Register Default Data Connections

This document describes how to provide a Web Dashboard with a set of predefined data connections. These connections are displayed for end-users in the Dashboard Data Source Wizard when creating new data sources.

You can add a predefined connection in the following ways:

• Add a connection string specifying a valid connection to the required database to the project's appsetings.json file as shown below. Note that the connection string should contain the XpoProvider parameter that corresponds to the database type.

  • JSON

  {
    "ConnectionStrings": {
      "MS SQL Connection": "XpoProvider=MSSqlServer; data source=localhost; initial catalog=Northwind; Integrated Security=SSPI; Persist Security Info=True;",
      "XML Connection": "XpoProvider=InMemoryDataStore;Read Only=true;Data Source=Data\\nwind.xml;"
    }
  }
  

  After defining connection strings, create the DashboardConnectionStringsProvider instance and pass it to the DashboardConfigurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider method.

  • C#

  using DevExpress.DashboardWeb;
  // ...
  public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
              services
                  // ...
                  .AddDefaultDashboardController(configurator => {
                      configurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider(new DashboardConnectionStringsProvider(Configuration));
                  });
              // ...
          }
  

  To learn how to specify the XpoProvider parameter, see How to Specify a Custom Connection String for the SQL Data Source.

• Specify a data connection provider using the DashboardConfigurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider method.

  This example shows how to implement a custom connection strings provider by implementing the IDataSourceWizardConnectionStringsProvider interface:

  • C#

  using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
  using DevExpress.DataAccess.Native;
  using DevExpress.DataAccess.Web;
  // ...
  
      public class MyDataSourceWizardConnectionStringsProvider : IDataSourceWizardConnectionStringsProvider {
          public Dictionary<string, string> GetConnectionDescriptions() {
              Dictionary<string, string> connections = new Dictionary<string, string>();
  
              // Customize the loaded connections list.  
              connections.Remove("LocalSqlServer");
              connections.Add("msSqlConnection", "MS SQL Connection");
              connections.Add("xmlConnection", "XML Connection");
              return connections;
          }
  
          public DataConnectionParametersBase GetDataConnectionParameters(string name) {
              // Return custom connection parameters for the custom connection.
              if (name == "msSqlConnection") {
                  return new MsSqlConnectionParameters("localhost", "Northwind", "", "", MsSqlAuthorizationType.Windows);
              } else if (name == "xmlConnection") {                
                  return new XmlFileConnectionParameters("C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\DevExpress Demos 18.2\\Components\\Data\\nwind.xml");
              }
              return AppConfigHelper.LoadConnectionParameters(name);
          }
      }
  

  After implementing a custom connection strings provider, pass this class's instance to the DashboardConfigurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider method:

  • C#

  using DevExpress.DashboardWeb;
  // ...
  public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
              services
                  // ...
                  .AddDefaultDashboardController(configurator => {
                      configurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider(new MyDataSourceWizardConnectionStringsProvider());
                  });
              // ...
          }