How to Combine Data from Multiple Web Service End Points in One Table?

Environment

Product

Progress® Telerik® Reporting

Description

I want to create a report containing a Table/List with multiple countries, or in the general case, other main objects. I should use an endpoint that provides me with all the countries names. I should then get a list of countries data objects with some detail data in it (e.g. "name", "region", "population", etc. for the particular country or other main object). The country name, or in the general case another unique field, can be sent as a parameter to another endpoint to retreive the detailed information about the country or the main object.

The problem is that the data I need in my table is split into these two endpoints:

• the first one gives me a list of the main objects
• the second one gives me information about one of the objects in the list through a request parameter

Solution

Use nested Tables/Data Items and Bindings to set the inner table DataSource.ServiceUrl property.

• Here is a link to a sample report from our GitHub repo - TableWithMultipleWebServices.trdp
• Here is a link to a muted video demonstrating how the sample was prepared.

• Here are the main steps:

  1. Add JsonDataSource with the names of the countries, jsonDataSource1 in the sample.
  2. Add WebServiceDataSource that would return countries details, webServiceDataSource1 in the sample. We will use the third party Web Service API restcountries.com. Lets set the default ServiceUrl of our WebServiceDataSource to https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/bulgaria. Later, we will change the country name in the URL based on the data from the main data source.
  3. Add the main table and set its DataSource to the main data source. In the sample, this is jsonDataSource1 with the country names only. We will use the field to construct the ServiceUrl of the detailed data source later.
  4. Add a new column on the right of the main table, or where the details should appear.
  5. In the detail cell of the new column add a new table and assign it the detail data source, in the example, this is webServiceDataSource1.

  6. Use Bindings to change the DataSource.ServiceUrl of the inner table to include the field from the main table. In the example, we use the hardcoded main end-point and provide the last part as the country name from the main data source. Here is the Expression: ="https://restcountries.com/v3.1/name/" + Fields.CountryName

     Note that you need to type manually the name of the Property path DataSource.ServiceUrl. As you may have noticed in the video, it was initially misspelled, which resulted in an error.

See Also

• How to set the content of JsonDataSource through report parameter
• Change Connection String dynamically through a report parameter