In November 2007 Microsoft released ASP.NET 3.5. As noted in An Overview of
ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008, this released included two new ASP.NET data Web controls: the ListView and DataPager. In a nutshell, the ListView
control provides a very flexible means for displaying a collection of data while still offerring rich data features like paging, sorting, editing,
inserting, and deleting. The DataPager control can be associated with a ListView to render a paging interface.
Prior to ASP.NET 3.5, developers who needed to display a set of records could choose between the GridView, DataList, and
Repeater controls. The GridView provides rich data features, but has a very boxy layout; the DataList and Repeater allow for a more flexible layout,
but lack the "point and click" data features found in the GridView, DetailsView, and FormView controls. The ListView bridges the gap between layout
flexibility and built-in data features.
This article, the first in a series of articles on the ListView and DataPager controls, looks at the ListView's many available templates and
illustrates how to display data. Read on to learn more!
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