DataBind SpaceX Data to the DevExpress Data Grid

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the CData API Driver for ADO.NET with the DevExpress Windows Forms and Web controls to provide SpaceX data to a chart.

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

SpaceX API Profile Settings

No authentication is required to access SpaceX data — the SpaceX API is publicly available. Simply set the Profile connection property to the path of the SpaceX profile file.

Windows Forms Controls

The code below shows how to populate a DevExpress chart with SpaceX 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\SpaceX.apip;")) {
  APIDataAdapter dataAdapter = new APIDataAdapter(
  "SELECT CapsuleSerial, CapsuleId FROM Capsules WHERE Status = 'active'", 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[] { "CapsuleId" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = DevExpress.XtraCharts.ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "CapsuleSerial";
  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 SpaceX 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\SpaceX.apip;"))
{
  APIDataAdapter APIDataAdapter1 = new APIDataAdapter("SELECT CapsuleSerial, CapsuleId FROM Capsules WHERE Status = 'active'", 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[] { "CapsuleId" });
  series.ArgumentScaleType = ScaleType.Qualitative;
  series.ArgumentDataMember = "CapsuleSerial";
  series.ValueScaleType = ScaleType.Numerical;
  ((DevExpress.XtraCharts.SideBySideBarSeriesView)series.View).ColorEach = true;
}

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from SpaceX with the API Driver

Connect to SpaceX