Connecting to Various Data Sources

Basic operations

This feature was introduced in the Q1 2016 version of the controls. It enables you to use a regular server-side DataSource control and retrieve the data from it via RadClientDataSource. This way you can have client-side binding without the need to implement and configure a WebService. You can use any declarative server-side control - SqlDataSource, EntityDataSource, ObjectDataSource, etc.

Let's consider the following scenario. You have a control (e.g. RadGrid) bound to an EntityDataSource control and you would like to keep using the server operations provided by the Entity. At the same time you would prefer to bind the grid on the client-side to have smoother performance.

In this situation you can keep the EntityDataSource as is and add a RadClientDataSource control that is bound to it. Then, bind the RadGrid control to the RadClientDataSource. With this setup you will be able to keep using the server operations (e.g. Paging, Sorting) and have client-side binding at the same time without the need of custom code. Everything can be configured in the markup. The final markup would look similar to the snippet below:

<telerik:RadGrid RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadGrid1" runat="server" Skin="Silk"
    ClientDataSourceID="RadClientDataSource1" AllowPaging="true" AllowSorting="true">

    <MasterTableView ClientDataKeyNames="CustomerID">
        <Columns>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="CustomerID" HeaderText="Customer ID" ReadOnly="true">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="CompanyName" HeaderText="Company Name" ColumnEditorID="GridTextBoxEditor">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ContactName" HeaderText="Contact Name" ColumnEditorID="GridTextBoxEditor">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ContactTitle" HeaderText="Contact Title" ColumnEditorID="GridTextBoxEditor">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
        </Columns>
    </MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>


<telerik:RadClientDataSource ID="RadClientDataSource1" runat="server" EnableServerPaging="true" EnableServerSorting="true" AllowPaging="true">
    <DataSource>
        <DataSourceControlSettings DataSourceID="EntityDataSourceCustomers"
            DataKeyNames="CustomerID" DataFields="CompanyName, ContactName, ContactTitle" />
    </DataSource>
</telerik:RadClientDataSource>

<asp:EntityDataSource ID="EntityDataSourceCustomers" runat="server" ConnectionString="name=NorthwindReadWriteEntities"
    DefaultContainerName="NorthwindReadWriteEntities" EntitySetName="Customers" OrderBy="it.[ContactName]"
    EntityTypeFilter="Customer" EnableFlattening="False">
</asp:EntityDataSource>

The RadClientDataSource provides the following properties for configuration. They are available in the DataSource-DataSourceControlSettings section.

Property	Description
DataSourceID	ID of the DataSource control to be used for binding
DataKeyNames	Specifies the fields used for insert/update operations. Data for these fields will be read-only and will be included in the Where clause of the insert/update queries.
DataFields	Specifies the fields that will be bound from the DataSource, if leaved empty, all fields available in the DataSource should be serialized from server to client.
AllowAutomaticUpdates	Define if the control should perform automatic Update operations. The default value is false.
AllowAutomaticInserts	Define if the control should perform automatic Insert operations. The default value is false.
AllowAutomaticDeletes	Define if the control should perform automatic Delete operations. The default value is false.
DataMember	Set the name of the view (if many) of the DataSource that will be used when binding.
DataModelID	Used with Model Binding. Define the ID of the Model
SelectMethod	Used with Model Binding. Define the Select Method that will be used to retrieve the data.
DeleteMethod	Used with Model Binding. Define the Delete Method that will be used.
UpdateMethod	Used with Model Binding. Define the Update Method that will be used for updating records.

CRUD operations

Since Q1 2016 SP1 the RadClientDataSource control provides to option to perform CRUD operations. To enable this feature you need to ensure that the UpdateCommand/InsertCommand/DeleteCommand are configured correctly for the server-side DataSource control. Also you need to set the AllowAutomaticUpdates/Inserts/Deletes properties for RadClientDataSource to true. With this setup the relevant data will be sent to the server and the server-side logic for CRUD operations will be used.

The approach is outlined in the following code-snippets:

<telerik:RadGrid runat="server" ID="RadGrid2" ClientDataSourceID="RadClientDataSource2" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AutoGenerateEditColumn="True"
    AutoGenerateDeleteColumn="True" AllowPaging="True">
    <MasterTableView CommandItemDisplay="Top" 
        ClientDataKeyNames="OrderID" EditMode="Batch">
        <Columns>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn ReadOnly="True" DataField="OrderID" DataType="System.Int32"
                FilterControlAltText="Filter ID column" HeaderText="OrderID" SortExpression="OrderID"
                UniqueName="OrderID">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="CustomerID" DataType="System.String" FilterControlAltText="Filter ID column"
                HeaderText="CustomerID" SortExpression="CustomerID" UniqueName="CustomerID">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="EmployeeID" DataType="System.Int32" FilterControlAltText="Filter ID column"
                HeaderText="EmployeeID" SortExpression="EmployeeID" UniqueName="EmployeeID">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="OrderDate" DataType="System.DateTime" FilterControlAltText="Filter OrderDate column"
                HeaderText="OrderDate" SortExpression="OrderDate" UniqueName="OrderDate">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
            <telerik:GridBoundColumn DataField="ShipCity"  FilterControlAltText="Filter RequiredDate column"
                HeaderText="ShipCity" SortExpression="ShipCity" UniqueName="ShipCity">
            </telerik:GridBoundColumn>
        </Columns>
        <EditFormSettings>
            <EditColumn FilterControlAltText="Filter EditCommandColumn column">
            </EditColumn>
        </EditFormSettings>
    </MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>


<telerik:RadClientDataSource ID="RadClientDataSource2" runat="server" EnableServerPaging="true" EnableServerSorting="true" AllowPaging="true">
    <DataSource>
        <DataSourceControlSettings DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource2" AllowAutomaticDeletes="true" AllowAutomaticInserts="true" AllowAutomaticUpdates="true"
            DataKeyNames="OrderID" DataFields="CustomerID,EmployeeID,OrderDate,ShipCity" />
    </DataSource>
    <Schema>
        <Model ID="OrderID">
            <telerik:ClientDataSourceModelField DataType="Number" FieldName="OrderID" />
            <telerik:ClientDataSourceModelField DataType="String" FieldName="CustomerID" />
            <telerik:ClientDataSourceModelField DataType="Number" FieldName="EmployeeID" />
            <telerik:ClientDataSourceModelField DataType="Date" FieldName="OrderDate" />
            <telerik:ClientDataSourceModelField DataType="String" FieldName="ShipCity" />
        </Model>
    </Schema>
</telerik:RadClientDataSource>


<asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSource2" runat="server" DeleteMethod="DeleteOrderByID"
    InsertMethod="InsertOrderWithParams" SelectMethod="GetAll" TypeName="DALNorthwind"
    UpdateMethod="UpdateOrderWithParams">
    <DeleteParameters>
        <asp:Parameter Name="OrderID" Type="Int32" />
    </DeleteParameters>
    <UpdateParameters>
        <asp:Parameter Name="EmployeeID" Type="Int32" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="CustomerID" Type="String" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="OrderDate" Type="DateTime" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="ShipCity" Type="String" />
    </UpdateParameters>
    <InsertParameters>
        <asp:Parameter Name="EmployeeID" Type="Int32" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="CustomerID" Type="String" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="OrderDate" Type="DateTime" />
        <asp:Parameter Name="ShipCity" Type="String" />
    </InsertParameters>
</asp:ObjectDataSource>