Using DataBindings

The DataTextField, DataValueField, and DataNavigateUrlField properties let you map the fields of data items to the Text, Value, and NavigateUrl properties of the tabs to which they are bound. By default, any other tab properties must be mapped using an TabDataBound event handler. However, as an alternate approach, you can use the DataBindings collection to declaratively supply the mapping for any or all of the following RadTab properties:

• Text

• Value

• NavigateUrl

• Target

• ToolTip

• Enabled

• ImageUrl

• HoveredImageUrl

In addition, the DataBindings collection lets you provide different sets of data bindings to the tabs on different levels of the tab strip. You can even bind the tabs on each level of the tab strip from different tables in a DataSet.

To add a set of declarative data bindings to a tab strip, use the NavigationItemBinding Collection Editor.

The data bindings in the collection are represented by a collection of RadTabBinding objects. Each tab in the collection represents a set of data bindings between the data source and the tabs in the tab strip for a given level of the tab strip (root tabs, tabs at the first child level, and so on). You can also create a tab that gives the default mapping to cover any levels not specificly mapped by another tab.

The properties of each item in the collection specify how the RadTab properties should be assigned:

• For each mapped RadTab property, there are two properties for the data binding: one, with the same name as the corresponding RadTab property, is a hard-coded value that is assigned to all tab strip tabs to which the data binding applies; the other, with the name of the property followed by the suffix "Field", is the name of a field from the data source where the tab gets its property value. Thus, for example, if your database contains a column named Text and you set TextField="Text", the Text property of all tabs takes its value from the Text column in the database. Alternatively, if you set Text="Text", all your tabs will take the static string "Text" as the value of their Text property.

• The Depth property indicates the level of tabs to which the data binding applies. If Depth is not set, the data binding applies to all tabs not mapped by another binding. The collection should contain only one item with no value assigned to the Depth property.

• The FormatString property specifies how to format the text supplied by the TextField of the data source.

• The DataMember property specifies the table from which to map tabs. This property lets you use different tables from the same DataSet to supply values at different levels of the tab strip.

 <telerik:RadTabStrip
    runat="server"
    ID="RadTabStrip1"
    DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1"
    DataFieldID="id"
    DataFieldParentID="parentID">
    <DataBindings>
       <telerik:RadTabBinding TextField="Category" />
       <telerik:RadTabBinding FormatString="Made of {0}" TextField="Material" Depth="1" />
    </DataBindings>
</telerik:RadTabStrip>