asp.net source code blog

It seems little strange there isn't provided the EmptyDataText property on the Repeater control. Here's a simple way how to display some text when we've a DataSource with empty content + Repeater:

in the aspx page:

<asp:Label ID="_emptyLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label>
<asp:Repeater ID="_someRepeater" runat="server"
DataSourceID="_someDS" OnPreRender="_someRepeater_PreRender">
<ItemTemplate>
   ...some data here...
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
<asp:XmlDataSource ID="_someDS" runat="server"></asp:XmlDataSource>

in the code-behind class:

protected void _someRepeater_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
         if (_commentsRepeater.Items.Count == 0)
         {
              _emptyLabel.Text = "still no comments";
         }
     }
     catch (Exception)
    {
    }
}