I was working recently on a web project. One of the requirements was to save the data from a repeater control (I decide to use repeater and not DataGrid because of speed) into a CSV file. Don't know if this is the best method or not, but this is the way I did it. Relevant code in ASPX page:
<table>
<asp:Repeater ID="test" runat="server" >
<HeaderTemplate>
<tr>
<td>Item</td>
<td>Count</td>
<td>Price</td>
<td>VAT</td>
<td>Total</td>
</tr>
</HeaderTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<tr>
<td><asp:label ID="Item" Text=<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.Item")%> runat="server" /></td>
<td><asp:label ID="Cnt" Text=<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.Cnt")%> runat="server" /></td>
<td><asp:label ID="Price" Text=<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.Price")%> runat="server" /></td>
<td><asp:label ID="VAT" Text=<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.VAT")%> runat="server" /></td>
<td><asp:label ID="Total" Text=<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container, "DataItem.Total")%> runat="server" /></td>
</tr>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>
</table>
<asp:Button id="Export" Text="Export" runat="server" />
We need the following class:
Imports System.Web.UI
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text
Public Class CCSVExport
Private _pPage As Page = Nothing
Private _Title As String
Private _ColumnList As ArrayList
Private _FName As String
Public Sub New(ByVal pPage As Page, ByVal tit As String, ByVal fName As String, ByVal colList As ArrayList)
_pPage = pPage
_Title = tit
_FName = fName
_ColumnList = colList
End Sub
Public Sub ExportRepeater(ByVal rpt As Repeater)
Dim context As System.Web.HttpContext
Dim byteArray() As Byte
context = System.Web.HttpContext.Current
context.Response.Clear()
context.Response.Buffer = True
context.Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
context.Response.Charset = ""
_pPage.EnableViewState = False
context.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=" & _FName & ";")
byteArray = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(BuildData(rpt).ToString)
context.Response.BinaryWrite(byteArray)
context.Response.End()
End Sub
Private Function BuildData(ByVal rpt As Repeater) As StringBuilder
Dim ri As RepeaterItem
Dim currentLine As String
Dim arrayIndex As Int16
Dim sb As New StringBuilder
sb.AppendLine(_Title)
For Each ri In rpt.Items
currentLine = ""
If ri.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem Or ri.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Then
For arrayIndex = 0 To _ColumnList.Count - 1
currentLine &= CType(ri.FindControl(_ColumnList.Item(arrayIndex)), Label).Text.Trim & ","
Next arrayIndex
sb.AppendLine(currentLine)
End If
Next ri
Return sb
End Function
End Class
Code in page load, just binding the repeater to a datatable:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
test.DataSource = dt
test.DataBind()
End Sub
Finally, export the data:
Protected Sub Export_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Export.Click
Dim fileTitle As String
Dim export As CCSVExport
Dim arrFields As ArrayList
fileTitle = "Test"
arrFields = New ArrayList
arrFields.Add("Item")
arrFields.Add("Cnt")
arrFields.Add("Price")
arrFields.Add("VAT")
arrFields.Add("Total")
export = New CCSVExport(Page, fileTitle, "test.csv", arrFields)
export.ExportRepeater(test)
End Sub