DataBind FormSite 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 FormSite Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\FormSite.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for FormSite (see below).

FormSite API Profile Settings

Log into your Formsite account and visit the Admin Portal to generate or retrieve your API key. Your

ServerNumber

is the numeric part of your server URL and

UserDirectory

is your account's directory path.

Windows Forms Controls

The code below shows how to populate a DevExpress chart with FormSite 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\FormSite.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;ServerNumber=your_server_number;UserDirectory=your_user_directory';")) {
  APIDataAdapter dataAdapter = new APIDataAdapter(
  "SELECT Id, Label FROM FormItems WHERE Position = '1'", 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[] { "Label" });
  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 FormSite 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\FormSite.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;ServerNumber=your_server_number;UserDirectory=your_user_directory';"))
{
  APIDataAdapter APIDataAdapter1 = new APIDataAdapter("SELECT Id, Label FROM FormItems WHERE Position = '1'", 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[] { "Label" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "Id";
  series.ValueScaleType = ScaleType.Numerical;
  ((DevExpress.XtraCharts.SideBySideBarSeriesView)series.View).ColorEach = true;
}