This tutorial shows how simple it is to allow users to search a database for matching text they input themselves. VB version.
Searching a website is often taken for granted. Implementing a search facility on a website used to be rather complex. However, as with many things in ASP.NET, it has gotten much easier. This tutorial will show how we can implement a simple search facility to allow users to input text and search a database for matching records.
First, we need to add the following assembly reference:
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Imports System.Data |
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In the Web.config, we declare the connection string:
<appSettings>
<add key="ConnString" value="Data Source=CLIENT-TASK2\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=BasicDataAccess;Integrated Security=True"/> </appSettings> |
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The ASPX page will consist of a textbox, a button and a repeater control to display the results. It will look something like this:
<form id="form1" runat="server">
Search: <asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><br />
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Search" OnClick="Button1_Click" /><br /><br /> <asp:Repeater ID="Repeater1" runat="server"> <HeaderTemplate><table width="100%"><tr><th>Name</th><th>City</th></tr></HeaderTemplate> <ItemTemplate>
<tr><td><%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "theName")%></a></td>
<td><%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "theCity")%></td></tr> </ItemTemplate> <FooterTemplate></table></FooterTemplate>
</form> |
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In the code-behind, we will reference a Stored Procedure, which will be something like this:
| ALTER PROCEDURE spSearchByString
@SearchString varchar(50) AS
SELECT [tblOne].theName, [tblOne].theCity
FROM [tblOne]
WHERE ([tblOne].theName LIKE '%' + @SearchString + '%' OR [tblOne].theCity LIKE '%' + @SearchString + '%')
RETURN |
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The code-behind should look something like this:
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Imports System.Data
Partial Class _Default
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
If Request.QueryString("searchString") IsNot Nothing Then
DisplaySearchResults(Request.QueryString("searchString")) End If End Sub Public Sub DisplaySearchResults(ByVal strSearch As String)
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand("spSearchByString", New SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("ConnString")))
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@SearchString", strSearch)
cmd.Connection.Open()
Repeater1.DataSource = cmd.ExecuteReader()
Repeater1.DataBind()
cmd.Connection.Close()
cmd.Connection.Dispose() End Sub Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Response.Redirect("Default.aspx?searchString=" & Server.UrlEncode(TextBox1.Text)) End Sub |
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