Results from cascaded drop-down lists - tutorial description
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This tutorial explains how to use a pair of drop-down lists to bring up results
from a SQL Express three-table relational database. The example used is a
database of cars for sale, where a first drop-down list allows the selection of
a car company (e.g. Ford, General Motors), a second drop-down list then shows
the models made by the selected company (e.g. Escort, Explorer), and selection
from the models drop-down list causes a display of all for-sale listings of that
model along with relevant information (e.g. price, model year)
| You will learn how to set up a 3 table relational database, create the
database diagram and the one-to-many relationships between the tables that
insure data integrity of the database. |
| You will learn how how to populate the relational database tables with
data. |
| You will learn how to create a web page to search your database by first populating
a primary dropdown list from data in one of the table fields; in this example a
list of the manufacturers in the one of the database tables. |
| You will learn how to make a second dropdown list whose fields are
populated based on the selection made from the first; in this case you will
populate a list of a manufacturer's car models based upon the manufacturer
selected from the first dropdown list. |
| You will learn how to construct a gridview that, upon selection of
both Manufacturer and Model from dropdown lists, displays all the records in the
database for the models of the selected manufacturer along with the price. |
Note: This tutorial was written using SQL Express database. Various versions of
Access could similarly be used, although the process of doing things such as
create a table, creating a Query
or working with relationships may be slightly different. If you are already
familiar with Access, you should have no difficulty following the steps of the
tutorial with only minor modifications. You would first create your Access
database, and then add it to your App_Data folder. Then, when getting to setting
a connection string, you simply browse to the App_Data folder and select the
database.
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