Dynamic Templates for the Repeater, DataList and DataGrid Controls

ost of the time, when you add a Repeater, DataList or DataGrid control on the page, you hardcode their templates: you know the data you want to show, and to do this you declare Literal, Label, CheckBox and any other type of control with bindable properties, or simply add static HTML and binding expressions.

This is fine as long as you have to render only one view of the data, but what happens when you want to use the same template-based control (i.e. one of the controls mentioned above) for showing different data, according to the currently logged-in user? Suppose for example that you have to build a report page for the Northwind’s Employees table, and want to show the complete employee’s information (name, full mailing address, salary etc.) if the current user is an Administrator, or just the employee’s name and title otherwise, so to protect their privacy from non-authorized people. Another example: you may want to provide Edit and Delete buttons to each row when the user is an Administrator, but of course not for the normal user.