DataBind Charts to Reckon Data

Ready to get started?

Download for a free trial:

Download Now

Learn more:

Reckon ADO.NET Provider

Complete read-write access to Reckon enables developers to search (Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts, etc.), update items, edit customers, and more, from any .NET application.

In this article

Related articles


Use the standard ADO.NET procedures for databinding to provide bidirectional access to Reckon data from controls in the Visual Studio toolbox. This article demonstrates a graphical approach using wizards in Visual Studio, as well as how to databind with only a few lines of code.

DataBinding enables bidirectional access to data from UI controls. You can use the CData ADO.NET Provider for Reckon to easily databind Reckon data to Windows Forms and Web controls in Visual Studio. This article shows how to use wizards to databind Reckon data to a chart that reflects any changes. The code walk-through section shows how to create a chart in 10 lines of code.

DataBind to a Chart

DataBinding consists of three steps: Instantiate the control, configure the data source, and databind.

Configure the Connection and Select Database Objects

Follow the procedure below to use the Data Source Configuration Wizard to create a chart control and the connection to Reckon. In the wizard, you can select the Reckon entities you want to databind.

  1. In a Windows Forms project, drag and drop a Chart control from the toolbox to the form. In the Data section of the Chart properties, select DataSource and then select Add Project Data Source from the menu.
  2. In the Data Source Configuration Wizard that appears, select Database -> Dataset.
  3. In the Choose Your Data Connection step, click New Connection.

  4. In the Add Connection dialog, click Change to select the CData Reckon Data Source.

    Below is a typical connection string:

    User=RCUser;Password=RCUserPassword;URL=http://remotehost:8166;

    When you are connecting to a local Reckon instance, you do not need to set any connection properties.

    Requests to Reckon are made through the Remote Connector. The Remote Connector runs on the same machine as Reckon and accepts connections through a lightweight, embedded Web server. The server supports SSL/TLS, enabling users to connect securely from remote machines.

    The first time you connect to your company file, you will need to authorize the Remote Connector with Reckon. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide.

    When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

  5. Choose the database objects you want to work with. This example uses the Customers table.

DataBind

After adding the data source and selecting database objects, you can bind the objects to the chart. This example assigns the x-axis to Name and the y-axis to CustomerBalance.

  1. In the Chart properties, click the button in the Series property to open the Series Collection Editor.
  2. In the Series properties, select the columns you want for the x- and y-axes: Select columns from the menu in the XValueMember and YValueMember properties.

The chart is now databound to the Reckon data. Run the chart to display the current data.

Code Walk-through

DataBinding to Reckon data requires only a few lines of code and can be completed in three easy steps.

  1. Connect to Reckon.
  2. Create the ReckonDataAdapter to execute the query and create a DataSet to be filled with its results.
  3. DataBind the result set to the chart.

Below is the complete code:

ReckonConnection conn = new ReckonConnection("User=RCUser;Password=RCUserPassword;URL=http://remotehost:8166;"); ReckonCommand comm = new ReckonCommand("SELECT Name, CustomerBalance FROM Customers", conn); ReckonDataAdapter da = new ReckonDataAdapter(comm); DataSet dataset = new DataSet(); da.Fill(dataset); chart1.DataSource = dataset; chart1.Series[0].XValueMember = "Name"; chart1.Series[0].YValueMembers = "CustomerBalance"; // Insert code for additional chart formatting here. chart1.DataBind();