Displaying a gridview's footer with an empty (linqdatasource) datasource

The datasource of the datagrid is a LINQDataSource which relies on the value of a dropdownlist. In开发者_运维技巧 addition, I want to use the footer to insert new records - so I'd prefer not to use the empty dataset template. I am trying to find a way to always display the footer regardless if the datasource is empty or not.

EDIT: Is there a way to create an empty/invisible object of the type in the LinqDataSource?

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check the following article:

http://weblogs.asp.net/joewrobel/archive/2008/01/30/a-more-elegant-solution-to-display-gridview-header-and-footer-when-the-data-source-is-empty.aspx