I am developing a module and inserting some dropdowns on the settings page. on settings.ascx I have this control.

<asp:DropDownList id="HCdropvenues" DataTextField="Venues" DataValueField="Venues" runat="server"></asp:DropDownList>


on the Settings.ascx.vb page i have the following code to populate the DropDownList.


                    'Populate Venue DropDown
                    HCdropvenues.Items.Add("All Venues")
                    HCdropvenues.AppendDataBoundItems = True

                    Dim strConnString As [String] = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("conString").ConnectionString


                    Dim strQuery As [String] = "SELECT [name] FROM [PPMSVenue]"

                    Dim con As New SqlConnection(strConnString)

                    Dim cmd As New SqlCommand()

                    cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text

                    cmd.CommandText = strQuery

                    cmd.Connection = con

                    Try

                        con.Open()

                        HCdropvenues.DataSource = cmd.ExecuteReader()

                        HCdropvenues.DataTextField = "Venues"

                        HCdropvenues.DataValueField = "Venues"

                        HCdropvenues.DataBind()

                    Catch ex As Exception
                        Throw ex
                    Finally
                        con.Close()
                        con.Dispose()
                    End Try

I am receiving this error
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at HC.Modules.RankingsExport.Settings.LoadSettings() --- End of inner exception stack trace ---


What am i missing? Is there a better way to populate this within DNN?

I have fixed this. Instead of doing this programmatically I just used the designer and added a SqlDataSource to the form and then binded it that way.