Cell not inset if blank

[tshad]

If you have nothing in a cell, the cell doesn't have the inset appearance
that all the other cells do.

Normally, you could just put a "&ndsp;" in the cell if the it is blank.

But how do you do this if you are binding it?

<asp:TemplateColumn Visible="true" HeaderText="JobTitle"
ItemStyle-Font-Bold="true"
ItemStyle-Width="195px" ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="Top">
<itemtemplate>
<asp:Label ID="JobTitle" Text='<%#
Container.DataItem("JobTitleShort")%>' runat="server"/>
</itemtemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>

Is there a way to say that if the cell is blank (or null entry), to put an
"&ndsp;" in it (or something that would fix the inset problem)?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Did you test it to observe that the "&nbsp;" is not there? I think, Asp.Net
takes care about it and does put a "&nbsp;" character in empty cells.

Eliyahu

 

[tshad]

Did you test it to observe that the "&nbsp;" is not there? I think, Asp.Net
takes care about it and does put a "&nbsp;" character in empty cells.

If it does, I assume that there must be some setting to make it do that.

Here is one row from my Datagrid:

<td valign="Top" style="font-weight:bold;width:195px;">
<span id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_JobTitle">Assistant Controller</span>
</td><td valign="Top" style="width:231px;">
<span id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_Category">Accounting/Auditing </span>
</td><td valign="Top" style="width:88px;">
<span id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_DateCreated">06/16/2005</span>
</td><td valign="Top" style="width:70px;">
<span id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_TimeCreated">12:00AM</span>
</td><td valign="Top" style="width:167px;">
<span id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_FullName"></span>
<-------
</td><td class="tdCenter" valign="Top" style="width:40px;">
<input type="image" name="InProgressGrid:_ctl2:ViewButton"
id="InProgressGrid__ctl2_ViewButton" align="absmiddle"
src="../../images/new24-32.gif" alt="" border="0"
style="height:13px;width:13px;" />
</td>

As you can see, it creates Spans for each cell. But if you look at the
FullName Span, there is nothing between the spans.

Tom

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

The cell is not blank. It has a <span> inside, that's why asp.net doesn'
produce an "&nbsp;".

Replace the Label with a Literal and the <span> will go:

<itemtemplate>
<asp:Literal ID="JobTitle" Text='<%# Container.DataItem("JobTitleShort")%>'
runat="server" />
</itemtemplate>

Eliyahu

 

[tshad]

The cell is not blank. It has a <span> inside, that's why asp.net doesn'
produce an "&nbsp;".

Replace the Label with a Literal and the <span> will go:

<itemtemplate>
<asp:Literal ID="JobTitle" Text='<%#
Container.DataItem("JobTitleShort")%>' runat="server" />
</itemtemplate>

I tried that and the span does go away, but the code generated for a null is
still blank. Here is the code generated. All 3 are Literals but there is
no &nbsp; in the last 2 which are null, so the cell doesn't show correctly.

</td><td valign="Top" style="width:231px;">
Aerospace/Aviation/Defense
</td><td valign="Top" style="width:88px;">

</td><td valign="Top" style="width:70px;">

</td><td valign="Top" style="width:167px;">

Here is the asp code for the 3 templates:

<asp:TemplateColumn Visible="true" HeaderText="Category"
ItemStyle-Width="231px" ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="Top">
<itemtemplate>
<asp:Literal ID="Category" Text='<%#
Container.DataItem("JobCategories")%>' runat="server"/>
</itemtemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>
<asp:TemplateColumn Visible="true" HeaderText="Submitted On"
ItemStyle-Width="88px" ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="Top">
<itemtemplate>
<asp:Literal ID="DateCreated" Text='<%#
Container.DataItem("DateCreated")%>' runat="server"/>
</itemtemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>
<asp:TemplateColumn Visible="true" HeaderText="Time"
HeaderStyle-Font-Underline="true" ItemStyle-Width="70px"
ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="Top">
<itemtemplate>
<asp:Literal ID="TimeCreated" Text='<%#
Container.DataItem("TimeCreated")%>' runat="server"/>
</itemtemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>

Do I need to do something to put the &nbsp; in?

Tom

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

You can always use PreRender event to loop through the items, check if the
literals are empty and set them to "&nbsp;"

Eliyahu

 

[tshad]

I could.

I was just looking for a way around this.

I have a page that has 6 Datagrids and it would add a little more processing
to do this. I was hoping there was a way to do, as you mentioned with the
Literal object, which would have been a good way to solve the problem.

Thanks,

Tom