How to: Customize Connection Settings before DashboardViewer Connects to a Database

• Mar 31, 2018
• 2 minutes to read

This example demonstrates how to customize connection settings before the DashboardViewer connects to a database using the DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection event.

In this example, the dashboard’s XML definition contains a path to the secured Microsoft Access database. To visualize data from this database file, it is necessary to provide connection parameters; in particular, a user name and password for authentication. The DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection event is used for this purpose. Its Access97ConnectionParameters.UserName and FileConnectionParametersBase.Password parameters are used to provide the user name and password respectively.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/how-to-customize-connection-settings-before-dashboardviewer-connects-to-a-database-e4759.

Form1.cs

using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.XtraEditors;

namespace Dashboard_ConfigureDataConnection {
    public partial class Form1 : XtraForm {
        public Form1() {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Loads a dashboard from an XML file.
            dashboardViewer1.LoadDashboard(@"..\..\Data\nwindDashboard.xml");
        }

        // Handles the ConfigureDataConnection event.
        private void dashboardViewer1_ConfigureDataConnection(object sender, 
            DashboardConfigureDataConnectionEventArgs e) {

            // Checks the name of the connection for which the event has been raised.
            if (e.DataSourceName == "SQL Data Source 1") {

                // Gets the connection parameters used to establish a connection to the database.
                Access97ConnectionParameters parameters = 
                    (Access97ConnectionParameters)e.ConnectionParameters;

                // Specifies the user name used to access the database file. 
                parameters.UserName = "Admin";

                // Specifies the password used to access the database file.
                parameters.Password = "password";
            }
        }
    }
}

Form1.vb

Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters
Imports DevExpress.DashboardCommon
Imports DevExpress.XtraEditors

Namespace Dashboard_ConfigureDataConnection
    Partial Public Class Form1
        Inherits XtraForm

        Public Sub New()
            InitializeComponent()

            ' Loads a dashboard from an XML file.
            dashboardViewer1.LoadDashboard("..\..\Data\nwindDashboard.xml")
        End Sub

        ' Handles the ConfigureDataConnection event.
        Private Sub dashboardViewer1_ConfigureDataConnection(ByVal sender As Object, _
                                     ByVal e As DashboardConfigureDataConnectionEventArgs) _
                                 Handles dashboardViewer1.ConfigureDataConnection

            ' Checks the name of the connection for which the event has been raised.
            If e.DataSourceName = "SQL Data Source 1" Then

                ' Gets the connection parameters used to establish a connection to the database.
                Dim parameters As Access97ConnectionParameters =
                    CType(e.ConnectionParameters, Access97ConnectionParameters)

                ' Specifies the user name used to access the database file. 
                parameters.UserName = "Admin"

                ' Specifies the password used to access the database file.
                parameters.Password = "password"
            End If
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace