MVC: Loading a DataSet from the ViewBag

Bjoern Meyer

January 20, 2016

The MVC HTML5 editor Reports ribbon tab can pre-populate merge field and merge block drop-downs using the LoadDataSet method. The controller creates a DataSet from a data source and stores it in the ViewBag. The view then calls LoadDataSet to load the data into the editor.

The HTML5 based editor and template designer is typically used to create mail merge templates in web applications.

The data source for the Reports ribbon tab can be pre-loaded in the view using the LoadDataSet method. Using this data source, the available merge field and merge block drop-down lists are populated.

The following code shows how to create a DataSet in the controller that is stored in the ViewBag:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    DataSet ds = new DataSet();

    // create the outer table that has a relation
    // to the child table "product"
    DataTable dtReport = new DataTable("report");
    dtReport.Columns.Add("report_id", 
        Type.GetType("System.Int32"));
    dtReport.Rows.Add(new object[] { 0 });
    ds.Tables.Add(dtReport);

    // create a table "products"
    DataTable dtProduct = new DataTable("product");

    dtProduct.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("report_id", 
        Type.GetType("System.Int32")));
    dtProduct.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Product_ID", 
        Type.GetType("System.Int32")));
    dtProduct.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("Product_Name", 
        Type.GetType("System.String")));
    dtProduct.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("product_Price", 
        Type.GetType("System.Int32")));

    dtProduct.Rows.Add(new object[] { 0, 1, "Product 1", 1000 });
    dtProduct.Rows.Add(new object[] { 0, 2, "Product 2", 2000 });
    dtProduct.Rows.Add(new object[] { 0, 3, "Product 3", 3000 });

    ds.Tables.Add(dtProduct);

    // create the relation
    ds.Relations.Add(new DataRelation("relation1", 
        dtReport.Columns["report_id"], 
        dtProduct.Columns["report_id"], false));

    // fill the ViewBag and return the view
    ViewBag.dataSet = ds;
    return View();
}

In the view, the LoadDataSet method is used to load the stored DataSet from the ViewBag.

@Html.TXTextControl().TextControl().LoadDataSet(
    (System.Data.DataSet)ViewBag.dataSet).Render()

The drop-down lists are now pre-populated with the available merge fields and merge blocks:

MVC: Loading a DataSet from the ViewBag

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