DataBind Charts to Vercel Data

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the standard ADO.NET procedures for databinding to provide bidirectional access to Vercel 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 facilitates two-way interaction with data through UI controls. Using the CData ADO.NET Provider for Vercel streamlines the process of binding Vercel data to Windows Forms and Web controls within Visual Studio. In this article, we will demonstrate using wizards to establish a binding between Vercel data and a chart that dynamically updates. Additionally, the code walk-through section will guide you through the creation of a chart using just 10 lines of code.

Binding Data to a Chart

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

Configure the Connection and Select Database Objects

To create a chart control and establish a connection to Vercel, follow the steps outlined below using the Data Source Configuration Wizard. Within the wizard, you'll have the option to choose the specific Vercel entities you wish to bind to.

  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 Vercel Data Source.

    Below is a typical connection string:

    Profile=C:\profiles\Vercel.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=your_access_token;

    Using API Key Authentication

    Vercel uses Bearer token authentication. You can use either a personal access token or an OAuth access token as the API key.

    To obtain a personal access token:

    1. Log into your Vercel account at https://vercel.com/
    2. Navigate to Account Settings > Tokens.
    3. Click Create Token, enter a name and expiration, and click Create.
    4. Copy the generated token (it will only be shown once).

    After obtaining your token, set the following connection properties:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
    • APIKey: Set this to your Vercel personal access token or OAuth access token.

    Example Connection String

    Profile=C:\profiles\Vercel.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=your_access_token;
    

    Working with Teams

    Many Vercel resources are scoped to a team. To scope all requests to a specific team, set the TeamId connection property to your team's ID. You can find your team ID by querying the Teams table or from the Vercel dashboard. Alternatively, you can specify TeamId in your SQL queries using the WHERE clause where supported.

    Connecting to Vercel

    Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to Vercel and query data from any of the available tables such as Projects, Deployments, Teams, and Domains.

    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 User 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 and the y-axis to .

  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 Vercel data. Run the chart to display the current data.

Code Walk-through

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

  1. Connect to Vercel.
  2. Create the APIDataAdapter 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:

APIConnection conn = new APIConnection("Profile=C:\profiles\Vercel.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=your_access_token;");
APICommand comm = new APICommand("SELECT ,  FROM User WHERE  = ''", conn);
APIDataAdapter da = new APIDataAdapter(comm);
DataSet dataset = new DataSet();
da.Fill(dataset);

chart1.DataSource = dataset;  
chart1.Series[0].XValueMember = "";
chart1.Series[0].YValueMembers = "";
// Insert code for additional chart formatting here.
chart1.DataBind();

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