Auto-generate detail fields in ASP.NET

Is there anyway to auto-generate ASP.NET controls based on fields in a SQLDataSource? It is really easy to create a form in WinForms by dragging the fields onto the form. You can even determine which control will be used (like a dropdown). Is there anyway to do this in ASP.NET? I don't want a DetailsView since I need to have separate controls that are create开发者_如何学God.

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Yes you can dynamically add controls at runtime.

So an XML example rather than SQLDatasource is easier to illustrate. Say I have an xml config file which I will use to render my controls dynamically.

You append controls to an <asp:panel />

Say I have 5 xmlNodes that correspond to 5 controls I want to add dynamically (just one shown here), an example node could be:

<controls>    
<control id="txtFirstName" type="textbox" x="100" y="200" initialValue="overType me" />
</controls>

Your page will read in the Xml document (or fill a dataset with results from your SQL Database) and you loop through your results set:

For each node as xmlnode in myNodes 'myNodes used myXMLDocument.selectNodes()
  Dim myControl as Control



select case node.attributes("type").value
    case "textbox"
          myControl = new Textbox
    case "dropdownlist"
         myControl = new Dropdownlist
    End select

 myControl.ID = node.attributes("id").value
myControl.Attributes.Add("style", "position:absolute; top:" + node.Attributes("y").Value + "px; left:" + node.Attributes("x").Value + "px;")

 myPanel.Controls.Add(myControl)

Next

Reading them out again isn't so easy, but let me know if you need help with that too.. p