The GridView of ASP.NET 2.0 has replaced the DataGrid and
the scenario mentioned above just does not work in ASP.NET 2.0.
When the column’s visibility property is set to False, the
GridView does not bind the data to the column. When you try to retrieve data
from the hidden column, you get an empty string.
Result? You start debugging your application and end up
being lost in the web.
I hope the solution mentioned below saves some of your
precious development time.