder]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 19:12:50 -0500, Bob <bo*******@yaho o.com> wrote:

Is there a way to bind an XmlDocument object (or XmlNodeList) directly
to a
DropDownList in the code behind? I know it can probably be done using
DataBinder to specify the items in the aspx but I need to do this in code
behind C# code. I'm looking for a way to bind it without having to
convert
the Xml into DataTable or ArrayList etc first.

Bob

Sure, you can do the following:

private void Page_Load(objec t sender, System.EventArg s e)
{
// Put user code to initialize the page here
if (!IsPostBack)
{
System.Xml.XmlD ocument doc = new System.Xml.XmlD ocument();
doc.InnerXml =
"<root><ite m>1</item><item>2</item><item>3</item></root>";
DropDownList1.D ataSource = doc.ChildNodes[0].ChildNodes;
DropDownList1.D ataTextField = "InnerText" ;
DropDownList1.D ataValueField = "InnerText" ;
DropDownList1.D ataBind();

}
}

the problem comes in depending on where you want your text/value to come
from. If you have an attribute on these nodes whose value you wanted to
use instead of InnerText, you can't with the code I gave, as DataTextField
and DataValueField must contain the name of a property of the current item
in the bound collection. You can't say Attributes["key"] for example,
only Attributes (which doesn't do much for you).

In that case, you'd have to tie into the DataBinding event of the dropdown
and set the text/value manually there.

Otherwise, revert to using the codefront:

http://weblogs.asp.net/kaevans/archi...7/04/9713.aspx

--
Craig Deelsnyder
Microsoft MVP - ASP/ASP.NET