Viewing SharePoint Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData FireDAC Components for SharePoint, you gain access to live SharePoint data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update SharePoint data. This article will walk through connecting to SharePoint using the Data Explorer.

Connecting to SharePoint Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying SharePoint data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for SharePoint and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.

2. Right-click on CData SharePoint Data Source and click Add New Connection.

   
3. Name the connection.

4. Fill in the necessary connection parameters and click OK.
   

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

   
5. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

6. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: MyCustomList) onto the form.

   
7. Select the MyCustomListTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

8. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   

9. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the MyCustomList data.