Skip to main content
BuyLog In
Business Intelligence Dashboard
Search in…
Docs > WinForms Dashboard > WinForms Viewer > Providing Data
All docs
V24.1
Business Intelligence Dashboard
Get Started
.NET Support
Basic Concepts and Terminology
Common Features
WinForms Dashboard
General Information
WinForms Designer
WinForms Viewer
Add the Dashboard Viewer Control
Load a Dashboard
Providing Data
Obtaining Underlying and Displayed Data
Manage Data Inspector
Dialogs and Wizards
Popup Menus
Title and Item Captions
Printing and Exporting
Manage Interactivity Capabilities
Manage Dashboard Parameters
Manage Dashboard State
Manage Dashboard Layout
Touch Support
Customization
Access to Underlying Controls
Display Custom Properties
Customize Dashboard Colors
Web Dashboard
WPF Dashboard Viewer
Visual Studio Integration
Redistribution and Deployment
Video Tutorials
Migration Guides
Examples
End-User Documentation
.NET Framework API Reference
.NET API Reference
HTML JS Control API Reference
ASP.NET Client API Reference
Download CHM

Providing Data

  • 2 minutes to read

This document describes how to bind a dashboard displayed within the DashboardViewer to data. If you created the dashboard in the WinForms Dashboard Designer or using the Dashboard Designer available at Visual Studio design-time, use one of the following approaches to supply the dashboard displayed within the DashboardViewer with data.

Used Data Source

Description

SQL Data Source

The dashboard definition contains connection settings such as server names, database names or the entire connection strings. This information is used by the DashboardViewer to establish a connection to data. You can customize connection settings before connecting to a database using the DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection/Dashboard.ConfigureDataConnection events. To include WHERE clauses in SQL queries at runtime, handle the DashboardViewer.CustomFilterExpression/Dashboard.CustomFilterExpression events.

OLAP Data Source

The dashboard definition contains the OLAP connection string. This information is used by the DashboardViewer to establish a connection to data. You can customize connection settings before connecting to an OLAP cube using the DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection/Dashboard.ConfigureDataConnection events.

Excel Data Source

The dashboard definition contains the path to the Excel workbook/CSV file. This information is used by the DashboardViewer to establish a connection to data. You can customize connection settings before connecting to an Excel Data Source using the DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection/Dashboard.ConfigureDataConnection events.

Entity Framework Data Source

In this case, the dashboard definition can contain the following settings.

  • The dashboard definition contains the context name and the connection string name. In this case, the DashboardViewer‘s project should include the corresponding context class and the connection string in the application configuration file.
  • The dashboard definition contains the context name, the path to the external assembly and the custom connection string. In this case, the DashboardViewer uses these settings to establish a connection to data.

Object Data Source

The dashboard definition contains the name of the class used to provide data and optionally - the data member. You need to supply the dashboard with actual data at runtime using the DashboardViewer.DataLoading/Dashboard.DataLoading event.

Extract Data Source

The dashboard definition contains the path to the data extract. This information is used by the DashboardViewer to establish a connection to data. You can customize connection settings before connecting to an Extract Data Source using the DashboardViewer.ConfigureDataConnection/Dashboard.ConfigureDataConnection events.

Use the DashboardViewer.ReloadData method to reload data in all dashboard data sources.