Loading Data from WCF Services

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to populate RadGridView with data from a WCF Service:

This tutorial will use the Northwind database, which can be downloaded from here.

Before proceeding further with this tutorial you need to create a new application and add a RadGridView declaration in your XAML:

XAML

	<telerik:RadGridView />

Plain Method Calls

• Add a reference to your WCF Service.

• Switch to the code-behind and create a new instance of your WCF Service client.

C#

	WcfServiceClient serviceClient = new WcfServiceClient();

VB.NET

	Private serviceClient As New WcfServiceClient()

or more information about how to add a reference to a WCF Service and how to create a new instance of a WCF Service client, take a look at the Consuming WCF Service topic.

• The gridview control will be populated with all Customers from the Northwind database. Add the following code which will make the initial load of the objects.

C#

	private void BeginRequest()
	{
	    serviceClient.LoadCustomersCompleted += new EventHandler<LoadCustomersCompletedEventArgs>(serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted);
	    serviceClient.LoadCustomersAsync();
	}
	
	private void serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted(object sender, LoadCustomersCompletedEventArgs e)
	{
	    var customers = e.Result;
	    this.radGridView.ItemsSource = customers;
	}

VB.NET

	Private Sub BeginRequest()
	    AddHandler serviceClient.LoadCustomersCompleted, AddressOf serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted
	    serviceClient.LoadCustomersAsync()
	End Sub
	
	Private Sub serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As LoadCustomersCompletedEventArgs)
	    Dim customers = e.Result
	    Me.radGridView.ItemsSource = customers
	End Sub

C#

	this.radGridView.ItemsSource = serviceClient.LoadCustomers();

VB.NET

	Me.radGridView.ItemsSource = serviceClient.LoadCustomers()

Run your demo, the result can be seen on the next image:

Using MVVM Approach

This section will show you how to populate your RadGridView control in a MVVM manner. The RadGridView will be bound to a data source object, that has a property Customers. When the control is loaded all customers from the Customers table in the Northwind database are loaded asynchronously.

• Create a new class named NorthwindDataSource.

C#

	public class NorthwindDataSource
	{
	}

VB.NET

	Public Class NorthwindDataSource
	End Class

• Add a reference to your WCF Service

• In the NorthwindDataSource class add a reference to an ObservableCollection of Customers.

• In the NorthwindDataSource class add a reference to your WCF Service client:

C#

	public class NorthwindDataSource
	{
	    private SampleWcfServiceClient serviceClient;
	    public NorthwindDataSource()
	    {
	        serviceClient = new SampleWcfServiceClient();
	        this.Customers = new ObservableCollection<Customer>();
	    }
	    public ObservableCollection<Customer> Customers
	    {
	        get;
	        set;
	    }
	}

VB.NET

	Public Class NorthwindDataSource
	    Private serviceClient As SampleWcfServiceClient
	    Public Sub New()
	        serviceClient = New SampleWcfServiceClient()
	        Me.Customers = New ObservableCollection(Of Customer)()
	    End Sub
	    Public Property Customers() As ObservableCollection(Of Customer)
	End Class

or more information about how to add a reference to a WCF Service and how to create a new instance of a WCF Service client, take a look at the Consuming WCF Service topic.

• Add the following code in the constructor of the NorthwindDataSource. It will make the initial load of all Customers from the database:

C#

	serviceClient.LoadCustomersCompleted += new EventHandler<LoadCustomersCompletedEventArgs>(serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted);
	serviceClient.LoadCustomersAsync();

C#

	foreach (Customer c in serviceClient.LoadCustomers())
	{
	    this.Customers.Add(c);
	}

VB.NET

	AddHandler serviceClient.LoadCustomersCompleted, AddressOf serviceClient_LoadCustomersCompleted
	serviceClient.LoadCustomersAsync()

VB.NET

	For Each c As Customer In serviceClient.LoadCustomers()
	    Me.Customers.Add(c)
	Next c

C#

	if (e.Error == null && e.Result != null)
	{
	    foreach (Customer c in e.Result)
	    {
	        this.Customers.Add(c);
	    }
	}

VB.NET

	If e.Error Is Nothing AndAlso e.Result IsNot Nothing Then
	    For Each c As Customer In e.Result
	        Me.Customers.Add(c)
	    Next c
	End If

• Declare the NorthwindDataSource object as a resource in your application.

XAML

	<UserControl.Resources>
	    <local:NorthwindDataSource x:Key="DataSource"/>
	</UserControl.Resources>

• Update your RadGridView declaration - set the ItemsSource property.

XAML

	<telerik:RadGridView ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataSource}, Path=Customers}"/>

Run your demo, the result can be seen on the next picture:

f you need to define the columns manually take a look at the Defining Columns topic.

See Also

• Using in-memory Data

• Loading Data from XML

• Loading Data from ADO.NET Services