VistaDB

Sep 24, 2025
4 minutes to read

The Dashboard Designer allows you to connect to different types of SQL databases in the Data Source Wizard. You can also use data access API to connect to the database and select data in code.

This tutorial describes how to establish a connection to a VistaDB database and select data. VistaDB 4, VistaDB 5, and VistaDB 6 databases are available.

Create a Data Source in the Data Source Wizard
Create a Data Source in Code

Important

The appropriate data provider must be installed on the client machine. For information on data providers, refer to the Data Sources article.

Create a Data Source in the Data Source Wizard

To connect to a VistaDB database in the Dashboard Designer, follow the steps below:

Click the New Data Source button in the Data Source ribbon tab.
On the first page of the invoked Data Source Wizard dialog, specify whether you want to use an existing data connection or create a new data connection.
On the next page, select VistaDB and click Next.
On the next page, specify connection parameters.
After you specify connection parameters, click Next and specify how to select data from the database.
On the last page, you can optionally add query parameters and preview data.

Create a Data Source in Code

To create a data source that uses a connection to the VistaDB database, create an instance of the DashboardSqlDataSource class and follow the steps below:

Specify connection parameters for the VistaDB database. Create the VistaDBConnectionParameters/VistaDB5ConnectionParameters or VistaDB6ConnectionParameters class object and specify the following properties:
Create one of the following objects to specify the query:
Add the created DashboardSqlDataSource object to the Dashboard.DataSources collection.

The following code snippet shows how to supply the dashboard with data from the VistaDB Northwind database:

C#
VB.NET

csharp

using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql;
         // VistaDB6:

         // VistaDB6ConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDB6ConnectionParameters();
         // vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb6";
         // vistadbParams.Password = "password"; 

         // VistaDB5:

         // VistaDB5ConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDB5ConnectionParameters();
         // vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb5";
         // vistadbParams.Password = "password"; 

         // VistaDB4:

            VistaDBConnectionParameters vistadbParams = new VistaDBConnectionParameters();
            vistadbParams.FileName = @"c:\temp\Northwind.vdb4";
            vistadbParams.Password = "password";            

            DashboardSqlDataSource sqlDataSource = new DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", vistadbParams);
            SelectQuery selectQuery = SelectQueryFluentBuilder
                .AddTable("SalesPerson")
                .SelectColumns("CategoryName", "Extended Price")
                .Build("Query 1");
            sqlDataSource.Queries.Add(selectQuery);
            sqlDataSource.Fill();
            dashboard.DataSources.Add(sqlDataSource);

Imports DevExpress.DashboardCommon
Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters
Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql
        ' VistaDB6:

        ' Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDB6ConnectionParameters()
        ' vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb6"
        ' vistadbParams.Password = "password"

        ' VistaDB5:

        ' Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDB5ConnectionParameters()
        ' vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb5"
        ' vistadbParams.Password = "password"

        ' VistaDB4:

            Dim vistadbParams As New VistaDBConnectionParameters()
            vistadbParams.FileName = "c:\temp\Northwind.vdb4"
            vistadbParams.Password = "password"

            Dim sqlDataSource As New DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", vistadbParams)
            Dim query As SelectQuery = SelectQueryFluentBuilder _ 
                .AddTable("SalesPerson") _ 
                .SelectColumns("CategoryName", "Extended Price") _
                .Build("Query 1")
            sqlDataSource.Queries.Add(selectQuery)
            sqlDataSource.Fill()
            dashboard.DataSources.Add(sqlDataSource)