Default text for empty Repeater control

Question

Using VS 2008, I have a Repeater control:

Answer 1

You could workaround the fact that Repeater does not support a inbuilt way to accomplish what you are doing by using the FooterTemplate in conjunction with the OnItemDataBound event and showing the footer only when the data source returns no items.

Examples on how you can do this can be found at:

Handling Empty Data in an ASP.NET Repeater control

How to show Empty Template in ASP.NET Repeater control?

Answer 2

You can use a footer template to manage massage, like this

Step 1

<FooterTemplate>
    <%-- Label used for showing Error Message --%>
    <asp:Label ID="lblDefaultMessage" runat="server" Text="Sorry, no item is there to show." Visible="false">
    </asp:Label>
</FooterTemplate> 

Step 2

Handle visibility of lable in Repeater_ItemDataBound event like

protected void Repeater_ItemDataBound(object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
{
 if (Repeater.Items.Count < 1)
  {
    if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Footer)
    {
        Label lblDefaultMessage= (Label)e.Item.FindControl("lblDefaultMessage");
        lblDefaultMessage.Visible = true;
    }
  }
}