Bound controls are the data-aware controls through which you access information in a database. When a control is bound to the RDS.DataControl object, Remote Data Service applies field values from the current database record to that control. In turn, the control displays data to you and accepts your changes.
With Internet Explorer 4.0, you can bind to simple HTML controls. Other ActiveX data-aware controls are available from third parties, such as Sheridan.
Two relationships are key to data binding with Internet Explorer 4.0: source and consumer. Data consumers specify binding by referencing the data source to which they are bound. To achieve this, your data consumers (controls such as text boxes or grids) specify the source of the data and the type of the data being bound.
Most bound controls are characterized by the following data-aware parameters of the <OBJECT> tag. These parameters are the HTML data-binding extensions available with Internet Explorer 4.0.
| Parameter | Description |
| DATASRC | Indicates the data source (RDS.DataControl object) for data binding. |
| DATAFLD | Indicates a column of a data set. |
| DATAFORMATAS | (Optional) Indicates the type of data being bound. |
You can have more than one bound control for a particular field, but you don't need to provide a bound control for each field in the table.
When you access your Web page front end, the RDS.DataControl works together with the database to give you access to a Recordset. You can then navigate the Recordset with navigation buttons that use the RDS.DataControl object's MoveFirst, MoveLast, MoveNext, and MovePrevious methods. You can also send updates to the database by using the RDS.DataControl object's SubmitChanges method.