ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 7 - Customize Edit Field Templates

• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 1 - Introduction
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 2 - Create a Web Site From Scratch
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 3 - Customize Field Templates
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 4 - Customize Entity Templates
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 5 - Customize Page Templates
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 6 - Customize Field Templates For Non-Intrinsic Types
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 7 - Customize Edit Field Templates

So far we've only concentrated on customize the "simple" fields, the display fields, but what about the edit fields?
Exactly this are the topic of this post. We are going to create a custom field template, and adapt the edit template to our needs.
The field template are created as described in ASP.NET Dynamic Data - Part 3 - Customize Field Templates. This is the template we'll continue working on.

The default template

The default edit template looks like this.
PriceCustom_Edit.ascx

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="PriceCustom_Edit.ascx.cs" Inherits="DynamicData_FieldTemplates_PriceCustom_EditField" %>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" Text='<%# FieldValueEditString %>'></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator runat="server" ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:RegularExpressionValidator runat="server" ID="RegularExpressionValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" Enabled="false" />
<asp:DynamicValidator runat="server" ID="DynamicValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" />

PriceCustom_Edit.ascx.cs

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.Web.DynamicData;

public partial class DynamicData_FieldTemplates_PriceCustom_EditField : System.Web.DynamicData.FieldTemplateUserControl {
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        TextBox1.MaxLength = Column.MaxLength;
        if (Column.MaxLength < 20)
            TextBox1.Columns = Column.MaxLength;
        TextBox1.ToolTip = Column.Description;

        SetUpValidator(RequiredFieldValidator1);
        SetUpValidator(RegularExpressionValidator1);
        SetUpValidator(DynamicValidator1);
    }
    
    protected override void ExtractValues(IOrderedDictionary dictionary) {
        dictionary[Column.Name] = ConvertEditedValue(TextBox1.Text);
    }

    public override Control DataControl {
        get {
            return TextBox1;
        }
    }
}

By default three validators are present, RequiredFieldValidator, RegularExpressionValidator and DynamicValidator. The RequiredFieldValidator of course makes the field required, the RegularExpressionValidator is empty and does nothing, the DynamicValidator takes care of all the validations defined in the data model.
In this case we'll add a custom validator, that ensures the entered value is an integer between 0 and 100.

Add and implement the custom validator

First we'll add a custom validator in the markup, which looks like this

<asp:CustomValidator runat="server" ID="CustomValidator1" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" Display="Dynamic" OnServerValidate="PriceValidation" />

Next we have to implement the validation method, called PriceValidation. This method checks if this the entered value is a interger between 0 and 100.

protected void PriceValidation(object source, ServerValidateEventArgs args)
{
    bool result = false;
    int value;
    result = Int32.TryParse(TextBox1.Text, out value);
    if (!result)
    {
        CustomValidator1.ErrorMessage = "The entered value is not an integer";
        args.IsValid = false;
        return;
    }

    if (value < 0 || value > 100)
    {
        CustomValidator1.ErrorMessage = "The entered value not between 0 and 100";
        args.IsValid = false;
        return;
    }

    args.IsValid = true;
}

That's it we have now customized the edit field template. This hopefully gives an idea of how to customize the edit template, anything you could normally do in a user control, are possible here.
Here at the end is a screenshot of the custom error message.