Asp.Net: Is a GridView really able to handle for all browsers or only a pain?

Question

I am Asp.Net Developer since 3 years now. I had different projects in which we used the ASP.Net-GridView-Control.

The problem ist, we had really really a pain by designing the GridView. We need around 2-10 hours per GridView only for a simple design. It was such a pain, you didn't believe. (and Yes, we really used CSS and so on!). Even after very much work on the GridViews it doesn't look the same in every browser. In IE7/8 it looks still different as in FF 3/4 or IE9.

My newest project need to 100% a same looking user interface in every browser and need 100% well design and style. So there is no space for CSS&GridView-Bugs (I can list you over 20 of these!) or hours after hours for a simple GridView to design.

So my question is:

• Is it able to handle the different lookings in browsers for the GridView?
• Did I miss anything in styling a gridView, which can cause my unlimited pain with GridViews?
• Is there another easy and good control, which I can bind on an ObjectDataSource and work with, which has nearly the same functions as a GridView? (Example: bind ImageButtons on a coloum)

Answer 1

Use a ListView. It makes no difference if you use CSS with the GridView because the GridView will still create a table-based layout. By using the ItemTemplates with the ListView , you can have total control over the markup generated with CSS. Of course, tabular data still warrants the use of tables...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc337898.aspx

Once you have your CSS-based layout being generated, you can use the HTML5Boilerplate project to gain cross-browser compatibility in a 'graceful degradation' manner:

http://html5boilerplate.com/

Answer 2

We need around 2-10 hours per GridView only for a simple design.

and

need to 100% a same looking user interface in every browser and need 100% well design and style.

By the sound of it, you need to buy a third party toolset like DevExpress, Infragistics, Telerek, or etc. instead. These companies have already figured out how to solve these needs. The cost can be easily justified based on the first need alone.

So the answer is: buy a third-party toolkit.