Demo for 2-way databinding cascading lists within a FormView

Demo for 2-way databinding cascading lists within a FormView FormView in Edit mode ID 4 Original Values Company * Street Address * Country CanadaGermanyItalyNetherlandsSwedenUnited KingdomUnited States Netherlands Province/State Make a SelectionAlabamaAlaskaAmerican SamoaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaGuamHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthern Mariana IslandsOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaPuerto RicoRohde IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaVirginia IslandsWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming * North Holland City Make a SelectionCanadaGermanyItalyNetherlandsSwedenUnited KingdomUnited States * Enkhuizen Update Cancel 1 2 3 4 5 You might have wanted to use inside a databound templated server control (e.g. the FormView or the GridView) several cascading dropdownlists. The listitems in each dropdownlist would change based on the selection of the previous dropdownlist, e.g. the city selections would change based on the province and the latter would change based on the country selection. Sounds easy? Well, you added to your webform a datasource object linked for each dropdownlist where the SelectParameters collection contains a ControlParameter pointing to the previous list. But you encounter any of those 2 error messages: Databinding methods such as Eval(), XPath(), and Bind() can only be used in the context of a databound control 'DropDownList1' has a SelectedValue which is invalid because it does not exist in the list of items. "What is the problem?", you ask. Well, it is not a bug by Microsoft's judgement (look at this Bug Report) When you have a dropdownlist that is dependent on another within a FormView server control, it becomes populated on SelectedIndexChanged event of the first dropdown list. However, in this case the template was not rebound to the data, only the dropdown list. The FormView was reconstructed from the saved ViewState. This causes the error message: "Databinding methods such as Eval(), XPath(), and Bind() can only be used in the context of a databound control". The solution is to remove the 2-way databinding from the cascading dropdownlists and replace it with customized code during processing the ItemUpdating event. Click on the Edit link (of the FormView display above) to activate the EditItemTemplate of the FormView. Change the country selection to watch the province/State and city selections change accordingly. Then you can view the same concepts applied to the GridView by clicking on the tab for the GridView above. The source code is available in 4 versions based on the type of datasource and the programming language that you use. Notice that every button click on this demo posts the entire page back to the server and causes the entire screen to flash back. This distracts from the viewing experience and it has a cost on band width where the entire navigational controls are being posted back and refreshed. Compare this to the same sample but while using Atlas (the new technology from Microsoft).

Source Code #1: Source Code for this demo using ObjectDataSource bound to the FormView in C# Source Code #2: Source Code for this demo using ObjectDataSource bound to the FormView in VB Source Code #3: Source Code for this demo using SqlDataSource bound to the FormView in C# Source Code #4: Source Code for this demo using SqlDataSource bound to the FormView in VB WEBSWAPP_BLL.Demos.cs: Source Code for the Business Logic Layer that operates this site written in C#