Data Access Problem

Hi all,

I hope someone can help with this relatively simple problem.
I am building a timesheet application using ASP.NET C# with Visual
Studio 2003.As it is only a protoype application, my database has been
made in MSDE.

As part of my application, I have a 'Resources' table, which holds
employee information. I have the fields FirstName and LastName which
are entered in my data capture form which works fine. The problem
however, is that on other forms, for example, I wish to be able to
select employees from a drop-down list which shows both their first and
last names. At present my drop-down lists can only showHow should I go
about this? Can I create a view or something to achieve this? Or could
I insert a 'FullName'column into my 'Resources' table, which is set by
default to take the first and last names of each new resource and
concatanate it into one string? I worked on an application previously,
which seemed to do something similar, although I don't know how.

What I did try originally was to show the resource information on the
form as a DataGrid, but was unable to successfully pass the
SelectedItem when my 'submit' button was pressed.

Any thoughts, suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks again

Al

Al,

One option would be to create a FullName from FirstName and LastName when
selecting the data:

Select FirstName + ' ' + LastName As FullName ...

Kerry Moorman


"thebison" wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I hope someone can help with this relatively simple problem.
> I am building a timesheet application using ASP.NET C# with Visual
> Studio 2003.As it is only a protoype application, my database has been
> made in MSDE.
>
> As part of my application, I have a 'Resources' table, which holds
> employee information. I have the fields FirstName and LastName which
> are entered in my data capture form which works fine. The problem
> however, is that on other forms, for example, I wish to be able to
> select employees from a drop-down list which shows both their first and
> last names. At present my drop-down lists can only showHow should I go
> about this? Can I create a view or something to achieve this? Or could
> I insert a 'FullName'column into my 'Resources' table, which is set by
> default to take the first and last names of each new resource and
> concatanate it into one string? I worked on an application previously,
> which seemed to do something similar, although I don't know how.
>
> What I did try originally was to show the resource information on the
> form as a DataGrid, but was unable to successfully pass the
> SelectedItem when my 'submit' button was pressed.
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks again
>
> Al
>
>

TheBison,

You can do it as Kerry shows or with adding a column with an expression to
the datatable. The expression is than the same as Kerry shows you.
(FirstName + " " + LastName)

I hope this helps,

Cor






"thebison" <alex.sinclair3@btinternet.com> schreef in bericht
news:1144248070.930073.181910@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I hope someone can help with this relatively simple problem.
> I am building a timesheet application using ASP.NET C# with Visual
> Studio 2003.As it is only a protoype application, my database has been
> made in MSDE.
>
> As part of my application, I have a 'Resources' table, which holds
> employee information. I have the fields FirstName and LastName which
> are entered in my data capture form which works fine. The problem
> however, is that on other forms, for example, I wish to be able to
> select employees from a drop-down list which shows both their first and
> last names. At present my drop-down lists can only showHow should I go
> about this? Can I create a view or something to achieve this? Or could
> I insert a 'FullName'column into my 'Resources' table, which is set by
> default to take the first and last names of each new resource and
> concatanate it into one string? I worked on an application previously,
> which seemed to do something similar, although I don't know how.
>
> What I did try originally was to show the resource information on the
> form as a DataGrid, but was unable to successfully pass the
> SelectedItem when my 'submit' button was pressed.
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks again
>
> Al
>

1) Create a brand new windows project.
2) Connect to the Northwind database.
3) Drag the "Employee" table onto the designer surface. This will create
both a sqlConnection and sqlDataAdapter object.
4) Select the sqlDataAdapter. From this, generate a dataset.
5) Select the dataset object. View the schema.
6) Add an element to the bottom. Name it "FullName". In the properties
window, set the Expression to: LastName + ', ' + FirstName
7) Drag a datagrid onto the design surface. Set the DataSource and
DataMember properties to the dataset. Set the dock to full.
8) In the form load event, add the following code:
sqlDataAdapter1.Fill(dsEmployee.Employee).
9) Run the app. Look at the column FullName

Microsoft's ADO technology is pretty impressive.


"thebison" <alex.sinclair3@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:1144248070.930073.181910@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I hope someone can help with this relatively simple problem.
> I am building a timesheet application using ASP.NET C# with Visual
> Studio 2003.As it is only a protoype application, my database has been
> made in MSDE.
>
> As part of my application, I have a 'Resources' table, which holds
> employee information. I have the fields FirstName and LastName which
> are entered in my data capture form which works fine. The problem
> however, is that on other forms, for example, I wish to be able to
> select employees from a drop-down list which shows both their first and
> last names. At present my drop-down lists can only showHow should I go
> about this? Can I create a view or something to achieve this? Or could
> I insert a 'FullName'column into my 'Resources' table, which is set by
> default to take the first and last names of each new resource and
> concatanate it into one string? I worked on an application previously,
> which seemed to do something similar, although I don't know how.
>
> What I did try originally was to show the resource information on the
> form as a DataGrid, but was unable to successfully pass the
> SelectedItem when my 'submit' button was pressed.
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks again
>
> Al
>

Hi everyone!

Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted. My drop-down list now shows the
FullName and it looks great!

While I have your attention....perhaps any of you could assist with
another issue I am having on the same form. The basic point of this
form is to assign a Resource (Employee) onto a Task, which has
previously been assigned to a Project. The way I have laid the form out
is that you can select Projects, Tasks, and Employees all from
drop-down lists. The user can then add some dates, and click submit to
send it to the database.

My problem is that I want the Task drop-down list to automatically
repopulate with the correct tasks when the user selects a Project from
the Project drop-down. What I mean by this is that if for example the
user selects "Redistribution Project" from the list, then only tasks
from that Project will be available in the Tasks drop-down.

I believe I will have to do something with my page_load, specifically
the IsPostBack part...but I am not sure exactly. My code is currently:

if(!IsPostBack)
{
this.sqlDataAdapter1.Fill(this.dsProjectName1);
ddProjectName.DataBind();
this.sqlDataAdapter3.Fill(this.dsTaskName1);
ddTaskName.DataBind();
this.sqlDataAdapter4.Fill(this.dsResourceFullName1);
ddResName.DataBind();
sqlConnection1.Close();
}

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Al

Hi,
Thanks, I have this working now! :-)

I now have another question, I've searched all over the web for the
answer, but can't quite work it out. I am filling a list-box with
'Start Date' and 'Finish Date' from a table, and have concatanated
these into a new field, 'Full Date'. However when I DataBind the
list-box it shows the format as '01/10/06 12:00:00 - 07/10/06
12:00:00'. I do not want the times to show. I know how to format one
column, using the DataTextFormatString property, setting it to {0:d} ,
but I can't work out what it will need to be for my 'Full Date' field.

The actual data expression for 'Full Date' is
StartDate + '-' + FinishDate

And I wish it to show in the ListBox as '01/10/06 - 07/10/06'.
Anyone have any ideas on what I should put into DataTextFormatString to
achieve this, so that the times are not included?

Many Thanks!

Al