User Control Properties?

Question

Can I build a control that basically acts "like a MasterPage"?

What I mean to do is, say I have a grid like this in a number of pages:

<asp:UpdatePanel ID="AnnouncementsPanel" UpdateMode="Conditional" runat="server">
    <ContentTemplate>
        <asp:GridView ID="AnnoucementsGrid" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="false" DataKeyNames="Id" >
            <Columns>
                <asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="Title" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="Created" HeaderText="Date" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="Modified" HeaderText="Last Modified" />
                <asp:ButtonField ButtonType="Button" Text="Process" CommandName="Process" />
            </Columns>
        </asp:GridView>
    </ContentTemplate>
</asp:UpdatePanel>

I'd like to build a control that handles most of the codebehind, but I need to declare the columns for the grid declaratively in each case.

---

Is there a way to create a control like this?

<uc:CrudGrid ID="AnnouncementsCrud" runat="server">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="Title" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Created" HeaderText="Date" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Modified" HeaderText="Last Modified" />
        <asp:ButtonField ButtonType="Button" Text="Process" CommandName="Process" />
    </Columns>
</uc:CrudGrid>

---

or event better:

<uc:CrudGrid ID="AnnouncementsCrud" runat="server">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="Title" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Created" HeaderText="Date" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Modified" HeaderText="Last Modified" />
    </Columns>
</uc:CrudGrid>

Maybe having to name the tag "Fields", but being able to drop the button, so it can be used in the UC's code-behind?

A lot of love to whoever has a positive answer on this <3

Answer 1

Found the exact solution I was looking for:

    [DefaultValue((string)null)]
    [Editor(typeof(System.Web.UI.Design.WebControls.DataControlFieldTypeEditor), typeof(UITypeEditor))]
    [PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]
    public DataControlFieldCollection Columns
    {
        get { return Grid.Columns; }
    }

this way I can expose the Columns from the grid in my own user control and edit the fields from the markup, keeping general functionalities within my UC

Answer 2

Depends on how positive you want it to be :-) You can always build your own control to do this. That is one option.

Another option is to create a helper object that attaches to the grid, and keep each grid separate.

Third option is to create a user control with the common code, and programmably add columns to the grid through the user control.

HTH.