Hi, I have a corporate asp.net application - access to application is restricted to members of a particular AD group on domain. There are two types of user - ones which have read-write access and ones which have read only access. I have database table containing usernames and column indicating if they are read-only user or not. I use a combination of Windows authentication and custom principal/identity classes to assign a "IsReadOnly" property to user's identity. So far so good.

I am displaying records in GridView - for two of the columns in the grid, I need to display either a hyperlink field (for read-write users to click on) or a text field (for read-only users, so they can see values, but not click on). I need to figure out a way of swapping the hyperlink for a text field at runtime. The grid currently uses databound hyperlink fields, which I disable at runtime in the grid's RowDataBound event handler:

// code to get user's identity omitted for brevity

if (identity.IsReadOnly)
{
 e.Row.Cells[2].Enabled = false;
 e.Row.Cells[3].Enabled = false;
}

but this disables the hyperlinks so that the text appears greyed out - not the effect I want. I want the text to appear normal - just not as a hyperlink. Any ideas? Have seen similar posts suggesting using a template field - is this the only way? If so, where can I find good examples?

You could try getting a reference to the HyperLink field and then set the NavigateUrl property to "", e.g.

if (identity.IsReadOnly)
{
    HyperLink lnk = e.Row.Cells[2].Controls[0] as HyperLink;
    if (lnk != null)
    {
        lnk.NavigateUrl = "";
    }
}

Yep, DigiMortal's idea is definitely neater  

You can keep the hyper link column for the grid and by dynamically setting the Navigate Url property

your problem can be solved.

if (identity.IsReadOnly){
CType(e.Item.Cells(3).Controls(0), HyperLink).NavigateUrl="";

}

else{

//Set the the hyper link for the link here.

}

ssnishad:

if (identity.IsReadOnly){
CType(e.Item.Cells(3).Controls(0), HyperLink).NavigateUrl="";

}

else{

//Set the the hyper link for the link here.

}

Um, that's what I said but in your example you're mixing up c# and VB.Net so it wouldn't even compile. 

"I want the text to appear normal - just not as a hyperlink "

If u reallly wanted to not to use Hyperlink then use the CSS rather.

If u need code then ask. 

I have tried several of the suggestions and would like to say that DigiMortal's answer turned out to be best.

Whilst ramblor/ssnishad's answers seemed to be a lot simpler initially, setting the DataNavigateUrl property to an empty string still causes the text to be rendered in the same CSS style as a hyperlink, and trying to override the style added extra work. For a little more effort initially to create the extra two columns in the grid, DigiMortal's solution worked perfectly.