Microsoft SQL Server

• 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 database deployed on the Microsoft SQL Server and select data.

• 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 the MS SQL database in the Dashboard Designer, do the following:

1. Click the New Data Source button in the Data Source ribbon tab.

2. 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.

3. On the next page, select Microsoft SQL Server and click Next.

4. On the next page, specify connection parameters.

5. After you have specified connection parameters, click Next and specify how to select data from the database.

6. On the final 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 MS SQL database, create an instance of the DashboardSqlDataSource class and follow the steps below:

1. Specify connection parameters for the MS SQL database. Create the MsSqlConnectionParameters class object and specify the following properties:

2. Create one of the following objects to specify the query:

3. Add the created DashboardSqlDataSource object to the Dashboard.DataSources collection.

The following code snippet shows how to supply the dashboard with data from the Northwind database deployed on the MS SQL Server:

• C#
• VB.NET

using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.ConnectionParameters;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Sql;
// ...
            MsSqlConnectionParameters msSqlParams = new MsSqlConnectionParameters();
            msSqlParams.AuthorizationType = MsSqlAuthorizationType.Windows;
            msSqlParams.ServerName = "localhost";
            msSqlParams.DatabaseName = "Northwind";

            DashboardSqlDataSource sqlDataSource = new DashboardSqlDataSource("Data Source 1", msSqlParams);
            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
' ...
            Private msSqlParams As New MsSqlConnectionParameters()
            msSqlParams.AuthorizationType = MsSqlAuthorizationType.Windows
            msSqlParams.ServerName = "localhost"
            msSqlParams.DatabaseName = "Northwind"

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