Beginning Web Development, Silverlight, and ASP.NET AJAX

126
CHAPTER 5 ■ ASP.NET WEB SERVICES
You can see here how the uses the TypeName parameter to set
up the web service binding and the SelectMethod to configure the method that it will call
on this service. As we are running a Select (i.e., a read-only query) from this web service,
the child is present. This contains an node, which
configures the name, form field, and default value to call on this web service.
Now that we have the binding set up, we can easily place a control to bind to. A great
control for this is the GridView control, which provides advanced functionality such as
paging and sorting. To use one, simply drag the GridView control from the Data tab on
the Visual Studio Toolbox to the design surface. The adorner will open, and you can use
this to configure the data source. Select the ObjectDataSource control that you configured
earlier and the grid will be bound to it (see Figure 5-18).
Figure 5-18. Data binding a grid to a web service via an ObjectDataSource
If you now execute the application, the grid will bind to the web service and render
the data for the default parameter. You can also type new parameters into the text box
and click the button, and they will be fetched and rendered for you. And this was all
achieved without writing a single line of code on the client!