IT

The DetailsView is pretty rigid in how it displays each record returned from the ObjectDataSource. We may want a more flexible view of the data.  

For example, rather than showing the product's name, category, supplier, price, and discontinued information each on a separate row, we may want to show the product name and price in an <h4> heading, with the category and supplier information appearing below the name and price in a smaller font size. And we may not care to show the property names (Product, Category, and so on) next to the values.

The FormView control provides this level of customization. Rather than using fields (like the GridView and DetailsView do), the FormView uses templates, which allow for a mix of Web controls, static HTML, and databinding syntax. If you are familiar with the Repeater control from ASP.NET 1.x, you can think of the FormView as the Repeater for showing a single record.

You can bind the FormView directly to a data source control through the FormView's smart tag, which will create a default ItemTemplate automatically (along with an EditItemTemplate and InsertItemTemplate, if the ObjectDatatSource control's InsertMethod and UpdateMethod properties are set). However, for this example let's bind the data to the FormView and specify its ItemTemplate manually. Start by setting the FormView's DataSourceID property to the ID of the ObjectDataSource control, ObjectDataSource1. Next, create the ItemTemplate so that it displays the product's name and price in an <h4> element and the category and shipper names beneath that in a smaller font size.

<asp:FormView ID="FormView1" runat="server" DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource1" 
    AllowPaging="True" EnableViewState="false">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <h4><%#Eval("productName") %> (<%#Eval("unitPrice")%>)</h4>
        Category: <%#Eval("CategoryName")%>;
        Suplier: <%#Eval("SupplierName")%>
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:FormView>

Like the DetailsView, the FormView only shows the first record returned from the ObjectDataSource. You can enable paging in the FormView to allow visitors to step through the products one at a time.

Related articles:
[1] - Displaying Data With the ObjectDataSource (A More Flexible Layout for Showing One Record at a Time)