Connecting to a Data Source

• Feb 08, 2019
• 4 minutes to read

The DevExpress Dashboard allows you to connect to any supported data source by using either special Data Source wizards or the API provided by the DevExpress.DataAccess library.

WinForms Data Source Wizard

Web Data Source Wizard

The table below lists ways of establishing a connection to data depending on the selected platform/data source type.

Data Source Type	API	WinForms Designer	Web Dashboard
SQL Data Source	DashboardSqlDataSource	By default, end-users can establish a connection to various types of SQL databases by specifying required connection parameters in the Data Source wizard. As an alternative, add the required connection strings in the application’s configuration file to supply end-users with a set of default data connections. To learn more, see Connecting to SQL Databases. Use the DashboardSqlDataSource class to create a SQL data source available to end-users.	Add a connection string to web.config to allow end-users to establish a connection. To learn more, see the following topics: ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Connections/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Connections. Use the DashboardSqlDataSource class to create a SQL data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.
OLAP Data Source	DashboardOlapDataSource	By default, end-users can establish a connection to OLAP cubes by specifying connection parameters in the Data Source wizard. As an alternative, add required connection strings in the application’s configuration file to supply end-users with a set of default data connections. To learn more, see OLAP Data Source. Use the DashboardOlapDataSource class to create a OLAP data source available to end-users.	Add a connection string to web.config to allow end-users to establish a connection. To learn more, see the following topics: ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Connections/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Connections. Use the DashboardOlapDataSource class to create a OLAP data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.
Excel Data Source	DashboardExcelDataSource	End-users can connect to an Excel workbook or CSV file using the Data Source wizard. To learn more, see Excel Data Source. Use the DashboardExcelDataSource class to create an Excel data source available to end-users.	Use the DashboardExcelDataSource class to create an Excel data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.
Entity Framework Data Source	DashboardEFDataSource	End-users can connect to an Entity Framework data source using the Data Source wizard. To supply the end-users with this capability, add an Entity Framework model to your project. To learn more, see Entity Framework Data Source. Use the DashboardEFDataSource class to create an Entity Framework data source available to end-users.	Use the DashboardEFDataSource class to create an Entity Framework data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.
Object Data Source	DashboardObjectDataSource	End-users can connect to an Object data source using the Data Source wizard. To supply the end-users with this capability, define an object data source in a separate class within a project. To learn more, see Object Data Source. Use the DashboardObjectDataSource class to create an Object data source available to end-users.	Use the DashboardObjectDataSource class to create an Object data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.
Extract Data Source	DashboardExtractDataSource	End-users can create a new data extract or establish a connection to an existing data extract using the Data Source wizard. To learn more, see Extract Data Source. Use the DashboardExtractDataSource class to create an Extract data source available to end-users.	Use the DashboardExtractDataSource class to create a data source available to end-users. See ASP.NET Web Forms Dashboard Control - Register Default Data Sources/ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Register Default Data Sources.

Note

The DevExpress Dashboard uses database servers that can be configured to use case-sensitive table/column names. For this reason, a database scheme used in dashboards is case-sensitive to prevent any problem when the product is used with such servers.