design-time datagrid template column with findcontrol capability

[BG]

i am thinking that creating datagrid at design time will save me a lot of
time when creating programs. however, i ran into a brick wall.

i created a template column at design time. i learned that i have to use
itemplate interface to bind my custom data. within the itemplate column, it
displays my custom data properly everything works. except that i cannot use
the datagridcommand eventargs.item. findcontrol("//asp:label within datagrid")
with a buttoncolumn which i use a lot with runtime datagrid. again, the data
from templatecolumn displays and the buttoncolumn works. the buttoncolumn
reacts but it just can't pickup the data from the datagridcommand eventargs.

i have used a literal control that basically writes the following code
within the iTemplate interface:

literalcontrol. text = "<asp:label id='lbl1'
text='....datai tem...'>...data item...</asp:label>";

any ideas on how to achieve findcontrol-like technique to reference the data
within the active row? it doesn't have to be findcontrol as long as i can
get the data within the selected row.

thanks in advance,
bg