Build a Script-Only ASP.NET 2.0 Data Editing Page

Webmasters and developers who work with a shared hosting service for their sites know that while they usually provide access to your database via EnterpriseManager or Sql Server Management studio, often times it is useful to have your own separate data access page that allows you to access your database for minor work or checking things, and to be able to do this even from behind a firewall.

While there are some pretty good solutions for this (e.g., the free "Web Data Administrator" reference app), all you really need is a simple page that you can drop into your /admin protected web folder and access from anywhere, without having to rebuild your app and redeploy it.

The page I've put together here requires no building; it is a script-only page with no codebehind file, and a minimal amount of script as well, thanks to the GridView control and the SqlDataSource control for ASP.NET 2.0.

Here's the code - all of it!

     "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" > "server">            
"form1" runat="server">     
     "width: 657px">     
"width: 160px">         SELECT COMMAND
         "TextBox1" runat="server" Width="469px" EnableViewState=true>
"width: 3px">
     
"width: 160px">         UPDATE COMMAND
         "TextBox2" runat="server" Width="466px" EnableViewState=true>
"width: 3px">
     
"width: 160px">         DELETE COMMAND
         "TextBox3" runat="server" Width="465px" EnableViewState=true>
"width: 3px">
     
"width: 160px">         GO
         "Button1" runat="server" Text="Populate Grid" Width="110px" OnClick="Button1_Click" />
"width: 3px">
    
"height: 41px">        Free form SQL:
"height: 41px">        "TextBox4" runat="server" Width="469px" Height="144px" TextMode="MultiLine">
"width: 3px; height: 41px;">        "Button2" runat="server" Text="Execute" OnClick="Button2_Click" />
        
     
         "GridView1" runat="server" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True"             AutoGenerateDeleteButton="True" AutoGenerateEditButton="True" CellPadding="4"             ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None" Width="666px" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" EnableSortingAndPagingCallbacks="false" PageSize="5" OnPageIndexChanged="GridView1_PageIndexChanged" OnRowEditing="GridView1_RowEditing" OnRowCancelingEdit="GridView1_RowCancelingEdit" OnRowUpdating="GridView1_RowUpdating" OnRowDeleting="GridView1_RowDeleting" >             "#990000" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />             "#FFFBD6" ForeColor="#333333" />             "#FFCC66" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="Navy" />             "#FFCC66" ForeColor="#333333" HorizontalAlign="Center" />             "#990000" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />             "White" />                               "SqlDataSource1" Runat="server" SelectCommand=""         UpdateCommand=""         DeleteCommand =""         ConnectionString="" />        
     
  

What the above will give you is a page where you enter in the SELECT, UPDATE AND DELETE command statements, and the Gridview and SqlDataSource take care of the rest - including edit, update, cancel, and paging! Here's an example:

I have also added an additional multiline textbox and button for "Free form SQL". If it is a select, you will get it in the GridView, and if its an update, insert or delete, you'll see the rows affected in the label. In sum, pretty much everything you need for basic database work. You can download the zip file containing the single db.aspx page here. All you need to do is have the correct connection string in your application's web.config connectionStrings section; there is a sample inside comment markers in the code for the page.