A Dynamic Data Web Application

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 can build ASP.NET applications for viewing and editing databases with the Dynamic Data controls. The new Dynamic Data Web projects can serve as starting points for Web applications that use the controls. Developers might also use the applications in early phases of development for entering data or discussing features with users. Shown here are two pages from a sample application created with a Dynamic Data project. The paged tabular data display (top) presents the contents of a database table called Units. If the user clicks an Edit link of a record in the tabular display (far left column), the browser opens a form (bottom) for updating the record.

The Dynamic Data controls construct the tabular data display and form dynamically, based on information (metadata) about the design of the database being edited. For example, the DetailsView control that manages the form recognized that the field Executive refers to a record in a related database table (that is, it is a foreign key), and displays a drop-down menu for selecting records from the related table. The GridView control that manages the tabular data display shows values in that field as a hyperlinks to pages for the related records.