This tutorial will cover how to handle the Command Event property using ASP.NET C#
In this tutorial we will cover how the handle Command Event by implementing two button controls to sort; ascending and descending. In this case, the two button controls will list items displayed by the BulletedList control when clicked.
Here is a snapshot of how the application will look like:
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To start, open Visual Studio 2008. File > New > Web site > ASP.NET Web site and name it sort or whatever you want. Make sure that you include using System.Collections.Generic;
From the Design View, drag over two button controls and assign them the values listed below:
<asp:Button ID="btnSortAsc"
Text="Sort ASC"
CommandName="Sort"
CommandArgument="ASC"
OnCommand="Sort_Command"
runat="server" />
asp:Button ID="btnSortDESC"
Text="Sort DESC"
CommandName="Sort"
CommandArgument="DESC"
OnCommand="Sort_Command"
runat="server" /> |
Notice how both Button controls include CommandName and CommandArgument properties. Additionally, we have both Button controls wired to the same Sort_Command() event handler.
Next, from the Design View locate the standard tab of the Toolbox, and drag over a bulleted list. Assign it the same value as below:
| <asp:BulletedList ID="bltPeople" runat="server" /> |
Switch to your code behind and let’s add some logic for these event handlers.
First, lets populate the page when it loads with these values below. So within the Page_Load event:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
people.Add("Mike");
people.Add("Edward");
people.Add("Thomas");
} |
This lets our page know that we have a list of data and we need to add things to it.
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Next, we need to add an event handler that checks the CommandName and CommandArguement properties when determining how the elements in the BulletedList should be sorted.
protected void Sort_Command(object sender, CommandEventArgs e)
{
if (e.CommandName == "Sort")
{
switch (e.CommandArgument.ToString())
{
case "ASC": people.Sort(SortASC);
break;
case "DESC": people.Sort(SortDESC);
break;
}
}
} |
Above we created a Command that will determine which function to call during data organization.
The following part of our script is required in order to work correctly. The funciton Page_PreRender() lets the page right before it starts processing that our bltPeople.DataSource = people;. Keep in mind that when we created: private List people = new List(); that we told our page that our list of strings is going to be used in our Bulleted List.
void Page_PreRender()
{
bltPeople.DataSource = people; bltPeople.DataBind();
} |
Finally, we have our sort functions. The Sort_Command was designed to handle both button requests for ASC and DESC order. Since we know what we want to do with each function we simply add a basic String.Compare statement that compares two variables and returns them in a given sequence order.
int SortASC(string x, string y)
{
return String.Compare(x, y);
}
int SortDESC(String x, String y)
{
return String.Compare(x, y) * -1;
} |
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