Empty Datagrid...

Monday, January 12, 2004

.NET

What to display if a Datagrid is empty ?

The question sounds obvious, nothing, but if your Datagrid has a fixed size, I think it's a bad idea to have a nice page with an empty space in the middle.

What are your favorite option?
- Display a fake grey or pale dtagrid to simulate a disabled datagrid ?
- Just a message to say that no data are present at the moment ?
- Something else ?

The first choice seems for me the one to go, but the difficulty come when you don't know the column details.

Any idea ?

16 Comments

Usualy leave it to the designer to choose.

I like to see a message that says there are is no data, so I don't have to wonder if it is still loading...

AndrewSeven - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:16:00 PM

Andrew I am also the designer ;-)

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:21:00 PM

Column details, to me, would seem irrelevant if there is no data to display.

I like to create a single column and present within the first row something like, "No records were found that meet the search criteria".

Joe - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:22:00 PM

I would like to see a new template that we could define that would allow us to choose if nothing is displayed, or a message is displayed. I don't know how many times we've had to create 2 panels, 1 for when they're is data and 1 for when they're isn't. Just makes most sense to me, that way we can have best of both worlds. How about it MS?

Matt Hawley - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:25:00 PM

So Joe what you say is ok, but does it means you have to display a title or something for the column ?

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:25:00 PM

Matt I think it's surely the way to go for .Net 2.0.

Is it possible to override the databound event to display something else if no dtaa is present ?

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:26:00 PM

Definately, maybe I'll look into addding a DG control like this to my 1.9 release, but it may be more work than what is needed. I know it could be a HUGE undertaking if I would have to re-invent the DG.

Matt Hawley - Monday, January 12, 2004 2:56:00 PM

Matt I think we can look the ExtensibleDtagrid control. Sadly I don't remember the link. Maybe he could help ?

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:01:00 PM

Is that something in 2.0? I'm one of the few that don't have a Whidbey copy...booo!

Matt Hawley - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:03:00 PM

No ExtensibleDatagrid is a control mad by ??? Well I will have a look to find it !

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:07:00 PM

It was made by somebody from this community so surely I will find it again I hope ;-)

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:08:00 PM

Hmm, I wonder if the Control Galleray at www.asp.net has it...looking....

Matt Hawley - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:08:00 PM

I got the guy it's Jan Tielens who developed the Extensible Dtagrid and wrote some articles on MSDN. Maybe we should contact him ?

Paschal - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:11:00 PM

Yeah, lets track him down!

Matt Hawley - Monday, January 12, 2004 3:12:00 PM

Well, I've done it, in a short amount of time :) See followup post to my weblog.

Matt Hawley - Tuesday, January 13, 2004 3:53:00 PM

Anybody know how to keep the datagrid the same size, if there are 10 rows or 15 rows or 20 rows in the datagrid. I don't have a problem with an empty datagrid, but a flexible datagrid that chagnes sizes with every different row counts. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Paul Byrum - Friday, July 30, 2004 12:07:00 AM

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