ASP.NET Repeater with jQuery Slider

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In this blog, we will learn how to integrate one jQuery Slider plug in with the ASP.NET Repeater Control.

Background

There was a question on implementation of slider with ASP.NET DataList Control and the guy who posted that was facing issues. The issue was actually due to the DataList control, which was rendering as HTML tables breaking the default jQuery Slider functionality. After researching a bit, I found that, it is very easy to implement this with the ASP.NET Repeater control. Let’s go step by step and learn.

Step by Step

Step 1: Download jQuery Slider plug in

You can take any jQuery Slider, but you need to see how exactly it allows contents inside it. For this example, we will be using the Elastislide. Hit the “Download Source” button on the page to download the zip file containing the plug in files. We will try to implement the demo given here (Example 1).

Let’s extract the zip file. You will have something like this inside the extracted folder.

So, here we can find all related JavaScript, CSS and images used for the demos. The demo, which we will implement with Repeater is shown inside the index.html (highlighted in image). You can directly run and see in browser.

Step 2: Analysis of Demo HTML Page

JavaScript and CSS Files Included

In Head section…

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/demo.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/elastislide.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/custom.css" />
<script src="js/modernizr.custom.17475.js"></script>

In Body section…

<script type="text/javascript" 
        src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.2/jquery.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquerypp.custom.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.elastislide.js"></script>

So, we will also include these files in our aspx page.

HTML Markup for Image Slider

If you open and see the index.html page, you will find a HTML structure which loads all the images. (I have removed the not needed headers and other HTML.)

<div class="container demo-1">
    <div class="main">
	<!-- Elastislide Carousel -->
	<ul id="carousel" class="elastislide-list">
  	    <li><a href="#">
  	    <img src="images/small/1.jpg" alt="image01" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/2.jpg" alt="image02" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/3.jpg" alt="image03" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/4.jpg" alt="image04" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    lt;img src="images/small/5.jpg" alt="image05" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/6.jpg" alt="image06" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/7.jpg" alt="image07" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/8.jpg" alt="image08" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/9.jpg" alt="image09" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/10.jpg" alt="image10" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/11.jpg" alt="image11" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/12.jpg" alt="image12" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/13.jpg" alt="image13" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/14.jpg" alt="image14" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/15.jpg" alt="image15" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/16.jpg" alt="image16" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/17.jpg" alt="image17" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/18.jpg" alt="image18" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/19.jpg" alt="image19" /></a></li>
	    <li><a href="#">
	    <img src="images/small/20.jpg" alt="image20" /></a></li>
	</ul>
	<!-- End Elastislide Carousel -->
    </div>
</div>

This structure is most important, because the classes added to the HTML controls are used inside the CSS and JavaScript files.

So, we just need to replace the “list items (li)” inside the “Unordered Lists” with Repeater Items, which eventually would look like the same structure and render all the image URLs inside List Items.

Step 3: Create a Web Application and Add one aspx Page

After adding the aspx page to the project, now we need to copy the js, css files and images from the “Downloaded plug in” folders. So, Solution Explorer would look like…

NOTE: We have maintained the exact folder structure as in the downloaded plug in. Only “small” folder inside “images” folder is copied with another the “nav.png” image used for “previous next” buttons.

Step 4: Let’s Design the aspx Page

Basically, we will copy the HTML present in index.html page and update it by adding one Repeater.
Now, the div would look like…

<div class="container demo-1">
    <div class="main">
	<ul id="carousel" class="elastislide-list">
  	    <asp:Repeater ID="mylist" runat="server">
		<ItemTemplate>
	  	    <li><a href="#">
			<asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server" ImageUrl='<%# "images/small/" + Eval("image")%>' />
		        </a>
                    </li>
		</ItemTemplate>
            </asp:Repeater>
	</ul>
    </div>
</div>

:: Here ImageUrl Property is a combination of folders path and image name. Image Name is dynamically bound from the Datasource (explained in the next step), EVAL is used for this purpose only.
Next we will add the JavaScript and CSS files in the Page just like it appears in the index.html Page.
Now, the most important thing is to add the following script inside the body.

<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#carousel').elastislide();
</script>

This code actually invokes the Slider to work. carousel is the id of the ul (Unordered list) element in HTML. This elastislide(); method is present in the plug in js.

Step 5: Bind the Repeater from Code Behind

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (!Page.IsPostBack)
    {
	BindRepeater();
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// This method binds the Image Slider.
/// </summary>
private void BindRepeater()
{
    DataTable dt = new DataTable();
    dt.Columns.Add("image");

    for (int i = 1; i <= 20; i++)
    {
	dt.Rows.Add(i + ".jpg");
    }

    mylist.DataSource = dt;
    mylist.DataBind();
}

This code is very simple. It binds the Repeater from a DataTable, which contains rows as image names. Image names are 1.jpg, 2.jpg till 19.jpg. You can put your image binding logic here to bind the Repeater.

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