Step 8: Binding the GridView to the Orders Object

In this step you will bind the Orders GridView to the Order business object, and test out the retrieval of orders for specific customers.

1. Select the Customer Orders Web Form in design mode, and select the grdOrders GridView.

2. Go to the Properties Window and select the BindingSource property. Doing this displays an ellipses button next to the property:

   

   
   Note: For details on GridView binding properties, check out the MM .NET Help topic Data Binding Web Forms Data Grids.
   
   

3. Click the BindingSource ellipses button which launches the Binding Source Selection dialog. You should see the Order business object you previously registered with the form:

   

   Through the magic of automation, the Binding Source Selection dialog reads your form's code file and presents a list of business objects that have been registered with the form.

4. Since we want to bind the grdOrders GridView to the Order business object, make sure the Order business object is selected in the dialog, then click the OK button. This automatically inserts the text Order in the GridView's BindingSource property:

   

5. If you don't specify anything in a GridView's BindingSourceMember property, the GridView is automatically bound to the default entity list of the business object which is what we want in this case.

6. In the Properties Window, change the BindingType property to OneWay. The OneWay setting specifies this GridView is only used to display information but not edit. Although we are not going to give the GridView edit capabilities (which prevents the user from making any changes), setting BindingType to OneWay is still a good practice because it tells MM .NET that no run-time bind back processing needs to be performed on this control.

   You are ready to run the form and retrieve orders for a specified customer.

See also:
Step 9: Running the Customer Orders Form