SAP Sybase Advantage

• May 18, 2023
• 4 minutes to read

The Dashboard Designer allows you to connect to different types of SQL databases in the Data Source Wizard. You can also use data access API to connect to the database and select data in code.

This tutorial describes how to establish a connection to an SAP Sybase Advantage database and select data.

• Create a Data Source in the Data Source Wizard
• Create a Data Source in Code

Important

The appropriate data provider must be installed on the client machine. For information on data providers, refer to the Data Sources article.

Create a Data Source in the Data Source Wizard

To connect to an SAP Sybase Advantage database in the Dashboard Designer, follow the steps below:

1. Click the New Data Source button in the Data Source ribbon tab.

   

2. On the first page of the invoked Data Source Wizard dialog, select SAP Sybase Advantage and click Next.

   

3. On the next page, specify connection parameters.

   

   • Database

     Specifies the path to the database that contains data. To locate the database, click the ellipsis button next to the Database field.

   • User name

     Specifies the user name used to connect to the SAP Sybase Advantage database.

   • Password

     Specifies the password used to connect to the SAP Sybase Advantage database.

   • Server type

     Specifies the type of the Advantage server. You can select from the Local, Remote, and Internet types.

4. Click Next and specify how to select data from the database.

   

   You can choose from the following options:

   • Select the Query option and click Run Query Builder… to invoke the Query Builder. The Query Builder allows you to choose the tables/columns and passes the resulting SQL query to the SQL String editor. Subsequently, the text of the generated query returns to the Data Source wizard.

     

     Click Finish to create the data source.

     Note

     If you apply filtering or use query parameters, click Next to specify the parameter settings.

   • Select the Stored Procedure option to select one of the stored procedures from the database.

     

     Then click Next to specify the parameter settings.

5. On the last page, you can optionally add query parameters and preview data.

   

   Click Finish to create the data source.

Create a Data Source in Code

To create a data source that uses a connection to the SAP Sybase Advantage database, create an instance of the DashboardSqlDataSource class and follow the steps below:

1. Specify connection parameters for the SAP Sybase Advantage database. Create the AdvantageConnectionParameters class object and specify the following properties:

   • Use the FileConnectionParametersBase.FileName property to specify the path to the database that contains data.
   • Use the AdvantageConnectionParameters.UserName and FileConnectionParametersBase.Password properties to specify user credentials.

   Assign the resulting AdvantageConnectionParameters object to the SqlDataSource.ConnectionParameters property.

   Note

   Alternatively, you can add a connection string with parameters to the application configuration file. Then, assign the connection string name to the SqlDataSource.ConnectionName property.

2. Create one of the following objects to specify the query:

   • Create a SelectQuery object to specify a set of tables/columns that form a SELECT statement when you execute a query.
   • Create a CustomSqlQuery object to specify an SQL query. Use the CustomSqlQuery.Sql property to specify a custom query string.
   • Create a StoredProcQuery object to execute a stored procedure call and supply the dashboard with data.

   Add the created query to the SqlDataSource.Queries collection exposed by the DashboardSqlDataSource object.

3. Add the created DashboardSqlDataSource object to the Dashboard.DataSources collection.

The following code snippet shows how to supply the dashboard with data from the SAP Sybase Advantage database:

C#

using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql;
// ...
            AdvantageConnectionParameters advantageParams = new AdvantageConnectionParameters();
            advantageParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.add";
            advantageParams.UserName = "Admin";
            advantageParams.Password = "password";            

            DashboardSqlDataSource sqlDataSource = new DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", advantageParams);
            SelectQuery selectQuery = SelectQueryFluentBuilder
                .AddTable("SalesPerson")
                .SelectColumns("CategoryName", "Extended Price")
                .Build("Query 1");
            sqlDataSource.Queries.Add(selectQuery);
            sqlDataSource.Fill();
            dashboard.DataSources.Add(sqlDataSource);

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.DashboardCommon
Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters
Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql
' ...
            Dim advantageParams As New AdvantageConnectionParameters()
            advantageParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.add"
            advantageParams.UserName = "Admin"
            advantageParams.Password = "password"

            Dim sqlDataSource As New DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", advantageParams)
            Dim query As SelectQuery = SelectQueryFluentBuilder _ 
                .AddTable("SalesPerson") _ 
                .SelectColumns("CategoryName", "Extended Price") _
                .Build("Query 1")
            sqlDataSource.Queries.Add(selectQuery)
            sqlDataSource.Fill()
            dashboard.DataSources.Add(sqlDataSource)