One of the most pleasant surprises to greet developers out of the Microsoft ASP.NET 1.x box was data binding. Compared to classic Active Server Pages (ASP) support for data access, it was an extraordinary mix of simplicity and effectiveness. However, when measured against the real-world needs of developers, it yet left something to be desired. One can readily see the promise of rich and advanced functions glimmering from the API of data-bound controls like DataGrid and DataList; nevertheless, most of them require a good deal of boilerplate code to work out practical solutions.
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