Hide / Show Datalist item in datalist asp.net c#

Hello everyone -
Its time again for a new blog post.
This time it will be related to asp.net datalist and datalistitems.
I was asked to hide show datalistitems in a datalist control depending from some parameters in the code.
Normally I did a loop through all the datalistitems in the datalist and if something is as it should be, enable that listitem.

foreach (DataListItem item in this.dlShopping.Items)
{
string namee = this.dlShopping.DataKeys[item.ItemIndex].ToString();
item.Visible = false;
if (namee.Equals("UPS GROUND") || namee.Equals("UPS 2 DAY AIR"))
{
item.Visible = true;
}
}

The code was working fine, but the end result was that all the datalist items were displayed, without filtering the one which were suppose to show up.

The solution to really filter the results was to add one more line in the code about the layout of the datalist.

dlShopping.RepeatLayout = RepeatLayout.Flow;

This helps the items to be displayed in random structure without using a table.
So, next time you want to do something like I did today, that line of code will solve your problems.
Thanks for reading.

How to list items in categories and subcategories in treeview

Hello everyone -
Today I will explain how I solved problem I had with listing multiple subcategories in a treeview control on asp.net page.
I had problem where I was suppose to display files listed in categories which were populated by the user and then the files under each category were uploaded on the server from a user.
The files were all in one folder per company, and there was a table in the database where I was saving the info about which files are going where, under which name and which user.
So, I started to get my hands dirty.
First, I wanted to get all the categories which were created and there was a record for them in the database.
I did a simple query for doing that, and then I fetch the data from the table to a node in the treeview:

string getCategories = "SELECT Category FROM Categories";
SqlCommand commCat = new SqlCommand(getCategories, conn);
comm.CommandTimeout = 0;
comm.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
SqlDataReader rdrCat = commCat.ExecuteReader();
while (rdrCat.Read())
{
if (rdrCat.HasRows)
{
catNode = new TreeNode();
catNode.Text = rdrCat["Category"].ToString();
catNode.Value = rdrCat["Category"].ToString();
tvDocuments.Nodes.Add(catNode);
}
}


Once I had all the categories created in the treeview I went to get all the files for each category.
I created stored procedure which gets all the files and their categories from the info stored in the database.
Once I had all the info about the files and their respected categories I started looping through the nodes in the treeview and if the node had the same name as the category for the file, add the file to that category.
The loop was going like this:

foreach (DataRow dt in tblTreeView.Rows)
{
foreach (TreeNode node in tvDocuments.Nodes)
{
if (node.Text.Equals(dt[0].ToString()))
{
fileNode = new TreeNode();
fileNode.Text = dt[1].ToString();
fileNode.NavigateUrl = "../downloading.aspx?file=" + dt[1].ToString() + "&user=" + userID;
node.ChildNodes.Add(fileNode);
}
}
}


Since the file nodes were also hyperlink for downloading the documents I set the navigate url to the appropriate page for downloading along with the filename and the user id.

Thanks for reading and comments always appreciated.

How to show/hide iframe in ssl/non-ssl pages in asp.net

Last week I was working on a task where we had to disable the facebook like box on a ssl pages because of security issues with the controls which are not coming from within our website. We are including the widget within our master page, that means that it will be part of all the child pages, doesn't matter if they are ssl or non-ssl. After some testing, here is how I resolved the problem, and have the widget enabled on non-ssl pages, and have the widget disabled on ssl pages.

Here is the iframe received from Facebook:


<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=www.facebook.com%2Fwebsite&width=180&colorscheme=dark&connections=6&stream=true&header=false&height=605" style="border: medium none; overflow: hidden; width: 177px; height: 605px;" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Now what I am doing is I am checking the connection with:

                      <% if (Request.IsSecureConnection.Equals(false))


If the page is non-ssl display the iframe, and if the page is ssl don't display the iframe and disable ir from rendering.
Here is the complete source code:


<div>

                      <% if (Request.IsSecureConnection.Equals(false))

                           { %>

                           <br /><br />

            <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=www.facebook.com%2FyourWebsite&width=180&colorscheme=dark&connections=6&stream=true&header=false&height=605" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:177px; height:605px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>                      

                       <br />

                         <a style="float:left;" href="http://twitter.com/YourWebsite" target="_blank" style="float: right"><img src="images/twitter_Web.jpg" title="Follow me on Twitter" width="162 height="69" /></a><br />

                    

                        <% } %>

                     </div>



Thanks for reading and comments always appreciated.

Follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AngelArnaudov

Beginning Microsoft Sql Server 2008 Programming book by Wrox

I finally finished reading this book, it took me a while though, almost 2 months with all my travel around, but at the end I must conclude that it is a great book, I can recommend to everyone who wants to learn more about sql server and how to program more efficiently with sql language. The book covers all from very basic stuff to some intermediate level. There is one more part of this book, which I hope to read in near future and is the advanced programming in sql server 2008.

Pubcon Las Vegas 2010

My first post will be about the conference which I attended in the last 4 days. Pubcon conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This post is written while I am waiting for my flight to Jacksonville, FL via Dallas, TX.
One of the biggest Internet Marketing seminars, PubCon is certainly the place to be if you want to learn the latest trends in the Search Engine Optimization field, the social media, affiliates and much more.
After the last spring conference in Dallas, TX, this would be my second time to visit the conference, and I don't regret at all.
The key note this tear was all mostly around the social media, how to leverage the followers/fans and convert them easily.
The prediction will be one of the main things in the future, search engines will be suggesting, predicting things which you are interested to do instead of just displaying results which are static or obscure.
The connections you have from your social circles and their opinion about the things you are searching will play more important rule in the search results.
Bing is keeping to raise but we will need to see if it will be able to keep up with Google and what more they will show. For now, there was a stat displayed at one of the panels that the people who tend to visit sites through Bing are 11% more likely to buy stuff then the people who are doing that through Google.
What about Google? Google is using more and more social media data and it uses that to display more updated search results. Their tools are getting more and more advanced, and most of all they are free.
Facebook Ads are becoming more interesting as well, mostly because there are many different criterias under which the ad can be set, and that includes demographic filtering, interests, hobbies, etc.
Well, Got to go now, I will make sure to give better summary of the conference once I will land in FL and get some decent sleep.
Thanks for reading!