In order to bind data returned from database or a search query to a datalist at runtime in your web part , there are certain steps that you should take,otherwise data list won't render its content.The most important step is setting the ItemTemplate property to a proper template:
Web Part:
protected DataList _dtList;
protected override void RenderContents(System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
EnsureChildControls();
// Database connection and populating a datatable called prDT for example
this._dtList.ItemTemplate = new ProductTemplate();
this._dtList.DataSource = prDT;
this._dtList.DataBind();
this._dtList.RenderControl(writer);
}
protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
this._dtList = new DataList();
this._dtList.RepeatDirection = RepeatDirection.Horizontal;
this._dtList.RepeatColumns = 2;
Controls.Add(this._dtList);
}
ProductTemplate.cs:
public class ProductTemplate : ITemplate
{
void ITemplate.InstantiateIn(Control container)
{
Label itemlbl = new Label();
itemlbl.Width = 110;
itemlbl.DataBinding += new EventHandler(itemlbl_DataBinding);
container.Controls.Add(itemlbl);
}
void itemlbl_DataBinding(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Label lbldata = (Label)sender;
DataListItem container = (DataListItem)lbldata.NamingContainer;
lbldata.Text= Convert.ToString(DataBinder.Eval(((DataListItem)container).DataItem,"ProductName"))
}
}