How to convert text in GridView col into a hyperlink?

Hi,

One of the fields in a GridView control contains a unc path to a local area network folder [eg:\\servername\foldername].

Each record in the GridView may have a path to a different folder.

I would like to be able to click on the path in the GridView and have the folder open - instead of having to copy the text into the Start | Run dialog box of my pc.

I've looked at converting the column into a hyperlink control [by making it a Templated control] & I've tried this code:

<Columns>
<asp:hyperlinkfield datatextfield="Path"
datanavigateurlformatstring="Path"/>
<asp:BoundField DataField="Path"
HeaderText="Online"
SortExpression="Path" />
</Columns>

. . . and I get an error because the app is trying to open a folder in the directory where the web site resides rather than the folder that is indicated in the path [Text] in the column.

I'm trying to figure out how to tell asp.net to open the folder indicated by the unc path in the field . . .

I'd appreciate any help I can get.

Thanks!

Robin

What most likely is happening, is all links in a website by default are relative, so you end up with a link to something like this

http://localhost:12345:\\servername\path

Which obviously isnt going to work. You can fix it by prefixing it with something it recognizes as a file path, rather than a relative path.

Try replacing your <asp:HyperLink /> with this:

<Columns>

<asp:TemplateField>

<ItemTemplate>

<asp:HyperLinkText="TextField"id="myHL"runat="server"

NavigateUrl='<%# "file:///" + DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Path").ToString() %>'></asp:HyperLink>

</ItemTemplate>

</asp:TemplateField>

</Columns>

Thanks, Hans! That worked.

I have one more question, though. In the Text = "TextField" - I would like the text that displays be the actual path that is coming in from the database.

So - instead of TextField [hard-coded literal] in the GridView I'd like it to have something like this -\\ServerName\FolderName [what is in the field for each record].

How would I do that?

Robin

Text='<%# Databinder.Eval(Container.DataITem, "Path").tostring() %>'

Thanks, Bryan. Perfect! I tried playing around with that line of code from Hans . . .

Robin

How to convert a GridView Column into Hyperlink fields?

I am trying to display records from an SQL database using an ASP.Net GridView control but I would like for one of the columns to be a Hyperlink or Hyperlink fields. Im using a DataTable to get the info from the DB.
For example:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string queryString = "SELECT * FROM Candidates";
connection.SelectQuery = queryString;
myTable = connection.get_Connection();//recive the data as DataTable
//
//May be something here to convert a specific column to an hyperlink.
//
GridView1.DataSource = myTable;
GridView1.DataBind();
myTable.Dispose();
}

You can convert the BoundField to a TemplateField:

For example:

<asp:TemplateFieldHeaderText="colName"><ItemTemplate><asp:HyperLinkrunat="server"ID="HyperLink2"NavigateUrl='<%# "mypage.aspx?Sample_ID=" & Eval("Sample_ID")& "&Count_ID=" & Eval("Count_ID")%>'Text='<%# Eval("colName")%>'></asp:HyperLink></ItemTemplate></asp:TemplateField>

You can also use a HyperLinkField. The DataTextField property is what is displayed. The DataNavigateUrlFields property is for anything you might need to add to the DataNavigateUrlFormatString property.

<asp:HyperLinkFieldDataTextField="ColumnName"DataNavigateUrlFields="ColumnName2"DataNavigateUrlFormatString="~/mypage.aspx?UserID={0}"HeaderText="Name"></asp:HyperLinkField>

Thank you maspr, I tryed it before and it creates a new column just like the one that I want to convert to hyperlinks, and actually it works but I dont want to show two columns (one regular and the same one like hyperlinks). Do you know a way to hide or make invisible the regular one?

thanks so much for your help.

Thanks Limno I just tryed that right now. The problem is that if i want to add the<asp:TemplateField> and then the hyperlink inside of it, first I need to create a <column> </column> tag on the GridView, but if I create a column, there will be two identical columns but one of them will be hyperlink and the other not. Maybe the conversion must be on the .cs file, to force the DataColum or the cell to be hyperlinks.
Actually, it is a very easy job to do. From the samrt tag, you use the Edit columns, Highlight the column you want to convert, and you can see there is a link on the right side says: "Convert this field into TemplateField". Click on it and put the code i showed you. You can play with it to make it fit your need. By the way, the TemplateField is very useful, you will need it from time to time for formating you databound controls (gridview, detailsview...). Let me know if I can help more. Thanks.

You can do it in the rowdatabound event of gridview if you like.

If e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.DataRowThen
Dim hlAsNew HyperLink
hl.NavigateUrl = "yoururl"
hl.Text = e.Row.Cells(indexOfYourColumn).Text
hl.Target ="daview" 'target frame for url
e.Row.Cells(indexOfYourColumn).Controls.Add(hl)

end if

But limno my GridView doesn't know which table it will recive because it is been fill dinamically by one Class that I create to make the connection and a method there return tha table as DataTable. So I cant use the Edit column to converti it. My DataBase isn't inside the project, I connect to it using a connection string which is hide on my connection class. This is why I think that the code must be on the C# files and not on the aspx ones. Any suggestions will be welcome.

P.S. I will post next the connection class and the code which recive the table.

Thanks a lot to all
Neozaid

This example do the connection to an access DB, I will change it later for the SQL one.

//This is my default.cs file
public partialclass _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
private Connection connection =new Connection();
private SortClass sorting =new SortClass();
private DataTable myTable;
private GridViewSortEventArgs column;

public _Default()
{
myTable =null;
}

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string queryString ="SELECT FirstName ... FROM Candidates";
connection.SelectQuery = queryString;
myTable = connection.get_Connection();//DataTable
GridViewCandidates.DataSource = myTable;
GridViewCandidates.DataBind();
myTable.Dispose();
}
}

////////////////////////////The next is the connection class/////////////////////////////////////

using System.Data.OleDb;public class Connection{private string selectQueryString;private OleDbDataReader readerDataReader;private OleDbCommand commandCommand =new OleDbCommand();private DataTable myDataTable;public Connection()//initialize the query string { selectQueryString =""; }//Here the class get or set the query to look on the DB. //If it don't have any query it will use the default one "".public string SelectQuery {get {return selectQueryString; }set { selectQueryString =value; } }//Method: make the connection to DB, & return the desired table.public DataTable get_Connection() {string connectionString ="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=c:\\DB.mdb;"; OleDbConnection connConnection =new OleDbConnection(); connConnection.ConnectionString = connectionString; commandCommand.CommandText = SelectQuery; commandCommand.CommandType = CommandType.Text; commandCommand.Connection = connConnection; commandCommand.Connection.Open(); readerDataReader = commandCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection); myDataTable =new DataTable(); myDataTable.Load(readerDataReader);//Dispose the objects. myDataTable.Dispose(); commandCommand.Dispose(); connConnection.Dispose();return myDataTable; }}

Sincerely,
Neozaid