WebDataGrid™ has an Empty Template that you can use to provide your end-users with a custom display that appears whenever there are no rows in the data source. Like all templates, you can place any control within the Empty Template to provide a custom message to end-users.
You can set up the empty template at design time by right-clicking WebDataGrid, mouse over Edit Template, and selecting Control Templates. You can then drag controls onto the Empty Template surface.
The following code shows you how to create a custom template displaying a message to end-users when WebDataGrid is bound but has no rows. As with the creation of any template, you need a class that implements the ITemplate interface.
In Visual Basic:
Protected Overloads Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As EventArgs) MyBase.OnInit(e) 'template needs to be instantiated on every postback Me.WebDataGrid1.EmptyRowsTemplate = New CustomEmptyRowsTemplate() End Sub Private Class CustomEmptyRowsTemplate Implements ITemplate #Region "ITemplate Members" Public Sub InstantiateIn(ByVal container As Control) Implements ITemplate.InstantiateIn Dim label1 As New System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label() label1.Text = "No Records Exist in Data Source" label1.ID = "Label1" container.Controls.Add(label1) End Sub #End Region End Class
In C#:
protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { base.OnInit(e); //template needs to be instantiated on every postback this.WebDataGrid1.EmptyRowsTemplate = new CustomEmptyRowsTemplate(); } private class CustomEmptyRowsTemplate : ITemplate { #region ITemplate Members public void InstantiateIn(Control container) { System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label label1 = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label(); label1.Text = "No Records Exist in Data Source"; label1.ID = "Label1"; container.Controls.Add(label1); } #endregion }