Changing the Grid Structure Dynamically on Postback

You can modify the columns collection of a RadGrid dynamically on postback request, giving your user the freedom to alter the grid column structure when needed. For example, you could change the structure of the grid when the user chooses an option from a control that resides outside of the grid.

The first option would be to use auto-generated columns for the grid and merely change its data source and invoke its Rebind() method on postback. Thus the Programmatic data binding of the grid will be raised explicitly and the control will be populated with the new data.

The second approach will require changing the grid column structure programmatically. There are two points to keep in mind when modifying the grid columns on postback:

• You must ensure that the entire grid, including its columns collection, is modified on Page_Init so that the control ViewState remains consistent. Otherwise, built-in features such as sorting, paging, and so on will not function as expected.

• You should set the EnableColumnsViewState property to False, so that the grid knows that the columns may vary at some stage of the page lifecycle.

The following code snippets illustrate how to change the columns in a dynamically created grid, based on a drop-down list selection. Note that the code which constructs the grid fetches the selected value from the drop-down list by referencing the combobox using Request.Form.Get(controlId) method of the ASP.NET AJAX framework (an alternative solution would be to use the Request.Form.Keys collection to identify whether the combobox triggered the submit, more info on this approach can be gathered from here):

<asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server" />
<br />
<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true" OnSelectedIndexChanged="DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged">
  <asp:ListItem Text="empty grid" Value="0" />
  <asp:ListItem Text="1 column grid" Value="1" />
  <asp:ListItem Text="2 column grid" Value="2" />
  <asp:ListItem Text="3 column grid" Value="3" />
</asp:DropDownList>
<br />
<asp:AccessDataSource ID="AccessDataSource1" runat="server" DataFile="~/App_Data/Nwind.mdb"
  SelectCommand="SELECT ContactName, ContactTitle, Address FROM [Customers]" />

protected void Page_Init(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    PopulateGridOnPageInit();
}
protected void PopulateGridOnPageInit()
{
    string ddlValue = Request.Form.Get("DropDownList1");
    RadGrid grid = new RadGrid();
    grid.ID = "grid";
    grid.Width = Unit.Pixel(400);
    grid.AllowSorting = true;
    grid.PagerStyle.Mode = GridPagerMode.NextPrevAndNumeric;
    grid.AllowPaging = true;
    grid.Skin = "Sunset";
    grid.DataSourceID = "AccessDataSource1";
    grid.MasterTableView.AutoGenerateColumns = false;
    grid.MasterTableView.EnableColumnsViewState = false;
    GridBoundColumn boundColumn;
    if (ddlValue != null)
    {
        switch (ddlValue)
        {
            case "0":
                grid.DataSourceID = "";
                grid.DataSource = new object[0];
                break;
            case "1":
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                break;
            case "2":
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactTitle";
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactTitle";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactTitle";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                break;
            case "3":
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactTitle";
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactTitle";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactTitle";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                boundColumn = new GridBoundColumn();
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "Address";
                boundColumn.DataField = "Address";
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "Address";
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn);
                break;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        grid.DataSourceID = "";
        grid.DataSource = new object[0];
    }
    PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(grid);
}
protected void DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    RadGrid grid = PlaceHolder1.FindControl("grid") as RadGrid;
    grid.Rebind();
}

Protected Sub Page_Init(ByVal sender As Object, _
      ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Init
    PopulateGridOnPageInit()
End Sub
Protected Sub PopulateGridOnPageInit()
    Dim ddlValue As String = Request.Form.Get("DropDownList1")
    Dim grid As RadGrid = New RadGrid
    grid.ID = "grid"
    grid.Width = Unit.Pixel(400)
    grid.AllowSorting = True
    grid.PagerStyle.Mode = GridPagerMode.NextPrevAndNumeric
    grid.AllowPaging = True
    grid.Skin = "Sunset"
    grid.DataSourceID = "AccessDataSource1"
    grid.MasterTableView.AutoGenerateColumns = False
    grid.MasterTableView.EnableColumnsViewState = False
    Dim boundColumn As GridBoundColumn
    If Not (ddlValue Is Nothing) Then
        Select Case ddlValue
            Case "0"
                grid.DataSourceID = ""
                grid.DataSource = New Object() {}
            Case "1"
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
            Case "2"
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactTitle"
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactTitle"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactTitle"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
            Case "3"
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactName"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactName"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "ContactTitle"
                boundColumn.DataField = "ContactTitle"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "ContactTitle"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
                boundColumn = New GridBoundColumn
                boundColumn.HeaderText = "Address"
                boundColumn.DataField = "Address"
                boundColumn.UniqueName = "Address"
                grid.MasterTableView.Columns.Add(boundColumn)
        End Select
    Else
        grid.DataSourceID = ""
        grid.DataSource = New Object() {}
    End If
    PlaceHolder1.Controls.Add(grid)
End Sub
Protected Sub DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged( _
               ByVal sender As Object, _
               ByVal e As EventArgs) _
         Handles DropDownList1.SelectedIndexChanged
    Dim grid As RadGrid = CType(PlaceHolder1.FindControl("grid"), RadGrid)
    grid.Rebind()
End Sub