<%@ Control Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" Codebehind="News.ascx.vb" Inherits="DamianM.News" %>;
<asp:datalist id="dlNews" runat="server" repeatcolumns="2" borderwidth="1" itemstyle-wrap="true" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10" headerstyle-backcolor="#CC4444" headerstyle-font-bold="true" headerstyle-font-size="20" headerstyle-forecolor="White" itemstyle-font-name="Georgia" headerstyle-font-name="Georgia" itemstyle-backcolor="#EEEEEE" itemstyle-verticalalign="Top" itemstyle-horizontalalign="Left" width="300" showheader="true" enableviewstate="false">
 
		UK News <img src="http://www.pixunlimited.co.uk/guardian/site/distribution/buttons/guardianUnlim.gif" />
 
	<itemtemplate>
		<strong><a href="http://www.damianm.co.uk/wp-admin/%3C%#%20DataBinder.Eval%28Container.DataItem,%20%22strURL%22%29%20%%3E">
				<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "strHeadline") %>;
			</a></strong>
 
		<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "strSummary") %>;
	</itemtemplate>
</asp:datalist>

'you may notice that no namespaces have been imported
'all Classes are referred to in full for demonstration purposes
Public MustInherit Class News
    Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
    Protected WithEvents dlNews As System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataList
 
    'a pretty average standard data scraping function
    Private Function getHTML(ByVal strURL As String) As String
        Dim WebReq As System.Net.WebRequest
        WebReq = System.Net.WebRequest.Create(strURL)
 
        Dim strNews As String
        Try
            Dim WebRes As System.Net.WebResponse
            WebRes = WebReq.GetResponse()
 
            Dim WebStream As System.IO.StreamReader
            WebStream = New System.IO.StreamReader(WebRes.GetResponseStream(), System.Text.Encoding.UTF7)
            strNews = WebStream.ReadToEnd()
            WebRes.Close()
        Catch
            strNews = ""
        End Try
        getHTML = strNews
    End Function
 
    Private Function getNews() As System.Data.DataTable
        Dim rowNewsItem As System.Data.DataRow
 
        'create the table to be returned
        getNews = New System.Data.DataTable()
        getNews.Columns.Add("strURL")
        getNews.Columns.Add("strHeadline")
        getNews.Columns.Add("strSummary")
 
        'set up the regular expression for the news page
        Dim strRegex As String
        strRegex = "<A HREF='(?<strURL>[^']+)'[\s]*?>(?<strHeadline>[^<]+)</A>[\s\w\W]*?<BR>(?<strSummary>[^<]+)<"
        Dim Regex As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex
        Regex = New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(strRegex, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Compiled)
 
        'scrape the data
        Dim Matches As System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(getHTML("http://www.guardian.co.uk/syndication/service/0,11065,331-0-5,00.html"))
        Dim Match As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match
 
        'loop through all matches filling out the table as you go
        For Each Match In Matches
            rowNewsItem = getNews.NewRow()
            rowNewsItem("strURL") = Match.Groups("strURL").Value
            rowNewsItem("strHeadline") = Match.Groups("strHeadline").Value
            rowNewsItem("strSummary") = Match.Groups("strSummary").Value
            getNews.Rows.Add(rowNewsItem)
        Next
    End Function
 
    Public Property width() As System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit
        Get
            Return dlNews.Width
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit)
            dlNews.Width = Value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    'add properties to change header colour , width and number of columns
    Public Property cols() As Integer
        Get
            Return dlNews.RepeatColumns
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
            dlNews.RepeatColumns = Value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Public Property HeaderStyleBackColor() As System.Drawing.Color
        Get
            Return dlNews.HeaderStyle.BackColor()
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As System.Drawing.Color)
            dlNews.HeaderStyle.BackColor = Value
        End Set
    End Property
 
    Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        dlNews.DataSource = getNews()
        dlNews.DataBind()
    End Sub
End Class