I have a gridview control that is populated by an ObjectDataSource control that is hooked into my controller class. The problem I am having is getting null dates to show up as an empty string rather than 1/1/0001 12:00 AM. Ideas on how to get this to work?

<asp:TextBox ID="txtWorkOrderNo" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><asp:LinkButton ID="cmdSearchByWo"
        runat="server" CausesValidation="False" CssClass="COmmandButton">Search</asp:LinkButton></asp:Panel>

<asp:GridView ID="grdSearch" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
    DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource1" CssClass="Mytable1" CellPadding="3">
    <Columns>
        <asp:CommandField ShowSelectButton=true  SelectText="Details" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="WorkOrderId" HeaderText="WorkOrderId" SortExpression="WorkOrderId" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="LocName" HeaderText="LocName" SortExpression="LocName" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="StatusName" HeaderText="StatusName" SortExpression="StatusName" />
        
        <asp:BoundField DataField="DateOpened" DataFormatString="{0:MM/dd/yy}" HeaderText="DateOpened" ConvertEmptyStringToNull="False"
            SortExpression="DateOpened" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="DataClosed"  DataFormatString="{0:MM/dd/yy}" HeaderText="DataClosed" SortExpression="DataClosed" ConvertEmptyStringToNull="False" />
        
    </Columns>
   <RowStyle CssClass="Normal" Wrap="False" />
                    <HeaderStyle BackColor="Black" ForeColor="White" Wrap="False" />
                    <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="Gainsboro" />
</asp:GridView>
<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSource1" runat="server" OldValuesParameterFormatString="original_{0}"
    SelectMethod="GetWorkOrder" TypeName="FRS.FRSController">
    <SelectParameters>
        <asp:ControlParameter ControlID="txtWorkOrderNo" Name="WorkOrderId" PropertyName="Text"
            Type="Int32" />
    </SelectParameters>
</asp:ObjectDataSource> 

Ok, I see where this happens. It is in FillCollection(..) , FillObject(..), CreateObject(..) used when DAL creates the collection that gets bound to the GridView in DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities.CBO. I don't see a way to turn off the behavior. Nulls are simply coded this way. There is a GetNull function available to reverse the conversion, but FillCollection does not use it. Users of the collectiion are expected to, I guess.

The fact that -1 is used for the Null integer value may be the show stopper for me. I can't affort to look at an integer and assume that a value -1 means it used to be a Null. -1 is a valid value for some columns.. I wonder why the decision was to use -1 instead of integer.MinValue like the other null conversions.

The only options I see for now are 1) translate my doubles to varchars somehow using a view before I bring them in to the module. This way nulls would translate to empty string instead of "- mass of the universe". 2) alter the DNN framework classes (nahh...) 3) Use direct DB calls and avoid DAL in my module.. None are good choices.

Thanks,

I was being quite lazy, but the more experimentation I do, the more I realize that I have to do this myself and not use the CBO classes. It may also be difficult to use GridView and ObjectDataSource as they don't give enough low level control of the rendering. Maybe not. I'm still looking.

Thanks for getting me back on track. I actually had seen those posts and went back to re-read them. Here they are for reference.

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Default.aspx?tabid=825&EntryID=1116

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Blogs/tabid/825/EntryID/1221/Default.aspx