The ActOnDataSource enables you to use a single Web control to connect to Act-On and query data. By binding the control to other controls such as the GridView or ListBox, you can display, edit, and save Act-On data in an ASP.NET page. You can use the Visual Studio Designer to initialize the control, visually build queries, and bind controls; you can also define SQL commands from page code. The examples below show both approaches and use the GridView control as an example.

To use the ActOnDataSource, add a reference to System.Data.CData.ActOn.Web.dll in your ASP.NET project.

Bind Data Programmatically

The following example shows how to bind the results of a Act-On query to an ASP.NET data grid. After registering the assembly for use with the ActOnDataSource, set the DataSourceID field of the GridView control to the Id of the ActOnDataSource control:

<%@ Register Assembly="System.Data.CData.ActOn.Web" Namespace="System.Data.CData.ActOn" TagPrefix="cc1" %>
...
<cc1:ActOnDataSource Id="ActOnDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:80" SelectCommand="SELECT * FROM Images WHERE FolderName = 'New Folder' LIMIT 10"></cc1:ActOnDataSource>
<asp:GridView DataSourceID="ActOnDataSource1" runat="server"></asp:GridView>

Bind Data Using the Designer

Complete the following steps to use the Designer in Visual Studio to bind the ActOnDataSource to a GridView control:

1. Drag a GridView from the Toolbox onto the page.
2. Click the Smart Tag of the GridView.
3. Choose the option to create a new data source, which launches a wizard to configure the control.
4. On the first page, select a connection string from the menu or click New Connection to define a new connection or to save a connection entry in the Web.config file.
5. On the next page, select the option to define a SQL statement or visually build the query.

When you exit the wizard, the GridView displays the columns of the result set.