BasicDataList

The BasicDataList control displays items from a data source in a list based on specified templates. Allows you to display data in several columns.

You can use the BasicDataList with any bindable data source — not only Kentico data and objects.

Getting started

The following is a step-by-step tutorial that shows how to use the BasicDataList control to display a list of smartphones (CMS.Smartphone pages) from the sample Corporate Site:

1. Create a new Web form in your web project.

2. Drag the BasicDataList control from the toolbox onto the form.

3. Set the control’s RepeatColumns property to 3.

   • Determines the number of columns that the control uses to display items.

4. Add the following code marked by the BasicDataList templates comments between the <cms:BasicDataList> tags. The overall code of the BasicDataList control should look like this:

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    <cms:BasicDataList ID="BasicDataList1" runat="server" RepeatColumns="3">
   
        <%-- BasicDataList template --------------------------------------------------------- --%>
   
        <itemtemplate>
            <div style="width: 250px">
                <h3>
                    <%# Eval("DocumentSKUName") %>
                </h3>
                <img src="<%# CMS.Ecommerce.EcommerceTransformationFunctions.GetSKUImageUrl(Eval("SKUImagePath"), 0, 0, 200, Eval("SKUSiteID")) %>" alt="<%# Eval("DocumentSKUName") %>" />
            </div>
        </itemtemplate>
   
        <%-- BasicDataList template --------------------------------------------------------- --%>
   
    </cms:BasicDataList>
   
   
    

   This defines the template used by the BasicDataList to display items. The control uses inline code to insert the values of items into the template. This process is repeated for all records in the data source.

5. Switch to the web form’s code behind and add the following references:

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    using System.Data;
   
    using CMS.DocumentEngine;
   
   
    

6. Add the following code to the Page_Load method:

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    // Retrieves all CMS.Smartphone pages from the Kentico database as a DataSet
    DataSet ds = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("CMS.Smartphone").Path("/", PathTypeEnum.Children).OrderBy("DocumentSKUName");
   
    // Assigns the DataSet as the data source of the BasicDataList control
    BasicDataList1.DataSource = ds;
    BasicDataList1.DataBind();
   
   
    

7. Save the changes to the web form and its code behind file.

8. Right-click the web form in the Solution explorer and select View in Browser.

The resulting page displays a list similar to the following:

Configuration

You can set the following properties for the BasicDataList control:

Appearance and styling

You can modify the appearance of the BasicDataList control by setting the standard properties inherited from the ASP.NET DataList control.

The design of the listed items is determined by the code of the templates defined within the tags of the BasicDataList control. The following templates are available: