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Overview

Wayfast Datasets allow us to connect a page with a data source like a database or an API. Databases are one of the Wayfast Pillars. Wayfast Application Project’s are mostly used to interact with data sources and Datasets are the mean to achieve that goal. As a general rule we suggest using Stored Procedures to interact with databases but Datasets can run ad-hoc queries too.

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Today we are going to review how to execute a store procedure for reading data and displaying it in a Grid.

Preconditions

Before we start, this lesson assumes the following preconditions:

1. We already have a project. Let’s reuse our Hello World Project.

2. We need an active requirement so we can create objects in our database.

3. This lesson assumes you already know what a stored procedure is. If you don’t you can read about them here.

Step 1: Associate an instance

First let’s open Wayfast in a web browser and navigate to “Databases” menu then “Instances” submenu.

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The list of database instances associated to the project will be updated and now we are ready to create or attach a database.

Step 2: Create a database

Now we can navigate to “Database” submenu where we can see the list of databases related to this project.

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The list of databases will be updated indicating our DB was created successfully.

Step 3: Create a Stored Procedure

Let’s connect to the project’s database using SQL Server Management Studio.

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CREATE PROCEDURE spHelloWorld_GetRoles
AS
DECLARE @Result TABLE(Id INT, RoleName NVARCHAR(128), RoleDescription NVARCHAR(256));

INSERT INTO @Result VALUES (1, 'Admin', 'Can do everything')
INSERT INTO @Result VALUES (2, 'HR Manager', 'Can create position and approve hiring processes.')
INSERT INTO @Result VALUES (3, 'HR Lead', 'Can edit positions and start hiring process.')
INSERT INTO @Result VALUES (4, 'HR Analyst', 'Can read positions and and add candidates.')

SELECT Id, RoleName, RoleDescription FROM @Result

Step 4: Update Wayfast DB Model

Every time we edit our database we need to synchronize Wayfast DB Model so Wayfast is aware of all the changes we just did.

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Once the popup closes all new database objects are available in wayfast.

Step 5: Create a new Dataset

Go to “Project Pages” at the top menu and create a new page.

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Now that we have with our data source let’s see how display it in the UI.

Step 6: Connect a Dataset with a Grid

For displaying the list of roles we are going to use the grid control.

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Execution Types

One of the key details we need to understand about Datasets is the “Execution Type”. This field tells Wayfast when we want to execute this query. The first time we display the page, every time load the page or based on another control’s execution. This will impact the time it takes to load your page and how it is perceived by the end user. Let’s review these options in detail:

Recap

In this lesson we created a database, a stored procedure, a page and a dataset to connect the page with the stored procedure. Then we created added a grid to display the values from the stored procedure.

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