C# How To: Cascading dropdowns on a Formview for Country\Region selection

This is something most ASP.Net apps deal with regularly, but I couldn't find one solid solution on the interwebs. I needed a user to select a country and then have the "Region" dropdown be populated with the expected list of regions (states, provinces, etc)
I hope this helps. If not, at least I'll remember how it's done.

FYI, I've intentionally left out some details around data access since I am using ObjectDataSources and you can handle data access however u need. I also assume that you have a simple FormView control working that can update a record in your database.

Steps:
1: Make sure 'EnableViewState=true' is on your ASPX page or Masterpage.
2: Make sure you have a field like Country and Region in the DataTable you are editing and make sure you can update these values through an objectdatasource, if you want this example to work.

3: Create an objectdatasource (ie. odsCountries) that returns a list of Countries and bind to ddlCountry.

<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="odsCountries" runat="server" OldValuesParameterFormatString="original_{0}" SelectMethod="GetCountries" TypeName="BLL">
</asp:ObjectDataSource>

4: Create an objectdatasource (ie. odsRegions) that returns a list of Regions with a Country parameter and bind to ddlCountry.

<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="odsRegions" runat="server" OldValuesParameterFormatString="original_{0}" SelectMethod="GetRegions" TypeName="BLL">
<SelectParameters>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID="editForm$ddlCountry" Name="Country"/>
</SelectParameters>
</asp:ObjectDataSource>


5: Add a Country dropdownlist to the Formview's edit template (ie. ddlCountry)

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCountry" runat="server" SelectedValue='<%# Bind("COUNTRY") %>' DataSourceID="odsCountries"
OnDataBound="ddlCountry_DataBound" DataTextField="Country" DataValueField="Country" AutoPostBack="True"></asp:DropDownList>


6: Add a Region dropdownlist to the Formview's edit template (ie. ddlRegion)

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlRegion" DataSourceID="odsRegions" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True"
DataTextField="REGION" OnDataBound="ddlState_DataBound"/>

7: Create 2 DataBound EventHandlers for each DropDownlist

protected void ddlCountry_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DropDownList ddlCountry = (DropDownList)sender;
ListItem li = new ListItem("Choose a Country", "");
ddlCountry.Items.Insert(0, li);

FormView editForm = (FormView)ddlCountry.NamingContainer;
if (editForm.DataItem != null)
{
string strCountry = ((DataRowView)editForm.DataItem)["COUNTRY"].ToString();
ddlCountry.ClearSelection();
ListItem li2 = ddlCountry.Items.FindByValue(strCountry);
if (li2 != null) li2.Selected = true;
}
}

protected void ddlRegion_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DropDownList ddlRegion = (DropDownList)sender;
ListItem li = new ListItem("Choose a Region", "");
ddlRegion.Items.Insert(0, li);

FormView editForm = (FormView)ddlRegion.NamingContainer;
if (editForm.DataItem != null)
{
string strRegion = ((DataRowView)editForm.DataItem)["REGION"].ToString();
ddlRegion.ClearSelection();

ListItem li2 = ddlRegion.Items.FindByValue(strRegion);
if (li2 != null) li2.Selected = true;
}

}

8: Don't forget to add this to your Update\Insert parameters on the Objectdatasource for your formview. This is needed to properly find the Region ddl within the Formview

<asp:ControlParameter ControlID="editForm$ddlRegion" Name="Region" />