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CData Connect Server

DataBind Wijmo Grid to REST Data



Provide real-time REST data to interactive controls.

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

Configuring Connect Server

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

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to REST 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 REST 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 "REST" from Available Data Sources
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to REST.

    See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

    After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set Format to "XML" or "JSON" and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

    The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

    • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
    • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
    • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

    See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

  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 REST OData Endpoints in Connect Server

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

  1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
  2. Select the REST 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 REST Data using Wijmo Grid

Create a Real-Time Grid

Follow the steps below to consume REST 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 peopleView = new wijmo.data.ODataView("http://MyServer:MyPort/api.rsc/people", {
    			ajax: {
    			dataType: "jsonp",
    			username: "MyUser",
    			password: "MyAuthtoken",
    			data: { "$inlinecount": null }
    			},
    			pageSize: 10
    			});
    			peopleView.refresh();
    			peopleView.nextPage();
    			this.people = peopleView;
    			this.prevPage = function () {peopleView.prevPage();};
    			this.nextPage = function () {peopleView.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 REST Data in Real Time</h2>
    
    			<h3>People</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: people, 
          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 REST data.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your REST 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.