VistaDB

• 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 a VistaDB database and select data. VistaDB 4, VistaDB 5, and VistaDB 6 databases are available.

• 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 a VistaDB 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 VistaDB and click Next.

   

   VistaDB4

   

   VistaDB5

   

   VistaDB6

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.

   • Password

     Specifies the password used to connect to the VistaDB database.

4. After you specify connection parameters, click Next and specify how to select data from the database.

   

   Click the Run Query Builder… button to invoke the Query Builder. The Query Builder allows you to choose tables/columns and passes the resulting SQL query to the SQL String editor. After you constructed the query in the Query Builder, the text of the generated query is passed to the Data Source wizard.

   

   Click Finish to create the data source.

   Note

   If you applied filtering to this query and created the query parameter, you can click Next to specify the settings of the query parameter.

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 VistaDB database, create an instance of the DashboardSqlDataSource class and follow the steps below:

1. Specify connection parameters for the VistaDB database. Create the VistaDBConnectionParameters/VistaDB5ConnectionParameters or VistaDB6ConnectionParameters class object and specify the following properties:

   • Use the FileConnectionParametersBase.FileName property to specify the path to the database that contains data.
   • Use the FileConnectionParametersBase.Password property to specify the password used to access the database.

   Assign the resulting VistaDBConnectionParameters 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.

   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 VistaDB Northwind database:

C#

using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql;
         // VistaDB6:

         // VistaDB6ConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDB6ConnectionParameters();
         // vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb6";
         // vistadbParams.Password = "password"; 

         // VistaDB5:

         // VistaDB5ConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDB5ConnectionParameters();
         // vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb5";
         // vistadbParams.Password = "password"; 

         // VistaDB4:

            VistaDBConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDBConnectionParameters();
            vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb4";
            vistadbParams.Password = "password";            

            DashboardSqlDataSource sqlDataSource = new DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", vistadbParams);
            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
        '  VistaDB6:

        '  Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDB6ConnectionParameters()
        '  vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb6"
        '  vistadbParams.Password = "password"

        '  VistaDB5:

        '  Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDB5ConnectionParameters()
        '  vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb5"
        '  vistadbParams.Password = "password"

        '  VistaDB4:

            Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDBConnectionParameters()
            vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb4"
            vistadbParams.Password = "password"

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