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

iContact API Profile Settings

In your iContact account, navigate to Settings & Billing > Integrations and create a Custom API Integration. Your AppId, Username, Password, and AccountId are all available on the Getting Connected page of that integration.

Windows Forms Controls

The code below shows how to populate a DevExpress chart with iContact 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\IContact.apip;ProfileSettings='AppId=your_app_id;Username=your_username;Password=your_password;AccountId=your_account_id';")) {
  APIDataAdapter dataAdapter = new APIDataAdapter(
  "SELECT ClientFolderId, CampaignId FROM Campaigns WHERE Name = 'Summer Newsletter 2024'", 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[] { "CampaignId" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = DevExpress.XtraCharts.ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "ClientFolderId";
  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 iContact 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\IContact.apip;ProfileSettings='AppId=your_app_id;Username=your_username;Password=your_password;AccountId=your_account_id';"))
{
  APIDataAdapter APIDataAdapter1 = new APIDataAdapter("SELECT ClientFolderId, CampaignId FROM Campaigns WHERE Name = 'Summer Newsletter 2024'", 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[] { "CampaignId" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "ClientFolderId";
  series.ValueScaleType = ScaleType.Numerical;
  ((DevExpress.XtraCharts.SideBySideBarSeriesView)series.View).ColorEach = true;
}