DataBind Browse AI Data to the DevExpress Data Grid

The CData API Driver for ADO.NET incorporates conventional ADO.NET data access components compatible with third-party controls. You can adhere to the standard ADO.NET data binding procedures to establish two-way access to real-time data through UI controls. This article will demonstrate the utilization of CData components for data binding with DevExpress UI Controls (Windows Forms and Web controls), specifically binding to a chart that visualizes live data.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the BrowseAI Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\BrowseAI.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for BrowseAI (see below).

BrowseAI API Profile Settings

BrowseAI is a web scraping and automation platform that allows you to train robots to extract and monitor data from websites. Authentication is performed using an API key that is sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

The BrowseAI API key has the format {userId}:{apiKey}, where both parts are UUIDs separated by a colon. This full string is provided as a single value in the BrowseAI dashboard.

To obtain your API key:

1. Log in to your BrowseAI account at https://app.browse.ai
2. Navigate to Settings in the dashboard
3. Locate the API section
4. Copy the full API key string displayed (format: userId:apiKey)

After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

• APIKey: Set this to your BrowseAI API key (format: userId:apiKey).

Windows Forms Controls

The code below shows how to populate a DevExpress chart with Browse AI data. The APIDataAdapter binds to the Series property of the chart control. The Diagram property of the control defines the x- and y-axes as the column names.

using (APIConnection connection = new APIConnection(
"Profile=C:\profiles\BrowseAI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_user_id:your_api_key';")) {
  APIDataAdapter dataAdapter = new APIDataAdapter(
  "SELECT Id, Status FROM RobotTasks WHERE RobotId = 'your-robot-id'", connection);
  
  DataTable table = new DataTable();
  dataAdapter.Fill(table);
  DevExpress.XtraCharts.Series series = new DevExpress.XtraCharts.Series();
  chartControl1.Series.Add(series);
  series.DataSource = table;
  series.ValueDataMembers.AddRange(new string[] { "Status" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = DevExpress.XtraCharts.ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "Id";
  series.ValueScaleType = DevExpress.XtraCharts.ScaleType.Numerical;
  chartControl1.Legend.Visibility = DevExpress.Utils.DefaultBoolean.False;
  ((DevExpress.XtraCharts.SideBySideBarSeriesView)series.View).ColorEach = true;                              
}

Web Controls

The code below shows how to populate a DevExpress Web control with Browse AI data. The APIDataAdapter binds to the Series property of the chart; the Diagram property defines the x- and y-axes as the column names.

using DevExpress.XtraCharts;

using (APIConnection connection = new APIConnection(
"Profile=C:\profiles\BrowseAI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_user_id:your_api_key';"))
{
  APIDataAdapter APIDataAdapter1 = new APIDataAdapter("SELECT Id, Status FROM RobotTasks WHERE RobotId = 'your-robot-id'", connection);
  DataTable table = new DataTable();
  APIDataAdapter1.Fill(table);
  DevExpress.XtraCharts.Series series = new Series("Series1", ViewType.Bar);
  WebChartControl1.Series.Add(series);
  series.DataSource = table;
  series.ValueDataMembers.AddRange(new string[] { "Status" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "Id";
  series.ValueScaleType = ScaleType.Numerical;
  ((DevExpress.XtraCharts.SideBySideBarSeriesView)series.View).ColorEach = true;
}