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CData Connect Server

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DataBind Wijmo Grid to Airtable Data


Provide real-time Airtable data to interactive controls.

The Connect Server enables you to use Web services to connect to and query Airtable data. This article details how to import an OData feed of Airtable data into Wijmo Grid.

Configuring Connect Server

To work with live Airtable data in Wijmo Grid, we need to connect to Airtable from Connect Server, provide user access to the new virtual database, and create OData endpoints for the Airtable data.

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to Airtable from Wijmo Grid through Connect Server.

  1. Click Users -> Add
  2. Configure a User
  3. Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user

Connect to Airtable from Connect Server

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

  1. Open Connect Server and click Connections
  2. Select "Airtable" from Available Data Sources
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Airtable.

    APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

    • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
    • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
    • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
    • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.
  4. Click Save Changes
  5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for Reveal).

Add Airtable OData Endpoints in Connect Server

After connecting to Airtable, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

  1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
  2. Select the Airtable database
  3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
  4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
  5. Save the settings

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.

  • Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
  • Allow all domains without '*': ON
  • Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
  • Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Connect to Airtable Data using Wijmo Grid

Create a Real-Time Grid

Follow the steps below to consume Airtable data from the Wijmo JavaScript controls:

  1. Load the required Wijmo, jQuery, and Knockout libraries: 
    			
			<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
			<script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.11.0/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

			<!--Theme-->
			<link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/themes/aristo/jquery-wijmo.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

				<!--Wijmo Widgets CSS-->
				<link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

					<!--Wijmo Widgets JavaScript-->
					<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-open.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
					<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
					<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/wijmo.data.ajax.3.20161.90.js"></script>

					<!--Knockout JS Library-->
					<!-- Both of the links below can work -->
					<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/wijmo/external/knockout-2.2.0.js"></script>
					<!--<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/amd-js/3.20161.90/knockout-3.1.0.js"></script>-->

					<!--Wijmo Knockout Integration Library-->
					<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/knockout.wijmo.3.20161.90.js"></script>
  2. Create a ViewModel and connect to it using the ODataView. You will need to replace the placeholder values for the URL of the API Server, an API Server user, and the authtoken for that user. 
    			
			<script id="scriptInit">
			$.support.cors = true;
			var viewModel;

			function ViewModel() {
			var sampletable_1View = new wijmo.data.ODataView("http://MyServer:MyPort/api.rsc/SampleTable_1", {
			ajax: {
			dataType: "jsonp",
			username: "MyUser",
			password: "MyAuthtoken",
			data: { "$inlinecount": null }
			},
			pageSize: 10
			});
			sampletable_1View.refresh();
			sampletable_1View.nextPage();
			this.sampletable_1 = sampletable_1View;
			this.prevPage = function () {sampletable_1View.prevPage();};
			this.nextPage = function () {sampletable_1View.nextPage();};
			}

			$(document).ready(function () {
			viewModel = new ViewModel();
			ko.applyBindings(viewModel, $(".container").get(0));
			});
			</script>
  3. DataBind: Below is a simple table with some paging buttons, which you can paste into the body section of your markup. 
    			
			<h2>Connect to Live Airtable Data in Real Time</h2>

			<h3>SampleTable_1</h3>
			<div>
				<button title="previous page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: prevPage, button: {}">
					<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-prev" />
				</button>
				<button title="next page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: nextPage, button: {}">
					<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-next" />
				</button>
			</div>
			<table id="demo-grid" data-bind="wijgrid: { 
      data: sampletable_1, 
      showFilter: true, 
      allowPaging: true,
      pagerSettings: { position: 'none'},
      columnsAutogenerationMode: 'append',
    }" >
			</table>

At this point, you may be prompted to re-enter the username and authtoken. After doing so, a resulting table or grid should appear, as seen below. You can filter and sort through pages of Airtable data.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Airtable data (or data from any of our other supported data sources) from Wijmo Grid, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Server today! For more information on Connect Server and to see what other data sources we support, refer to our CData Connect page.